The writing here is funnier, (even) sharper . . . There isn't a dull word among these pages (India Knight Sunday Times) Could there be a more delightful American import than the memoirist David Sedaris? Not since the peanut butter and jelly sandwich have we inherited something so sweet and comforting yet so wickedly naughty (The Times) This first of two volumes of his copious diaries takes us from 1977 to 2002, and sees him grow from a despondent 21-year-old in menial jobs into the man recognised as possibly the best humorist of the 2000s (Daily Telegraph, Best Books Under the Sun, Summer 2017) So often Sedaris's phrasing is beautiful in its piquancy and minimalism...His life is extraordinary in so many ways - the drug addiction, the eccentric family, the crazy jobs, the fame, the globetrotting - but one of the more unlikely achievements here is in making it all seem quite ordinary. Ultimately, his masterstroke is in acting as a bystander in his own story (Book of the Day, Guardian)