Structure

Happy-Go-Lucky is a collection of 18 titled essays. The essays appear in the following order: “Active Shooter,” “Father Time,” “Bruised,” “A Speech to the Graduate,” “Hurricane Season,” “Highfalutin,” “Unbuttoned,” “Themes and Variations,” “To Serbia with Love,” “The Vacuum,” “Pearls,” “Fresh-Caught Haddock,” “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “A Better Place,” “Lady Marmalade,” “Smile, Beautiful,” “Pussytoes,” and “Lucky-Go-Happy.” Studying the arrangement of these essays in relation one to another is vital to understanding Sedaris’s overarching thematic explorations. The order in which the essays appear invites the reader into the collection and gradually leads her through Sedaris’s personal stories as he considers more sweeping social, cultural, and interpersonal dynamics.

The form of the collection’s opening essay, “Active Shooter,” acts as a navigational tool by which the reader might understand the collection’s overarching structure. The essay opens with Sedaris’s description of his and his sister’s conversation on their car ride...