Calypso by David Sedaris
I love the startling sensation of laughing out loud when I’ve been quietly sitting and reading to myself. It doesn’t often happen because I can usually hold in the laughter, keeping it to a smile or a quick, soft laugh before moving on to the next sentence.
But, laughter control was not an option while reading Calypso by David Sedaris, his latest collection of witty, insightful essays.
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top 5 Quotes from Calypso by David Sedaris
1. “Obviously we have some hole we’re trying to fill, but doesn’t everyone? And isn’t filling it with berets the size of toilet-seat covers, if not more practical, then at least healthier than filling it with frosting or heroin or unsafe sex with strangers?”
Calypso by David Sedaris
However, the content isn’t always funny as Sedaris delves into issues involving suicide, politics, and just getting older.
Loss, in some form or other.
Sedaris even wades into the gruesome and outright disgusting at times, particularly when he explores the world of tumors and turtles… yikes. Some images are not better left to the imagination.
2. “Happiness is harder to put into words. It’s also harder to source, much more mysterious than anger or sorrow, which come to me promptly, whenever I summon them, and remain long after I’ve begged them to leave.”
Calypso by David Sedaris
I’m not sure what triggered me to buy this book, but having recently finished Circe by Madeline Miller (check out that post with quotes here), maybe I subconsciously wanted to stick to books with Greek mythical female titles. I’ve always liked the name Calypso, how it clicks across the tongue and rolls out like the beat of a drum.
It was either my subconscious yearning for something mystic or more likely Kindle suggested it based on my past reading selections. Regardless, Calypso was a quick read. I polished it off in two days, but the writing and ideas lingered even a month later.
3. “We’d been together for eight years by that point, and though I didn’t want to break up or look for anyone else, I didn’t need the government to validate my relationship.”
Calypso by David Sedaris
While some of the stories occur at his home in England, most of the content centers around Sedaris’ beach house called the “Sea Section” on an island off the Carolina coast.
These were the stories I most related to, particularly involving a large family vacationing together in one house.
4. “There’s a certain kind of talk that takes place when you’re lying, dazed, in the sun, and I’ve always been partial to it.”
Calypso by David Sedaris
For over ten years now, my family has been going to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We rent a cabin and live together for the week of Christmas.
It’s far from glamorous, and now that I have five nieces and nephews, it’s more than a little crowded and screechingly loud at times. Inevitably, there are tense moments, but there’s laughter and bonding as well, which I guess is what keeps us coming back.
My point, if I have one anymore, is that even though my family is nothing like what David Sedaris describes in Calypso, it’s still one weird mix that somehow manages to work, and I think we can all relate to that.
5. “Another thing I love about the beach is sitting in the sun, mainly for the lazy kind of talk it generates. A person can say anything with lotion on, and I’m more than willing to listen.”
Calypso by David Sedaris
