The Best of Me

　　美國知名幽默作家David Sedaris集結自己畢生精華之作

　　「如果你在找一本幽默小品來放鬆一下，這本絕對是最佳解。」

 

　　David Sedaris這二十多年來，借由一篇篇專欄、作品，不斷地致力於創造出屬於自己的詼諧世界觀。他的作品讀來都像是自傳，荒唐而動人，卻又緊緊地貼合著這社會上，甚至是每個人身邊所發生的一切。讓人一邊閱讀，都會不自覺地從心底跟著撫手大笑。

 

　　作者自己挑選出這些年來，最具代表性並有趣的故事集結成冊。包括他所遇到的那些怪奇大小事，例如購買稀有動物標本的經歷、與下肢麻痺的朋友一起搭便車、親手餵食肉食性鳥類…以及多年來關於Sedaris一家子的軼聞，甚至連人生中發生的巨變，他都能信手捻來成為一篇篇幽默同時溫暖人心的作品。透過文字，作者反思自己所遭遇的這些事件，它們永遠都比預期來得難熬、離奇，卻因此更能豐富自我，使人更強大。

 

　　(文／博客來編譯)

　　“Genius… It is miraculous to read these pieces… You must read The Best of Me.” —Andrew Sean Greer, New York Times Book Review 

 

　　David Sedaris’s best stories and essays, spanning his remarkable career—as selected by the author himself, and including a new essay

 

　　A CNN and Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Month

 

　　For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing.

 

　　Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler’s lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say “give it to me” in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.

 

　　But if all you expect to find in Sedaris’s work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to terms—at long last—with the other.

 

　　Taken together, the stories in The Best of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expected—it’s often harder, more fraught, and certainly weirder—but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful.

 

　　Full of joy, generosity, and the incisive humor that has led David Sedaris to be called “the funniest man alive” (Time Out New York), The Best of Me spans a career spent watching and learning and laughing—quite often at himself—and invites readers deep into the world of one of the most brilliant and original writers of our time.