Naked

Naked

4.06 of 5 stars 4.06  ·  rating details  ·  124,604 ratings  ·  3,786 reviews
In Naked, David Sedaris's message alternately rendered in Fakespeare, Italian, Spanish, and pidgin Greek is the same: pay attention to me.

Whether he's taking to the road with a thieving quadriplegic, sorting out the fancy from the extra-fancy in a bleak fruit-packing factory, or celebrating Christmas in the company of a recently paroled prostitute, this collection of memoi...more
Published (first published January 1st 1997)
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Marty
About a third of the way through David Sedaris's book, I wondered how I had not heard of this guy before. This guy was funny. No, not just funny, he was really funny. He didn't just make me laugh while reading his book, he made me cry I was laughing so hard. So why, why had I not heard of someone so side-splittingly funny? A couple chapters later, I understood why. A few more chapters after that and Naked went into a dive bomb. While there were some redeeming moments near the end, he never fully...more
Jen
Let's start off with the cover. Magnificence. In hardback the shorts are adjustable, and if you pull them up over the title you will see an x-ray of legs. I assume, since Mr. Sedaris is so willing to sacrifice himself at the altar of humor, that those thin white bones are his own. Genius.

Visiting a nudist trailer park in the name of research, really, the man is so selfless. Licking light switches, wiping his face on towels soiled with excrement...and it doesn't stop there. Why this is funny I ca...more
Kim
I'm being told that this is funny... but so far all I want to do is gather David Sedaris into my arms and rock him back and forth and tell him everything is okay.

Okay, finished. Is it really supposed to be funny? I found myself pretty saddened by most of the stories. He's got a great writing style and I definitely felt pulled into each of the stories, but I think I felt more empathetic than anything.

Especially in "C.O.G":

I didn't want to quit my job. Quitting involved a certain degree of respo...more
Elizabeth
I don't like David Sedaris. The risk you take when writing memoirs or personal essays is that the reader (me) isn't going to like the author (you) and the result is that no matter how funny you are, I don't like you, your essays, or your tales of woe. I do feel sorry for you though. I feel like I was watching an upscale episode of Roseanne. All the characters are cruel to each other in a way that is supposed to make you laugh because it reminds you of your own family or your own experiences as a...more
Tom
Maybe part of my problem with the book is that I first read the back cover, which told me two things that I didn't find to be true:

1. This book is side-splittingly hilarious
2. It turns the "mania for memoir on its proverbial ear."

Sure, maybe it's not fair to judge the book based on my preconceptions, but there's some merit to this I think.

First, my sides are completely unsplit. I laughed a few times, found some things whimsical, and did find a few lines to be very funny. But a lot of the jokes f...more
Julie
I can't get enough of this guy; his books are what I would imagine crack would be like, had I ever tried crack. Which I haven't.
Seriously -- I just sit and read and laugh, read and laugh. He's just so damned candid about things. For example, the story of how he was sent to Greece for Greek-American summer camp as a teenager:

"If my sister was anxious about our trip, she certainly didn't show it. Prying my fingers off her wrist, she crossed the room and introduced herself to a girl who stood picki...more
Richard
Sometimes I finish a book that feels good despite some of the uncomfortable things I found among the pages. Naked is the opposite, for despite the humor and insight I wanted to rub many of the passages out of my memory. I can't, and I cannot recommend the book. It was an exercise of wading through too much waste for too little worth.

David Sedaris has a voice that is real, blemished and unapologetic. Whether 100% or 10% of the book is factual is not important; it's how he tells the stories that m...more
Kevin
This wonderfully amusing book took me by surprise. Each chapter is a short memoir of David Sedaris' childhood, filled with some unusual adventures, from hitch hiking with a paraplegic to having servants wax your change. Sedaris writes in a very humorous tone, basically turning some of his misfortunes into the readers entertainment. Come to think of it, it really wasn't the stories that made the book enjoyable. It was how Sedaris wrote them. A very unique, consistent style throughout the book, lo...more
Jason Koivu
Naked (and Barrel Fever) begins the unveiling of David Sedaris' inner, most personal life. It is an early work that feels like a skeletal version of Me Talk Pretty... or Dress Your Family..., a funny skeletal version mind you, but incomplete and fragmentary nonetheless. Sedaris does not delve so deeply, mining the depths of his own existence to locate the funny bone, as he does in later works. His comedic flair has not yet fully caught fire. Even so, Naked presents some of the author's important...more
Kristine
Like all of Sedaris' books, this one has some MAJOR, masterful escapades, made all the better because they are true...
Two favorite scenes:
Sedaris' mom and sister watch crime shows all summer and then... a mystery arises in their own household- who is wiping their butt on the towels? The BROWN towels, so the offense isn't recognized until one gets a face full. Who is it? "I don't know, but I know he had corn yesterday," is one quote that sticks in my mind.
I think Naked is also the book that ope...more
Elizabeth
I started reading this book at a particularly pathetic stage in my life. I'd just left grad school and was sharing a room in my parents' house with one of my sisters. I had a 1.5 hour commute each way to work and even though I had to go to bed at like 9 p.m. to have the energy to face the next day, Monica (said sister) always thought I was up too late. One night, she started yelling at me because for several consecutive nights I'd stayed up late reading, giggling out loud in my bed. Luckily, whe...more
Alice
I read this as part of The Ultimate David Sedaris Audio Collection, and a glance at the stories included in the originally tells me this was likely the most abridged in the collection. Nearly half of the stories were left out in order to fit them into the collection, which makes me wonder, why include it at all?

Well, if it hadn't been included, I would've missed out on "Ashes," an essay about his sister's wedding in the mountains of North Carolina while his mother is dying of cancer. He doesn't...more
Joe
On the inside of this book, David Sedaris signed it and wrote, "Joe, I am so happy you're alive."

He then proceeded to write in my girlfriend at the time's book, "You can do better."


Carolyn
I enjoyed this book more in the beginning than I did toward the end. At first it was entertaining to read about all of Sedaris's mishaps and "woe is me" type of moments, but that theme got too repetitive (for me) and eventually I just wasn't impressed anymore. It seemed like he was looking for sympathy while trying to put a humorous spin on pretty humbling and shitty moments in his life. There were parts that were truly funny, but I think it would have worked out better if every story (almost) h...more
John
If I read The Da Vinci Code for all those people who prefaced their enjoyment of the book with "I don't read much," I finally read my first Sedaris book for all my smartass indie literary-type friends who stared aghast at me every time for the last five years I said I'd never read him.

"You mean you've read Eggers, but not Sedaris? I'll bet you like the Stones better than the Beatles too, dont you?"

"You think your family's bad, wait'll you read about his!"

"No, I don't like him because he's cool,...more
Jesse Keenan
I had the opportunity to personally thank David Sedaris for this book but I don't think I was able to fully articulate what it meant to me at the time. This was in no small part due to the fact that I was standing before a personal hero of mine. Also I was drunk. I will attempt to write what I wish I could have expressed that night.

Naked played a significant role in one the fonder memories of my adult life. It was during Fiesta in Santa Barbara (Old Spanish Days), which if you live in SB and are...more
CJ
This is the first David Sedaris book that I've read cover to cover. I've read bits and pieces of a few of his books and saw him in Raleigh almost 10 years ago now, and I don't think I've laughed so hard since. And of course, I've heard him on NPR many times. With that background, I was a little disappointed in Naked. The writing was excellent, in my opinion, but the first several essays didn't leave me laughing as much as they left me feeling somewhat uncomfortable. Had they been outright fictio...more
Bookshop
This is a highly unusual autobiography of David Sedaris, who, according to the New York Magazine, is a "Playwright, author, radio star, and retired elf". I wasn't sure what he is actually. I came across his name when his book (also in my already-bought-please-read-it-quickly list) Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim made it into the various reading lists of newspapers and magazines. I thought he was quite interesting and I started to take note of his name.

The book is a collection of essays o...more
Eric
Jul 12, 2007 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: silly, smart life-observers
This is a funny book told by a delightful yet sort of sad person. It's been a while since I read this, but I remember liking it. I was a little disappointed in the ending, as it seemed to just peter out uneventfully. I wanted more oomph. But aside from that it was a very enjoyable, very personal book. The chapter called "A Plague of Tics," about his childhood battles with Tourette-grade obsessive-compulsive disorder is one of the funniest passages I have ever read. It's tragic, yet so absurd tha...more
Judy
I love David Sedaris. I wish that he lived next door. In this collection of essays, he touches on his life experiences--both offbeat and disturbing. In "A Plague of Tics" he explains how his youth was plagued by a variety of behaviors that made him less than popular with both his teachers and other students (licking the lightswitch repeatedly in the classroom, etc.). In "Next of Kin" he tells about finding a cheesy porn novel in the woods (which was full of typos) and eventually nearly every mem...more
Jenna
David Sedaris's biting, hilarious memoir about his family and his teenage years made me laugh out loud. Not your typical, chuckle to yourself on the bus laugh, no, Sedaris made me guffaw as he recounted his firat job working at a mall cafeteria, and when his sister first got her period. Sedaris's family is quirky, sure, but it is like every family: hilarious, embarassing and tragic. Sedaris's wit is sharp and dark, and I think reading about his experiences helped me recognize that I have to laug...more
Katie Abbott Harris
Naked is my first exposure to the humor of David Sedaris, and not only did I enjoy it, I will definitely read more by him. The comedic memoir is a collection of short stories from his childhood through his adulthood, including his experiences with OCD, the death of his mother, and coming out. I can't say that I can relate to his tales, but I experienced many laugh out loud moments. One of the more hilarious chapters chronicles the time he spent in a nudist colony. Underneath all of the silliness...more
Don
i put this book down in sheer disgust. then after a day i picked it up again, but today was the third and last time. i had to stop. the early stories are filled with systematic abuse throughout childhood, and the later stories are the result of an abused personality - confusing sadism with love. inappropriate boundaries. abuse of trust. self-destructive coping habbits. etc.

his book is supposed to be humorous and it is in parts - sedaris is certainly a gifted writer, but its depressing to be expo...more
Audrey
I was sad when I started Naked because at the time, it was the last Sedaris book that I hadn't read, but it kept me sane throughout a senior road trip. I enjoy Sedaris because his writing is sharp and witty, but he also manages to be sensitive and insightful without being maudlin or preachy. I think "Ashes," in which he describes his mother's cancer and her relationship with himself and his siblings, is some of his best work.

Also, it's always nice, when someone calls and asks what you're doing,...more
Linda
I loved this book
Kaitlin Turner
Sedaris is fucking funny, and that is probably what primarily comes to mind when thinking of him. He is more than just funny, since his memoirs are very clever. I find that I can also easily relate to him, since I think I live in my head almost as much as he does.

That's one of the problems I have with him though. As I read I can't help but wonder how many of the details are actually true, and how many are instead the variations that occurred in his head. I know I shouldn't let such a thing bothe...more
Jean
To be honest, I don’t always remember which David Sedaris story belongs in which book (up until “Me Talk Pretty One Day”). All I know is that I was home sick with a horrible flu one day. As I was lying there in a miserable state with the radio on NPR, and specifically “This American Life”. On this particular broadcast, David Sedaris had read a then newly written piece entitled “Youth in Asia” – a history of all the pets that he owned up until that point in his life, starting with the birth of a...more
Angela
Noted humorist David Sedaris writes a series of autobiographical stories. He highlights the endearing and frustrating eccentricities of his Greek paternal grandmother. He writes about coming to the conclusion that he is gay. He hitchhikes across the country, passing himself off as a medical student. At one point, he has a paraplegic friend with him. There is the great mystery of who is using the towels as toilet paper. He experiences John Steinbeck’s world as a migrant worker. And finally, he sp...more
Sara Boghdan
I know that this book is praised by many.I really must be defective...I mean it, I feel like I must be defective down deep in my DNA. I HATE this book. I try never to hate anything, but this book really upsets me. His OCD described best in childhood makes me cringe. His mother's treatment of him made me want to cry for him. AND what really makes me nuts are the judgements he makes about people with disabilities. Oh. My. Gosh. I really don't like Sedaris as a human being revealed in this book.

If...more
Alan
n Naked, gay author David Sedaris presents seventeen autobiographical essays that are hilarious, elegiac, and often outrageous. The author has apparently had an exceedingly rich life with family and friends and unique adventures, and he writes about them with take-no-prisoners sensibilities. From dealing with a sharp-tongued mother, to his Kerouackian wanderings with a quadriplegic companion, to family gatherings in the face of imminent death, the author presents his distinctive view of the worl...more
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David Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist and radio contributor.

Sedaris came to prominence in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "SantaLand Diaries." He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. Each of his four subsequent essay collections, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997), Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Dress Your Fa...more
More about David Sedaris...
Me Talk Pretty One Day Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim When You Are Engulfed in Flames Holidays on Ice Barrel Fever

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