Theft by Finding: Diaries (book)

Sitting down to type this piece, I had a look at the catalogue of Sedaris' work and realised that the majority of his work is now auto-biographical. In fact I haven't read a single fiction piece by Sedaris, all of my exposure has been through his auto-biographical stuff.

This book contains his diary entries from 1977 to 2002 which are the nuggets of raw material that make up the vast range of his work from the late 90s. For a Sedaris fan like me, who cannot get enough of his humour and perspective of the world, it was a pure joy to read with moments of cackling out loud. The diary entries paint what it was like to live in big tough cities like Chicago and New York in the 70s and 80s: it just seems like you couldn't really walk around carrying anything of great value because there were constant threats of getting mugged.

There are somber moments too like when one of the earlier entries talk about this new 'cancer' that's been found that "only kills homosexuals". But the book is ultimately a coming of age story and it is a happy story as cliché as that may seem. His early years struggling with money and working in odd jobs, his art, his work in theatre and teaching as well as his drug habits all chronicled and I despaired with him when he got bullied yet again and cheered for him when he got his first review in Time. 

Is it considered unusual releasing a diary when you're still alive? I suppose that is Sedaris' style as the guy pretty much invented the genre of oversharing or, perhaps better put, a hyperrealist literary style. Some may find it over self-indulgent having so many books that are auto-biographical as well as getting the diary itself published. But ultimately it's not about David Sedaris, rather he is the lens through which you see the world and it is an interesting and hilarious perspective and although not overly educational or intellectual, it quenches the thirst of your soul like a glass of tart lemonade.

So I suppose you could say that Sedaris is my guilty pleasure. One thing this book has done is highlight for me the importance of writing in a diary or journal or even blogging as a medium. I think the contemporaneity of entries gives off something that is so unique it cannot be produced elsewhere. There is something cool about how certain entries just capture a particular moment in time perfectly. 

Ozark (Netflix series)

This satirical series starring Jason Bateman and one of my most favourite actresses, Launa Linney, is beautifully shot and superbly acted.

Marty Byrde (Bateman) is a successful financial advisor living a boring and unhappy life. Perhaps he lacks a certain joie de vivre, or is too risk adverse, or perhaps he is just down right stingy. Due to his business partner getting involved with organised crime, Byrde ends up owing money to a Mexican cartel: five million dollars. He cashes out the entire investment portfolio he had been squirrelling away for years as he loses everything to the cartel and has to launder that money on the shores of the Ozarks.

The Ozarks as presented is a place that feels like the location of Deliverance most of the year, but a scene out of Spring Breakers for a few weeks in summer. Byrde presents himself as an 'angel investor' and offers to invest and help out struggling local businesses. The locals are weathered and sinister as they have been ripped off by city-slickers one too many times. It's a love-hate relationship.

What makes Ozark different from other small-town-meets-drug-crime series (Bloodline, Fargo, The Affair) is that it's more about the financial and business side of things - the process by which the proceeds of drug sales come into the mainstream economy. As Byrde's son points out to his school teacher, some argue drug money was the only thing that was keeping the US economy afloat during the recession. So you don't really get the tediously long sequence of scenes showing large amounts of drugs being produced and distributed which can get quite boring.

The Byrde family settles down in a beautiful lakeside house in the Ozarks. Marty and his all-but-divorced-wife Wendy (Linney) agree to stay together as 'business partners' for their two kids who are starting to act up against their new, absurd living arrangement. But Wendy and Marty also make great work business partners and Wendy's skills bring an extra limb to the money-laundering operation.

Ozark is a search for a meaning in the confused and divided America of the Trump era. A country divided by the different values held by the rural poor and the urban wealthy; the traditional and the corporate; and the godless and the religious. In this cacophony of principles and values, what drives a shrewd modern pragmatist to act like a decent human being? The answer isn't always one of financial incentives as life itself tends to demand consideration of higher goals and values shared with others.