Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
by David Sedaris
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| published
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2004
by Little Brown & Co.
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| binding
| Paperback |
| isbn
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0965904830
(isbn13: 9780965904834)
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| date added
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12-14-06
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So. David Sedaris.
Well, let's be clear. Nobody with a funnybone can hate David Sedaris. And neither do I. But it has to be said - that last book ("Dress your family in corduroy and denim") was quite a disappointment. Judging by the number of people showing up for his readings here in San Francisco, and its lengthy sojourn on The New York Times bestseller list, it obviously did pretty well commercially. And, based on the enormous amount of accumulated goodwill from his earlier books,...more
So. David Sedaris.
Well, let's be clear. Nobody with a funnybone can hate David Sedaris. And neither do I. But it has to be said - that last book ("Dress your family in corduroy and denim") was quite a disappointment. Judging by the number of people showing up for his readings here in San Francisco, and its lengthy sojourn on The New York Times bestseller list, it obviously did pretty well commercially. And, based on the enormous amount of accumulated goodwill from his earlier books, I don't begrudge DS his commercial success. Not one bit.
Well, OK. Maybe just a little bit. Because, for the first time, in this collection, we see clear indications that Sedaris is bumping up against his limitations. How so? I think (and make no claim for the originality of this analysis) it's because Sedaris is at his best when he writes from the point of view of slightly marginalized outsider. In his earlier stuff, he was poor, he's gay and he managed to achieve a tone of bemusement in reporting what went on around him that was completely hilarious. In the face of increasing commercial success, the edge that was conferred by his being poor became harder to maintain. But he and his boyfriend moved to France, thereby achieving automatic outsider status, and Sedaris was able to mine this for comedy gold (his accounts of misadventures while learning French are truly funny, and credit must be given for the way in which he makes the comedy seem so effortless). But that's his previous book Me Talk Pretty One Day.
Problem is, the whole 'marginalized outsider' position seems less and less plausible for an author whose books spend months on the best seller list. Similarly, after a few years in France, the forces of assimilation are bound to cut down on the number of amusing misunderstandings funny enough to be worth writing about. This leaves one other area which Sedaris has mined fruitfully in previous books - anecdotes about his family. Indeed, the majority of the stories in this latest collection are family-based anecdotes. However, the stories in this collection do not come close to matching the wit and poignancy of those in earlier books, suggesting that this vein of inspiration may be close to being tapped out. Hardly surprising - any author would lead with the funniest material; this collection has occasional flashes of wit, but never reaches the 'laugh-out-loud' quality of the earlier books. Several pieces in this collection (describing his brother's wedding, his job one summer at the State Fair) are downright pedestrian, and a couple of pieces just fall flat - ruminations about apartment-hunting while visiting the Anne Frank house, accounts of visits with two of his sisters, whose feelings about being featured as bit-players in this, or subsequent collections are decidedly mixed. It's to Sedaris's credit that he too is ambivalent on this point, but his soul-searching on the issue doesn't make for interesting reading.
One of Yeats's later poems is called "The Circus Animals' Desertion"; in it, he bemoans the fact that the themes which inspired him early in his career have lost their inspirational power. "Dress your family in corduroy and denim" supports the notion that David Sedaris may be experiencing similar difficulties. But don't count him out yet. His previous books estalished Sedaris as a hilarious, extremely talented writer. Anyone can have one bad book. Let's hope he will leave it at that.
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
baby jesus
What the hell is up with these self-proclaimed comedic homosexuals foisting their less-than-spectacular and pointlessly bland recollections of their ‘exceptionally misunderstood lives’ upon the masses; and what more, what the hell is the majority of the public embracing this bullshit for?! It's ok to be an outacst, it's okay to be one of the minority that has been encumbered with undue obstacles since day one and grown into a stronger person for it....so i've heard. And David Sedaris (pres...more
What the hell is up with these self-proclaimed comedic homosexuals foisting their less-than-spectacular and pointlessly bland recollections of their ‘exceptionally misunderstood lives’ upon the masses; and what more, what the hell is the majority of the public embracing this bullshit for?! It's ok to be an outacst, it's okay to be one of the minority that has been encumbered with undue obstacles since day one and grown into a stronger person for it....so i've heard. And David Sedaris (presumably another filthy, self-aggrandizing quasi-intellectual manufactured by the media for that particular human trash recepticle) apparently forms his own opinions on the charade that is contemporary life when he’s not being emotionlessly sodomized in France or giving a b-job to a svelte queer resembling a junkie. His opinions are hopelessly convoluted and misconstrued, always putting his own character into that role of tragic hero succumbing to unspeakable depths solely due to their insurmountable nature as they are ingrained in a mindless society in which he and his ilk are forced into an uncomfortable submission by the powers that be, and their genius can be recognized only as the byproduct of the galvanic social pressures which forged them.
That last sentence probably doesn’t mean anything in proper English, but sadly might actually constitute as extraordinarily insightful in modern academia if this piece of shit is to be used as a benchmark. In this chronicle of little value, we see the virtue of David’s moral fortitude tested as he’s embattled by all the trappings life can afford an upper-middle class sissies; the road is rocky at times, but in the end he stands victorious through the recognition the world bestows upon him. A book with such little impact to me, I honestly can’t recall what these uproariously hilarious events were, which he so aptly described, but still sorta vaguely remember how nondescriptly he conveyed them, with a hint of remorse for wasting my time, as I could have been detailing the events of my own awesome and heterosexual life saga.
Basically, all I can add is that if it wasn't for this book, I couldn't imagine harboring any ill-will toward my fellow man. Thanks, David....less
Read in November, 2005
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim delves further into the fascinating, hilarious, and otherwise utterly bizarre life of David Sedaris and his family. This collection of his essays is quite good--among my favorites of his--because throughout most of it, he manages to find a moving balance between the tragic and the comic.
Take, for instance, "The Ship Shape," about how his family almost bought a summer home, but ultimately lost out on the chance because of his father's ...more
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim delves further into the fascinating, hilarious, and otherwise utterly bizarre life of David Sedaris and his family. This collection of his essays is quite good--among my favorites of his--because throughout most of it, he manages to find a moving balance between the tragic and the comic.
Take, for instance, "The Ship Shape," about how his family almost bought a summer home, but ultimately lost out on the chance because of his father's fickleness with money. The essay starts off humorously enough, with plenty of zany details, like the absurd names his family comes up with for the summer home in question. But by the end, we have a rather melancholic picture painted of the family, headed by a father who would like to give his family something nice like a summer home on the beach, but is just too fickle to actually go through with it.
Then there is "Hejira," about how Sedaris' father kicked him out of the house seemingly because he was an unemployed college dropout whose number of bong hits surpassed his number of trips out of the house, but really, we learn, because he was gay. We have plenty of funny anecdotes throughout, giving us hilarious images of Sedaris sitting stoned in his room listening to the same Joni Mitchell record over and over again, but by the end, we see ultimately see a father who finds his son so unacceptable that he removes him from the situation. From reading his other works, we know that Sedaris and his father eventually mended ways, but as "Hejira" closes, we only see a depressed young man wanting to be acknowledged for being, as he puts it, "special."
Of course, there is also plenty of outright absurdity, such as "Six to Eight Black Men," which I have my students read each year during the holiday season; and "Rooster at the Hitchin' Post," which is on the outset about his obnoxious, foul-mouthed younger brother's wedding, but we eventually see is about the relationship between Sedaris and his brother. These are wholly hilarious, and do well to offset much of the depressing downheartedness emoted from the essays mentioned above.
Fans of Sedaris will certainly appreciate this collection of essays. Newbies may find his life and family a bit too bizarre to digest at first, but after pushing through will realize the palette of emotions mentioned earlier. After all, while Sedaris' life is strange and usually utterly absurd, it is still life nonetheless....less
bookshelves:
essays,
light-reads,
memoir
The world could use more books like this, especially if they are to be written by David Sedaris. Nothing is as refreshing as literature that manages to be both entertaining and thoughtful without making undue demands on the reader. Dress Your Family is as clean and refreshing as lemonade on a porch in summertime.
At least, as far as prose style is concerned.
Because, let's face it, nobody can provoke absurdity like David Sedaris, even when that absurdity leads to sober reflection.
Examp...more
The world could use more books like this, especially if they are to be written by David Sedaris. Nothing is as refreshing as literature that manages to be both entertaining and thoughtful without making undue demands on the reader. Dress Your Family is as clean and refreshing as lemonade on a porch in summertime.
At least, as far as prose style is concerned.
Because, let's face it, nobody can provoke absurdity like David Sedaris, even when that absurdity leads to sober reflection.
Example: the idea, only subtly hinted at but clearly present to an attentive reader, that Anne Frank's treacherous and anonymous neighbor turned her in to the Nazis to free up what was an unusually attractive apartment. It's just ridiculous enough and petty enough to be plausible.
Or the notion that, to a Swedish stranger, the living room of the house where David and Hugh live in France looks like that of a first-rate psycopath obsessed with death and dismemberment. Do our possessions try and tell us things we don't know about ourselves?
And the way in which David's relationship to his brother is perverse to an extreme degree, so that even when a clear moment of bonding is at hand, fart jokes appear in the dialogue, while the reader is left reflecting on the way that we constantly try to idealize things that are often as good as they can be, even if they are also as weird as they can be.
In fact, the reader is so drawn into David's mind, that she inexplicably starts referring to the author -- in print and in thought -- as "Dave."
Even when she's pretty sure the author does not take kindly to nicknames. She can vaguely remember him saying so once -- by which she means, she read it in a book of his.
But the illuminations and revelations are so lucid in this volume that the reader feels as if she know has an insider's glimpse into Dave's mind, and indicates that with an abbreviated first name; it would just about break her heart to make herself remember that she does, in reality, have no connection with this person at all....less
bookshelves:
currently-reading,
memoir
Read in June, 2008
Having known little about David Sedaris before embarking upon this collection of essays, I sense that I approached them with some advantage over his avid readers. Getting a sense of his writing through these personal memoirs is almost like discovering him for myself, though I can now speak highly of him to others without actually having to have gone through the trouble of reading any of his other works. Of course, this is now my prerogative, and I suspect that before I die I will pick up "M...more
Having known little about David Sedaris before embarking upon this collection of essays, I sense that I approached them with some advantage over his avid readers. Getting a sense of his writing through these personal memoirs is almost like discovering him for myself, though I can now speak highly of him to others without actually having to have gone through the trouble of reading any of his other works. Of course, this is now my prerogative, and I suspect that before I die I will pick up "Me Talk Pretty One Day," "Naked," or "Barrel Fever." However, just a few of these short stories will leave you familiar enough with Sedaris to intuit the answer to 38-across in next Sunday’s crossword, or to sound moderately well-read and up-to-date on your American humorists.
Plus, "Dress Your Family" is all-in-all a pleasant read. Not to say unremarkable, but it’s the kind of family-friendly, public radio raciness that allows you to chuckle out loud every couple of paragraphs and put the book down every couple of chapters feeling satisfied, but not too full. It’s the kind of humor that soothes the anxieties and fears of being a middle-class, peace-loving American by exposing them whimsically in the awkward experiences of someone else, and then leaves you free to flip on the TV and resume your own awkward but happy existence. These stories originally appeared as segments on NPR, or in established dude magazines like GQ and Esquire, and as such Sedaris' writing reads like a younger, gayer Garrison Keillor. In other words, it tends to be everyone's cup of tea--unconfrontational, warm, and albeit at times bland--and after a while it leaves you sleepy and/or restless, and ready to switch to the hard stuff....less
Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
people who like humor
I love David Sedaris. I'm actually really glad that I'm reading his works somewhat sequentially. I read Naked first and then this. And yes, I will have to read Me Talk Pretty One Day out of order.
Naked is really about growing up. It's told almost in order of events that happened in his life. Dress Your Family is more about when he's older, and I think the stories are a little less funny and exaggerated, and more poignant. I'd probably have to read it again to say...more
I love David Sedaris. I'm actually really glad that I'm reading his works somewhat sequentially. I read Naked first and then this. And yes, I will have to read Me Talk Pretty One Day out of order.
Naked is really about growing up. It's told almost in order of events that happened in his life. Dress Your Family is more about when he's older, and I think the stories are a little less funny and exaggerated, and more poignant. I'd probably have to read it again to say for sure. My favorites are the one featuring any of his siblings. I especially like this exchange between he and his mom in one story, "Baby Einstein":
My mother and I were on the beach, rubbing oil into each other's backs and guessing who in the family would be the first to have children. "I think it will be Lisa," I said. This was in the early 1970s. Lisa was maybe fourteen years old and while she wasn't necessarily maternal, she did do things according to their order. Getting married was what came after graduating from college, and having a baby was what came after getting married. "Mark my words," I said, "by the age of twenty-six Lisa will have" --a trio of ghost crabs approached an abandoned sandwich, and I took them as a sign-- "Lisa will have three children."
It felt very prophetic, but my mother dismissed it. "No," she said. "Gretchen will be the first." She squinted toward her second daughter, who stood on the shore, pitching meat scraps to a flock of gulls. "It's written on her hips. It will be Gretchen, then Lisa, then Tiffany."
"What about Amy?" I asked.
My mother thought for a moment. "Amy won't have a child," she said. "Amy will have a monkey." ...less
bookshelves:
listened-to-on-ipod
The only thing more entertaining than reading one of David Sedaris's (sp;i've always had a hard time with the possessive apostrophe on 's' ending words)books is listening to one. I'm so picky about books on tape/cd/mp3/whatever. But Sedaris is great.
After the whole James Frey controversy I was doing some 'googling' and found some articles where folks were questioning Sedaris's authenticity too. This was sort of reassuring to me because I'm so jealous of his work. Not only is Sedaris full o...more
The only thing more entertaining than reading one of David Sedaris's (sp;i've always had a hard time with the possessive apostrophe on 's' ending words)books is listening to one. I'm so picky about books on tape/cd/mp3/whatever. But Sedaris is great.
After the whole James Frey controversy I was doing some 'googling' and found some articles where folks were questioning Sedaris's authenticity too. This was sort of reassuring to me because I'm so jealous of his work. Not only is Sedaris full of awesome stories, but the detail with which he recalls them is mind-blowing. Why can't I have funny stories like these? Why can't I remember the names of classmates, teachers, neighbors etc.?
One of my favorite anecdotes in this book is when his dad encourages him to go to a sleepover with some boys from school and he's nervous about it b/c he's gay but doesn't know what to tell his dad. So he goes, the boys end up playing strip poker, he's super nervous he may have to strip down and reveal his boner, so he tells the boys it against his religion. When one of them asks what religion he is he says Greek Orthodox. Then he's told that the Grand Poobah won't mind. That's hilarious. I wouldn't even think of something that clever and I'm not even a 10 year old boy!
So, is it all completely accurate, true, and verifiable? I doubt it. But it's funny. And he makes me laugh. And it's not completely self-indulgent and unmeasurable like dumb old James Frey. ...less
bookshelves:
post-college-greats
Read in January, 2005
This book makes me laugh myself sick every time I read it. Blood Work and La Nuit of the Dead are put together so perfectly. Sedaris creates a series of misguided attempts at human connection that seem doomed to fail through selfishness or insecurity, but somehow don’t. Sedaris is so good at exposing the frailty of those emotional connections without ever doubting that they can still sustain our relationships. He makes me relate to even the most impossibly awkward and painful situations. Every...more
This book makes me laugh myself sick every time I read it. Blood Work and La Nuit of the Dead are put together so perfectly. Sedaris creates a series of misguided attempts at human connection that seem doomed to fail through selfishness or insecurity, but somehow don’t. Sedaris is so good at exposing the frailty of those emotional connections without ever doubting that they can still sustain our relationships. He makes me relate to even the most impossibly awkward and painful situations. Every time I read it I think, “That’s so ME!” And then realize that I’m not a gay man living in rural France, fearing zombies and drowning a mouse in a bucket at midnight. And yet somehow I can still not only relate to the situation, but feel the familiarity of it. The parts about his brother make me miss my brother horribly. Sedaris is so great at showing that most of our love for each other doesn’t lie in our similarities, but in the strength of our shared history and our sheer will to maintain the relationship. This can seem either damaged and pathetic or comforting and hopeful. I’m going with the latter. ...less
bookshelves:
personalessays
Read in May, 2007
When I grow up I want to write like David Sedaris.
People have repeatedly told me that "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is Sedaris' best work and that his other books are mediocre in comparison, but this was the first complete book of his that I have read and I am simply enchanted; he is a remarkable storyteller. That said, I would state that the first few essays and the last are his strongest and somewhere in the middle things get a bit messier: his writing is not as tight and a couple of...more
When I grow up I want to write like David Sedaris.
People have repeatedly told me that "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is Sedaris' best work and that his other books are mediocre in comparison, but this was the first complete book of his that I have read and I am simply enchanted; he is a remarkable storyteller. That said, I would state that the first few essays and the last are his strongest and somewhere in the middle things get a bit messier: his writing is not as tight and a couple of stories are downright trite.
What I love about the first few stories in this book however, is Seadaris' ability to do what I absolutely cannot: he fashions endings that tie everything up neatly and completely, as if with pretty little bows. What's most important, though, is that he does this without making the endings seem forced--the effect is natural and effortless.
The stories in the middle don't do this as well and some even just seem to stop without any sort of conclusion. This is perhaps more true-to-life, however, I would prefer to see more skill and craft and less real-life messy endings.
The final essay, however, goes back to the strengths of the first few, ending the book with a bang. Or perhaps, as someone who has recently been told that my own home is creepy, I just really identified with the last story! :)...less
bookshelves:
2007,
own
Read in September, 2007
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"Usually when I was forced to compete, it was my tactic to simply give up. To try in any way was to announce your ambition, which only made you more vulnerable. The person who wanted to win but failed was a loser, while the person who didn't really care was just a weirdo -- a title I had learned to live with."
--from the story, Full House
"I can't seem to fathom that the things important to me are not importan...more
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"Usually when I was forced to compete, it was my tactic to simply give up. To try in any way was to announce your ambition, which only made you more vulnerable. The person who wanted to win but failed was a loser, while the person who didn't really care was just a weirdo -- a title I had learned to live with."
--from the story, Full House
"I can't seem to fathom that the things important to me are not important to other people as well, and so I come off sounding like a missionary, someone whose job it is to convert rather than listen. "Yes, your Tiki god is very handsome, but we're here to talk about Jesus."
--from the story, Put a Lid on It
"It was one of those times when you really notice the difference between speaking and expressing yourself. I knew the words [in French] -- blind people, election year, storage closet -- but even when coupled with verbs and pronouns they didn't add up the way I needed them to. In English my sentences could perform double duty, saying both that I'd reported for volunteer work and that Hugh would be punished for not listening to the single most interesting thing that had happened to me since moving to Paris."
--from the story, Who's the Chef?...less
bookshelves:
50booksin07
Read in October, 2007
Oh, David Sedaris, what would I do without you?
While I didn't find this book to be as funny as Me Talk Pretty One Day, I found it to be more enjoyable to read. There was more sentimentality there, even while making fun of his siblings. He has this amazing ability to blur the line between fact and exaggeration as you go through many of his interesting days from childhood to adulthood. His father dragging him to the house of the most popular boy in school and demanding that his parents pay fo...more
Oh, David Sedaris, what would I do without you?
While I didn't find this book to be as funny as Me Talk Pretty One Day, I found it to be more enjoyable to read. There was more sentimentality there, even while making fun of his siblings. He has this amazing ability to blur the line between fact and exaggeration as you go through many of his interesting days from childhood to adulthood. His father dragging him to the house of the most popular boy in school and demanding that his parents pay for the root canal that he had to undergo, caused by the rock that the boy threw at Sedaris. His first sleep over with a group of boys from his school, playing strip poker with them and convincing them that since he is winning, they have to sit on his lap. And, my personal favorite, working for a cleaning company and mistakenly shows up to an appointment of a man who thinks he works for an erotic cleaning company. This man whose apartment Sedaris then cleans is one of the most bizarre people I've ever read about, and I talked about that story for days.
I just keep falling more, and more in love with Sedaris. His work is amazing.
...less
bookshelves:
read-and-reviewed
Read in December, 2007
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is a hilarious book about David Sedaris's life and family. It starts off when he was a young boy and he has to give up his Halloween candy to the neighbors. He then stuffed as much candy in his face as possible so he wouldn't have to share it. I knew right after this chapter that I was going to like this book. As you read further in the book you learn all about his family like his brother, Paul, the rooster. Different events occur in this book that tell yo...more
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is a hilarious book about David Sedaris's life and family. It starts off when he was a young boy and he has to give up his Halloween candy to the neighbors. He then stuffed as much candy in his face as possible so he wouldn't have to share it. I knew right after this chapter that I was going to like this book. As you read further in the book you learn all about his family like his brother, Paul, the rooster. Different events occur in this book that tell you a lot about David and his family. Like in the chapter the Girl Next Door, David meets a young girl neighbor and begins spending time with her and discovers she doens't know what France is, so he helps her with maps and such. I personally liked the chapter "Rooster at the Hitchin' Post" because of all the humor in it and it shows the relationship David has between his brother and him.
David Sedaris tells the story of his life very well, and in a funny way. I would recommend this book to everyone because it is a great book to read over and over, as I did with many of the chapters.
...less
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone needing a laugh
oh so hilarious...
"What the hell are you doing?" she whispered, but my mouth was too full to answer...as she closed the door and behind her and moved toward my bed, I began breaking the wax lips and candy necklaces pulled from pile no. 2. These were the second-best things I had received, and while it hurt to destroy them, it would have hurt evern more to give them away. I had just started to mutilate a miniature box of Red Hots when my mother pried them from my hands, ac...more
oh so hilarious...
"What the hell are you doing?" she whispered, but my mouth was too full to answer...as she closed the door and behind her and moved toward my bed, I began breaking the wax lips and candy necklaces pulled from pile no. 2. These were the second-best things I had received, and while it hurt to destroy them, it would have hurt evern more to give them away. I had just started to mutilate a miniature box of Red Hots when my mother pried them from my hands, accidentally finishing the job for me. BB-size pellets clattered onto the floor, and as I followed them with my eyes, she snatched up a roll of Necco wafers.
"Not those," I pleaded, but rather than words, my mouth expelled chocolate, chewed chocolate, which fell onto the sleece of her sweater. "Not those. Not those."
She shook her arm, and the mound of chocolate dropped like a horrible turd upon my bedspread. "You should look at yourself," she said. "I mean, really look at yourself."
...less
Read in January, 2004
recommends it for:
anyone who has read david sedaris
This is probably my favorite David Sedaris book overall. It's not the funniest, but that's not why I like it. I don't think I even read the "funny" essays in this book anymore. But I read pretty much all of the other ones obsessivly. "Repeat After Me" might be my favorite thing that he's written, although I could be wrong. He's written a lot of neat things. The other stories I go to right away are "Put a Lid on It" and "The Girl Next Door".
Arguably, t...more
This is probably my favorite David Sedaris book overall. It's not the funniest, but that's not why I like it. I don't think I even read the "funny" essays in this book anymore. But I read pretty much all of the other ones obsessivly. "Repeat After Me" might be my favorite thing that he's written, although I could be wrong. He's written a lot of neat things. The other stories I go to right away are "Put a Lid on It" and "The Girl Next Door".
Arguably, the even better ones are the ones I don't read, just because they make me feel so depressed. Not depressed in the sense of "Wow, the world is falling apart" but depressed in the sense of, well, I don't really know. Depressed. "The End of the Affair" is a real good example of this sort of essay, but it isn't the only example I could point out in this book.
I guess the best selling point of this book is that when I don't have a new book to read in the subway and I'm running late for work, I grab this one as a fill-in. And it usually comes through.
...less
bookshelves:
biography,
have-read,
non-fiction
Read in November, 2005
David Sedaris seemed like a "big name" in essayist. I was running across him everywhere, I thought. Then, at a friend's house, I picked up one of his earlier collections and chuckled through a few of the essays. And so it was that I was looking forward to this collection.
However, what I came away with was a personal dislike for David Sedaris himself. What I came away with was a vision of a gay man (please note that I don't care one bit if he's gay or not, but HE sure seemed to play...more
David Sedaris seemed like a "big name" in essayist. I was running across him everywhere, I thought. Then, at a friend's house, I picked up one of his earlier collections and chuckled through a few of the essays. And so it was that I was looking forward to this collection.
However, what I came away with was a personal dislike for David Sedaris himself. What I came away with was a vision of a gay man (please note that I don't care one bit if he's gay or not, but HE sure seemed to play up his homosexuality a bit) who was whiny, bitchy, and argumentative simply for the sake of an argument (even when he knew he was wrong).
Whether any of this is true or not is beside the point. It's the impression that I came away with. And since none of the essays left any kind of positive impression with me, I'm not looking forward to reading any more Sedaris.
I quickly donated this book to my local library. If you want to read it, check it out -- don't waste your money....less
bookshelves:
memoir,
own
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in March, 2008
recommended to kimberly by:
rachael estrada
recommends it for:
anyone with a dysfunctional family.
I don't think I can even list all my favorite moments of this book - but two stand out the most, merely because of timing. one, his description of his brother's baby. i had the same reaction at the hospital on friday while meeting Grace Trinity Faith Jones (i don't think even that many religious names will save this child). two, his description of the need to touch people, not inappropriately but unwelcome, relates to a long drawn out discussion with my judge regarding sexually battery and mole...more
I don't think I can even list all my favorite moments of this book - but two stand out the most, merely because of timing. one, his description of his brother's baby. i had the same reaction at the hospital on friday while meeting Grace Trinity Faith Jones (i don't think even that many religious names will save this child). two, his description of the need to touch people, not inappropriately but unwelcome, relates to a long drawn out discussion with my judge regarding sexually battery and molestation.
This book made me almost spew liquid out of my mouth. I laughed so hard at the gym I had to stop myself from falling off the elliptical. It is the perfect size for most backpacks and purses, and is short enough to read a story while waiting in line at the grocery. I am so stoked to read more of his work. I can't believe it took me so long to find this guy.
...less
Read in January, 2006
Yeah, at this point, David Sedaris knows his audience and knows what they want to hear: funny stories about the Sedaris clan. Gone is the weird ghoulishness that hampered "Holidays On Ice," and the wacky familial mishaps that made "Me Talk Pretty One Day" so enjoyable are back in full force. It's possibly too much of a good thing: we know what to expect, and can practically write our own "David Sedaris essay" at this point (here, I'll start: "When I was young...more
Yeah, at this point, David Sedaris knows his audience and knows what they want to hear: funny stories about the Sedaris clan. Gone is the weird ghoulishness that hampered "Holidays On Ice," and the wacky familial mishaps that made "Me Talk Pretty One Day" so enjoyable are back in full force. It's possibly too much of a good thing: we know what to expect, and can practically write our own "David Sedaris essay" at this point (here, I'll start: "When I was young, my sister Gretchen and I..." <insert charming, slightly embarrassing childhood anecdote here>). All that being said, it helps that he's GOOD at it, hitting all the right notes of nostalgia and sardonic commentary and delivering exactly what we want to hear (you can practically hear his distinctive nasal drone as you read). Nothing here reads as fresh as anything in "Me Talk Pretty One Day," but if it's more of the same, it's at least more of the same good thing. ...less
bookshelves:
non-fiction,
queer
Read in February, 2005
Non-fiction. Essays from everyone's favorite neurotic gay humorist. This book feels sort of random, with no real overarching theme. The stories jump around in time and don't give much context, but it's David Sedaris and it's funny and he talks about his brother the Rooster, along with a couple other siblings I didn't even realize he had.
[TANGENT: I'd actually heard a few of these from an audiobook, so I already knew their punchlines. I could hear Sedaris' voice in my head while I was readin...more
Non-fiction. Essays from everyone's favorite neurotic gay humorist. This book feels sort of random, with no real overarching theme. The stories jump around in time and don't give much context, but it's David Sedaris and it's funny and he talks about his brother the Rooster, along with a couple other siblings I didn't even realize he had.
[TANGENT: I'd actually heard a few of these from an audiobook, so I already knew their punchlines. I could hear Sedaris' voice in my head while I was reading, the inflection he gives his father's voice, his own whiny internal monologues, the no-nonsense tone of his mother. It was actually a little distracting, like Sedaris was hovering over my shoulder, reading aloud and, like a laugh track, mocking himself before I had a chance to make up my own mind about things.]
Three stars. I liked Me Talk Pretty One Day a lot more, but if you like Sedaris, you'll like this....less
Read in October, 2006
recommends it for:
Anybody
I hope the bulk of us are already convinced that David Sedaris has a pretty solid sense of humor. O what a clever man. There were several very excellent essays in this book, my favorite being "Six to Eight Black Men," about the Christmas traditions of the Dutch.
On the other hand, there are predictably more than a few rather offensive essays that could probably stand to be skipped by the sensitive. Not that I plan to ward anyone off about anything specifically...so good luck.
Fo...more
I hope the bulk of us are already convinced that David Sedaris has a pretty solid sense of humor. O what a clever man. There were several very excellent essays in this book, my favorite being "Six to Eight Black Men," about the Christmas traditions of the Dutch.
On the other hand, there are predictably more than a few rather offensive essays that could probably stand to be skipped by the sensitive. Not that I plan to ward anyone off about anything specifically...so good luck.
For the true Sedaris fans, I offer two additional suggestions: an essay called "Jesus Shaves" and a reading he did on Letterman. Oh what the heck, I'll include links to both for your enjoyment. Well, maybe not actual links, because I don't think I know how to do that, but URLs at least. You're welcome.
Letterman: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdymt...
Jesus Shaves: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYi0zT...
...less
bookshelves:
currently-reading
Read in June, 2008
Having a new book out this year, Sedaris' name has been everywhere lately - I came across it in The New York Times and Newsweek. When I got back from London, I picked up this book at the library to see what all the fuss was about. I have liked his sister - Amy Sedaris - especially her quirky sense of humour in __Stranger with Candy_ and thought that perhaps they shared an off-beat humour. Half way through this book, I am enjoying it and can't wait to pick up another one of his books - probabl...more
Having a new book out this year, Sedaris' name has been everywhere lately - I came across it in The New York Times and Newsweek. When I got back from London, I picked up this book at the library to see what all the fuss was about. I have liked his sister - Amy Sedaris - especially her quirky sense of humour in __Stranger with Candy_ and thought that perhaps they shared an off-beat humour. Half way through this book, I am enjoying it and can't wait to pick up another one of his books - probably _Me Talk Pretty One Day_ as I think Erin has read this one? What I like about his stories is that some everyday moment, so ordinary and so uneventful, can have such weight. I can never see which way his stories will turn. I can never see whether they'll end in a whimper or a bang. His voice is so strongly channelled, I feel that he is talking just to me. It's been a long time since a book did that for me....less
book data (includes all editions)
avg rating
(all editions):
3.96 (20760 ratings)
avg rating
(this edition): 3.97
(15822 ratings)
number of reviews: 1653
