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*Layali*'s Reviews > Calypso
Calypso
by
by
*Layali*'s review
bookshelves: genre-nonfiction, stand-alone, rat-2018-owls, terribad, goodreads-choice
Jul 25, 2018
bookshelves: genre-nonfiction, stand-alone, rat-2018-owls, terribad, goodreads-choice
Unpopular opinion here.
Hypocritical, pretentious, and underwhelming. Best words to describe this book.
It took me so long to get through this short selection of essays. I heard amazing things about it, and that it was hilarious. I had a couple chuckles, but overall I was completely and utterly BORED. I loathed picking this book up, and I considered DNF'ing it at 50 pages. I should have.
It's literally a bind up of a bunch of random thoughts by the author, most of which come off as dejected and distasteful in my opinion. Some of the content could be interpreted as offensive to some readers, and there is a lot of political talk in which the author is very clear on his opinions which again comes off as pretentious and superior.
This whole thing just comes off as an "I can write whatever I want and still sell books" theme. I have not despised a book so much all year, and I'm so glad that I didn't pick this for one of my BOTM picks. I probably would have set it on fire.
Hypocritical, pretentious, and underwhelming. Best words to describe this book.
It took me so long to get through this short selection of essays. I heard amazing things about it, and that it was hilarious. I had a couple chuckles, but overall I was completely and utterly BORED. I loathed picking this book up, and I considered DNF'ing it at 50 pages. I should have.
It's literally a bind up of a bunch of random thoughts by the author, most of which come off as dejected and distasteful in my opinion. Some of the content could be interpreted as offensive to some readers, and there is a lot of political talk in which the author is very clear on his opinions which again comes off as pretentious and superior.
This whole thing just comes off as an "I can write whatever I want and still sell books" theme. I have not despised a book so much all year, and I'm so glad that I didn't pick this for one of my BOTM picks. I probably would have set it on fire.
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Reading Progress
June 2, 2018
– Shelved as:
to-read
June 2, 2018
– Shelved
June 2, 2018
– Shelved as:
genre-nonfiction
June 2, 2018
– Shelved as:
stand-alone
July 1, 2018
– Shelved as:
rat-2018-owls
July 21, 2018
–
Started Reading
July 21, 2018
–
20.69%
"I’ve just suffered through 54 pages of this pretentious, hypocritical rambling of a book. Is it even worth it to continue? I feel like the odd duck here with everyone giving this such high reviews."
page
54
July 24, 2018
–
84.29%
"Let’s see how long it takes me to finish these last 40 pages. I’m dragging my feet through this one."
page
220
July 25, 2018
– Shelved as:
terribad
July 25, 2018
–
Finished Reading
December 4, 2018
– Shelved as:
goodreads-choice
Comments Showing 1-31 of 31 (31 new)
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message 1:
by
Brad
(new)
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rated it 1 star
Jul 25, 2018 06:57AM
Totally agree
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Brad wrote: "Totally agree"Glad I'm not the only one who struggled with this!
What a relief to come across this review amongst all the five stars. at the moment I'm 35% of the way through the book and have wanted to give up on many occasions but I don't like doing that and I will finish it. I've laughed a lot at David's previous books but this one - I broadly agree with the review above.
One note - not a novel...
Kia wrote: "One note - not a novel..." Oh, excuse me...
Alanpuzey wrote: "What a relief to come across this review amongst all the five stars. at the moment I'm 35% of the way through the book and have wanted to give up on many occasions but I don't like doing that and I..."Yeah, I just didn't enjoy it. There were a few chuckles, but not enough to make up for everything else. I would have been better off just not finishing it instead of wasting my time and forcing myself to read it.
I feel the same way. I kept reading it expecting it to get better but it never did. It is just plain boring.
Yeah agreed. I would say I fall on the Liberal spectrum of politics, but even so his pretention made me roll my eyes more than once. He seems so self-involved that he's incapable of understanding his father's sadness at the loss of his wife, or why his father might now be a devout church attendee after the passing of Sharon, or why it annoys Hugh that Sedaris constantly paints himself the center of attention. Sedaris, as a person, sounds wholly exhausting.
Totally agree- this book was pretty much a waste of time in my opinion. Never have read him before- don’t think I will be doing so anytime soon.
Finally! I knew it wasn't just me. I read for entertainment. This was boring. I'm in a book club & they chose this, not me. If people think depression, suicides, death, dysfunction, sexism are funny, then they're probably the ones reading and praising . My first by this writer. I won't call him a novelist, because this isn't a novel. If all of his work is like this, then it's my last.
I picked this up based on a high rating, and found it boring and disjointed. So glad I wasn't the only one. Returned it to the library after giving up at 30%. As much as I like the author in every interview I've watched with him, the stories felt like a jumble of memories, strewn about haphazardly. Also... Just, walked around for 9+ hours a day? Wish I had the luxury. Geez. That was where I found myself contemptuous.
I couldn’t agree more with your review. Another elite telling me how I should feel.
Just finished. Picked it up on popular reviews but totally disappointed on the storyline.
Yay! Thanks for this review! I agree wholeheartedly, especially the "I can write whatever I want and still sell books" bit. It WAS boring and disjointed and lacking in substance. I've enjoyed Sedaris' previous books so now I'm confused on whether or not I've changed or if his writing/storytelling in this one is just not doing it for me. Oh well. Thanks again!
Golnaz wrote: "Yay! Thanks for this review! I agree wholeheartedly, especially the "I can write whatever I want and still sell books" bit. It WAS boring and disjointed and lacking in substance. I've enjoyed Sedar..."Hi, Golnaz! Thanks for your comment! I've never read Sedaris before this book, but I will definitely not be reading anything else from him. I'm glad you liked his previous books though! Hopefully his next one will be more of your taste. =)
I'm on chapter 4. I haven't laughed once. I wanted to love it but it's self indulgent and boring. Thanks for the review. It's always nice to know I'm not alone in my distaste of it.
Thank you for speaking up my mind. It got me laughing for the first chapter of the book. Then you realised its just his scrambled thoughts put in a book with no goal.
Cara wrote: "I'm on chapter 4. I haven't laughed once. I wanted to love it but it's self indulgent and boring. Thanks for the review. It's always nice to know I'm not alone in my distaste of it."I'm glad I'm not the only one! I know that I wanted to DNF this multiple times when I was reading it. It was a STRUGGLE for sure.
Atiqah wrote: "Thank you for speaking up my mind. It got me laughing for the first chapter of the book. Then you realised its just his scrambled thoughts put in a book with no goal."Exactly! By the time I got done reading it, I was just like... what was the point?
This was my first Sedaris book. as a result it will also be my last.
Omg I’m soooo bored. I keep waiting for it to get funny. Sounds like it’s not going to happen.
Ditto. My writer/friend bought it for me. She thought it was a hoot. Meh. Too neurotic and disconnected like a personal diary might be..
I agree for the most part. I enjoyed the first half, and then it all seemed to fall apart. I was sickened by his attitude toward feeding cooked bones to the fox and other wild animals - he probably was responsible for many deaths, and would find that amusing. His feeding of the tumor to the turtles--again, sickening, literally. I won't say that I would not read another books should he write one, but I would wait until I found it in paperback at the used book store.
Completely agree. Picked it up on the basis of the brilliant reviews. "Laugh out loud funny" I think was one of the comments I read. I didn't laugh once, just finding it utterly, utterly boring. There was nothing of interest at all.
I was on the fence whether to give it one or two stars. I ended up giving it two, because there was a couple funny things in there. I agree with the word “pretentious� to describe the book. I couldn’t connect with any of it. It was one of those books that it was kinda painful to get through. I listened to the audiobook, I had to set the speed to 2.25x so I could get through it faster.
I liked it even less than you-have it by the toilet to get the best use of this crap.(pun intended which is funnier than anything that book had)
Awful book: no redeeming features whatsoever.
Tbh same experience except I gave it three stars because it’s not fiction
