personal history

And Your Little Dog, Too, by David Sedaris
“He just bit me!” I said.The woman stood upright and pushed her hair away from her face. She was pretty except for her mouth, which was thin-lipped and hard-looking....
Glowworms
In the punt on the river in the cave, beneath the dim light of glowing worms, it was thoughts of my own death that consumed me. Source link
Gary Shteyngart’s Tragicomedy of the Penis in “The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong”
Watch “The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong.” Gary Shteyngart was just seven years old when his family emigrated from the Soviet Union and settled in Queens. He remembers the...
What I Wanted, What I Got
The popular girl at my elementary school—let’s call her Denise—was not blond like Barbie but pretty in a conventional manner I envied. She had brown hair, skin that tanned...
Scenes from the “This Is Spinal Tap” Cutting-Room Floor
In 1982, I began shooting an almost entirely improvised film,“This Is Spinal Tap,” which also happened to be my first as a director. It transformed my life and the...
Finding a Family of Boys
In 1981, I was a student of art history at Columbia University. I was twenty-one and worked to support myself at a variety of jobs. Columbia was an all-boys...
Your Hip Surgery, My Headache, by David Sedaris
It was nice to get away, if only for a few hours. To have someone bring me bowls of nuts and glasses of water. At the table, I mentioned...
Returning to the Scene of My Brutal Rape
A woman is running. In the path, a man appears as if from nowhere. He is masked and he holds a knife. What are her choices? On one side...