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Sedaris is very hit-or-miss for me. I recall cackling to one of his readings in the car with my mom in high school. But I also remember revisiting him a couple times over the years and being completely unimpressed.

Calypso was much of the same, unfortunately.

I laughed my ass off at the chapter titled “The Perfect Fit”, originally a New Yorker piece, where David and his sisters find themselves helplessly addicted to buying absurdly ill-fitting and expensive clothing in Tokyo’s most posh neighborhoods. “What are you doing? That’s three pairs of culottes you’ll own now.”

I laughed my ass off at the platonic American hotel clerk, epitome of modern customer service culture, who, after asking you how you’re doing - no matter how mundane your story - will grin unhearingly and reply “That’s awesome.”

I laughed my ass off at the chapters “And While You’re Up There…”, a survey of insults from around the world, and “I’m Still Standing”, which begins with the line: “In the spring of 2017 a passenger seated two rows ahead of me on a plane to Denver shit in his pants.”

And those were the only times I laughed.

The family narrative that he weaves in every other chapter wasn’t horrible. I can vividly picture the Sedaris family in their Emerald Isle vacation house conversing at the dinner table and arguing over games of Sorry. There were a couple of moving passages on the troubled lives of his sister and mother, and his aging father. But it never quite rose above the threshold of filler.

The real issue, though, is that most of the jokes aren’t funny.

I think Sedaris is at his best when he’s making fun of people. Incisive, sassy, ruthless. (His “Pickapocketoni” reading on YT is a perfect example). His self-deprecation is effective for the same reason.

But he’s got another mode - right now I’m calling it the “mischievous 10 year-old” - where he’ll just act facetious and immature for no reason. The “lipoma” bit was the most tedious example of this. He devotes so many pages detailing his determination to take home his own lipoma after surgery and later his determination to feed it to an unfortunate snapping turtle. Is this meant to be funny at all? He channels the 10 year-old often enough that he must think it’s effective. For me it missed most of the time.

I want to like Sedaris! In fact, I’d say I do like him. I’m grateful for the 4 LMAOs I got this time. But 4 good chapters of 21 just doesn’t cut it. If/when I return to him, I’ll start with his most famous essays, of which it seems there are many.

5/10