David Sedaris Profile

Should hyperbole matter if the reader still sees the regular?

David Sedaris’ success can undoubtedly be attributed to his brutally honest portrayal of the normal. Born in Raleigh suburbs, Sedaris, now considered one of America’s greatest living humorists, grew up taking note of the aspects of life with which we can all connect: Low-paying jobs, strange idiosyncrasies, family drama, acting out against authority, and suburban sprawl. Since he began writing, Sedaris has approached his craft with the mentality of a scientist observing his subject. He examines people and events in their most objective form, and draws the eccentricities that catch us all, but that we often take for granted. In his stories, Sedaris presents familiar themes and points out the inherent ironies, tragedies, humor, and joy that lie within. Doing so has granted him many awards, accolades, and opportunities over the span of his decades-long career, which shows no signs of slowing down any time soon (having just published his most recent book, Calypso, in May 2018). And despite criticism regarding potential hyperbole and exaggeration of facts in his writing process, David Sedaris’ earnestness remains a conciliatory force in the face of those who wish to see his work more grounded in reality.

In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Sedaris discusses his fascination with the difficulties we face in life, saying that “good times turn to nothing, while bad burns forever bright.” It is his natural gravitation toward the unconventional that eventually turned Sedaris’ iconic deadpan satire into award-winning books. However, his success did not come immediately. Sedaris worked odd low-paying jobs for years, most notably as an elf in a Macy’s Department Store during the holiday season in New York City, until meeting longtime NPR journalist Ira Glass. Glass was drawn to his attention to minutiae in the regular, as captured in a series of diaries in which Sedaris had been chronicling the ironies of his daily life for years. “Nothing makes me more self-conscious writing in my diary than if I’m writing about something good,” Sedaris mentioned on Fresh Air. His determination to write about, and proclivity for, the dark eccentricities of everyday life set him apart, and he knows it. Sedaris is not shy when speaking about his own successes. He has openly discussed, and written about, his personal wealth and accolades. His open relationship with money undoubtedly stems from his family’s poverty throughout his youth. Never avoiding topics such as substance abuse and poverty, Sedaris has written on such troubles with a candid attitude that lends itself to humor. As Time Money’s Mike Ayers reports, Sedaris worked many low-paying jobs in his younger days, the paychecks from which he spent on drugs and IHOP. Now, his books and speaking engagements have earned him millions of dollars, which he enjoys spending on property, clothes, and gifts for others. As Sedaris told Ayers, “I’m rich. And I absolutely love being rich.” Seemingly contrastingly, Sedaris also spends hours at a time going out of his way to pick up trash from the road, a habit he has developed over years, and across different cities in which he has lived. However, Sedaris makes even garbage collecting as a hobby seem interesting, as he describes to NPR’s Terry Gross, “It can be exciting to me, because I don't know what's next — something else could come along.” Herein lies a key example of Sedaris’ knack for seeing the special in the ordinary. Sedaris’ self-acknowledged eccentricities elevate his work to a level at which readers can identify with the abnormal, because they can recognize that, regardless of any embellishment, Sedaris really is kind of weird, and it is that weirdness that allows him to portray such ironic and bizarre situations so convincingly.

However, this is not enough for some. Critics of Sedaris’ work will acknowledge that, while his stories are funny and engaging, the lack of verifiability in his anecdotes and characters make the nonfiction label on his books tenuous. In 2007, The New Republic’s Alex Heard famously attacked Sedaris for his lack of substantial backing in an article titled “This American Lie.” Heard questions the truth about Sedaris’ tales of working in a mental facility, his homophobic guitar teacher, unsophisticated hicks, and his mother. I will admit that when I first read my first David Sedaris stories years ago, I was surprised to learn that his stories were autobiographical. The comedy seemed too good to be true; how could anyone’s family yield such rich stories? The hyperbole and exaggeration transcends his family, though, and many have taken note. This has sparked a debate about what kind of stories should be considered within the realm of the nonfiction genre, and how flexible we should be, as the reading community, about what can be labeled as nonfiction.

Sedaris will be the first to admit, though, that he often embellishes dialogue, scenery, and characters in order to make his stories more engaging and funny, even saying that, when he has had to write purely objectively and factually, he cannot stand not being able to alter people’s words to hit those comedic notes perfectly. Now, we are posed with a fundamental question: How far are we willing to go to forgive this embellishment and still regard Sedaris’ stories alongside the greats of the nonfiction genre, such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, George Orwell, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?

Ultimately, I believe Sedaris offers a refreshing voice in the genre that should not be overlooked. While he does embellish, all of his stories are based in the bizarre moments he has experienced, and the exaggerations are there for the sake of comedy. Sedaris expresses the strangeness of regular life in a way with which all readers can identify, and the real situations he invokes resonate in ways fiction cannot. While some publications and outlets, such as NPR, have begun to tag Sedaris’ work as fiction, I will continue to regard his short stories as nonfiction, because, like many readers, the authenticity of his unique voice and sincerity in the depth of his considerations about his surroundings portray a reality that is maybe embellished, or maybe just told by someone who is able to see the usually filtered and overlooked nuances and ironies of everyday life.