There’s an idealisation of the first time we experience a favourite work of art – when someone we know is seeing a beloved movie or listening to a favourite album, we miss that excitement of the maiden voyage. But Ames – essayist, novelist and, in his words, pervert – is the opposite. His writing is so shot through with his personality – a good-humoured, self-defeating stew of neuroses – that return visits make for richer readings.

So for anyone familiar with Ames, The Double Life Is Twice as Good – a collection of fiction and nonfiction – is another sit-down with an old friend. It starts out with what’s become a signature piece of fiction for him, ‘Bored to Death’, a sort-of-noir story that’s lined up as an HBO series for the fall. Though clearly fictional – the protagonist’s ennui pushes him to pose as a private eye on Craigslist and he quickly gets in over his head – all of the Ames components are there, including alcoholism, rampant self-deprecation and a striking honesty about his sexual proclivities. Ames writes like a less-mannered Sedaris, as evidenced by his essay, ‘The Failed Comb-Over’, in which he tells the story of going down on a bleeding woman.

Though full of the kind of surprising and hilarious writing we’ve come to expect from Ames, there is a sense that he emptied the file cabinet for this one, likely to publish ‘Bored to Death’ prior to the show’s airing. Included are two six-word memoirs and an introduction he wrote for another book. It’s all entertaining, if a little uneven. Jonathan Messinger

Published by Simon & Schuster