Books › Theft by Finding: Diaries: Volume One
Theft by Finding: Diaries: Volume One
786 pages
A voyeuristic, darkly funny peek into the messy, unvarnished notebooks of a master observer finding his voice.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like sitting next to the ultimate people-watcher on a cross-country bus ride, listening as they whisper the most bizarre, hilarious, and slightly tragic secrets about everyone else on board. The pace is wonderfully meandering, inviting you to dip in and out of years of unpolished thoughts, overheard diner conversations, and oddball encounters. It possesses a voyeuristic intimacy, stripping away the polished veneer of the author's famous essays to reveal the raw, often messy, and drug-addled reality of his early adulthood. The prose is sharp, unvarnished, and deeply attuned to the absurdities of human behavior. It will delight readers who find comfort in dark humor, human eccentricity, and the slow, stumbling journey of an artist discovering their unique voice.
- Mood
- voyeuristic
- intimate
- quirky
- melancholic
- Tone
- wry
- self-deprecating
- observant
- cynical
- absurdist
- Pace
- meandering
- Themes
- the absurdity of everyday life · artistic coming-of-age · human eccentricity · finding humor in the mundane · the messiness of early adulthood
- The writing
- Unvarnished and deceptively casual, built on razor-sharp observations and an impeccable ear for bizarre dialogue.
- The arc
- From aimless, drug-fueled drifting to the sharp, confident crystallization of a unique comedic voice.
- Who it's for
- Devoted people-watchers and fans of dark, observational humor who appreciate the messy reality behind a polished writer's persona.
Content notes
- drug abuse
- alcoholism
- coarse language
- homophobia
About the book
For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences.
Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet.
Written with a sharp eye and ear for the bizarre, the beautiful, and the uncomfortable, and with a generosity of spirit that even a misanthropic sense of humor can't fully disguise, Theft By Finding proves that Sedaris is one of our great modern observers. It's a potent reminder that when you're as perceptive and curious as Sedaris, there's no such thing as a boring day.
Description from Open Library.
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