From WHYY in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend.

Today David Sederis, he has a new collection of personal essays called Happy Go Lucky.

Don't let the title or his renowned reputation as a humorist fool you.

In addition to the humor, this book has some pretty serious writing about his late father,

who died a year ago at the age of 98.

Throughout David's life, his father bullied him and belittled him in his accomplishments.

Several essays in the new book focus on David's relationship with his father in his final years

when he was in assisted living in the ICU.

Also, New York Times' religion correspondent Ruth Graham talks about how the issues

dividing the Republican Party are creating tensions within white evangelical churches across

the country.

Later, Kent Tucker reviews Kendrick Lamar's new album.

My first guest, David Sederis, is a famous humorist who got his start

by reading his personal essays on the public radio show This American Life.

He's had best-selling collections of his personal essays, and is received the Thurber Prize

for American Humor, the Jonathan Swift Prize for Satire and Humor, and the Terry Southern

Prize for Humor.

Several of the essays in the new book take a pretty serious turn.

Those essays are about his father, with whom Sederis had a lifelong combative relationship.

He says, as long as my father had power, he used it to hurt me.

In Sederis' new book, he writes about when his father was in his 90s, and his power

was continually diminishing in assisted living in the ICU.

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