Themes and Variations (2020) is an essay about the author’s view of book tours and the interactions between readers and himself as an author.
Sedaris opens with an incident in 1984 in his nearby bookstore with its author events. He felt betrayed when an author signed the book he bought, without even looking at him. He vowed never to do that when he became an author. Then he starts with himself in the author’s chair—in 2013.
This is about the ‘small-talk’ that occurs between writer and reader at author signings: strangers saying the strangest things. There are jokes, discussions about about underwear, and about secrets.
It’s a 17-page essay that takes no time to read. It’s not brilliant. It’s just a slight distraction from reading other books.
MARTINA NICOLLS
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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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