Themes and Variations is an Amazon Original Stories nonfiction essay by the delightful David Sedaris about his book tours. And, like a lot of Sedaris’ essays, this one is quite amusing.
His tours each seem to have their own themes that randomly and naturally develop. In one, he discovers that women remove their bras as soon as their workday is over, something every woman he meets tells him they do. In another, he collects jokes and in another he hears numerous anecdotes about the myriad and bizarre things men shove up their bums.
The jokes are kinda cheesy and forgettable and the bra stuff/anal insertions aren’t that novel a concept but there’s some fun to be had there. I particularly liked Sedaris’ summation: “If women come home from work and take their bras off, their husbands return and look for things they can force up their asses.”
The best part of the essay was Sedaris being asked by his media escort in Milwaukee that she’d been given $50 by her pastor to give to someone who looked like they needed it before 3.16pm that day (that time specifically because of a Bible verse) - but she was busy and could Dave do it for her? So off Sedaris goes, in search of the homeless - where else? - in the local library!
Of course it’s not quite so straightforward for Sedaris, and he even encounters problems when he takes pity on a homeless man picking up cigarette butts and buys him a pack of smokes.
Themes and Variations is a cute little piece that has a couple funny moments in it but it’s not among David Sedaris’ best.
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