With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. He is the master of satire and one of today’s most observant writers addressing the human condition. He will appear at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10. Tickets are $32.50 to $65 at portland5.com/arlene-schnitzer-concert-hall/events/evening-david-sedaris.
His most recent book, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” is his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling “Calypso.” A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing. A second volume of his diaries, “A Carnival of Snackery,” was released in 2021 and named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. There’s no right way to keep a diary, but if there’s an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mastered it. At its best, this latest edition is a sort of sampler: the bitter and the sweet. Some entries are just what you wanted. Others you might want to spit discreetly into a napkin.