The Cult of Sedaris Part I

A friend and recent visitor to this blog introduced me to the name David Sedaris. The commenter juxtaposed Sedaris' humorous writing with that of Terry Pratchett and the comment was phrased in such a way as to create a challenge: for review blogging, as for Street Countdown, once the gauntlet is thrown there is no option but to accept the joust.

Over recent years my own appreciation of David Sedaris, America's Finest Humorous Writing Source, has been only slightly muted by the fact that I'd never heard of the guy. Was this The Emperor's New Clothes all over again? (that first day at the office was so embarrassing.) Worse, the First David Sedaris Conspiracy quickly became apparent - Other People (TM) have been reading books by this author all over the internets. Shamed by my ignorance but not deterred, I resolved to find out more.

I searched a number of large high street coffee-and-bookstores. In every one, I hit a blank when looking under author in the A-Z shelves, or on the Short Story shelf, so had to engage the shop assistants. This is how I came across the Second David Sedaris Conspiracy: all bookshop assistants have been reading David Sedaris books for some time, they would all recommend the same one - Me Talk Pretty One Day - and they have all conspired to hide these books under a different definition in each store: Biography, Humour, Travel Writing and so on.

To be continued...