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Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

David Sedaris

4.08 · Rating details · 261,363 ratings · 6,691 reviews

David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother’s wedding. He mops his sister’s floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn’t it? In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner ...more

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Paperback, First Edition, 257 pages

Published 2004 by Little, Brown & Co.

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Rating details

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Sep 11, 2020 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sedaris-david

Sedaris isn´t for everyone, because his weird and disturbing tales are no humor easy to laugh about, because it involves many dark and black comedy elements, some indirect social criticism, and coarse scenes, often dealing with topics that are against the code of conduct of acceptable targets. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
But I like it, the mini humor tales are perfect for in between, whenever one doesn´t want to exhaust oneself with reading something more complex or of high quality w Sedaris isn´t for everyone, because his weird and disturbing tales are no humor easy to laugh about, because it involves many dark and black comedy elements, some indirect social criticism, and coarse scenes, often dealing with topics that are against the code of conduct of acceptable targets. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
But I like it, the mini humor tales are perfect for in between, whenever one doesn´t want to exhaust oneself with reading something more complex or of high quality with full focus on enjoying the art, the perfect stopgap. I would really like to know how much of it is authentic and what just exaggerated or fictional, because I could truly imagine super sized families acting in a Malcolm in the Middle or Married with kids style or whatever sitcoms taught us about it.

And, not to forget, there are hardly satirical authors that mostly write short stories and articles for magazines, it are mostly novels and these are often so interwoven, deep, and complex that it isn´t easy to get the whole package out of the first read. If someone tries it and doesn´t like 2 or 3 stories, I would suggest not to continue, because they are all quite similar mini plots around happenings fueled by the author´s real and fictional experiences.

There is so much truth about the fact that each dysfunctional, sad, and broken family is destroying each others lives in a unique way and Sedaris´ humor is nourished with the darkness and pain hidden behind the broken veneers of many seemingly happy families.

I am often thinking that people have the completely wrong idea that easygoing humorous texts aren´t hard to write and, already second question in this review, I would be interested to know how many edits Sedaris needs until his small diamonds sprinkle like glass cutting and torturing anyone of his protagonists.

Being funny is one of the hardest things, no matter how trivial, dirty, and cheap it might seem and how Sedaris uses his homosexuality for laughs in the same way Woody Allen does it with Judaism
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
is hilarious. A perfect description of the struggle of being gay and finding identity in a sadly still intolerant and homophobic world too.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... ...more

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Nov 22, 2008 Jason Koivu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: comedy, favorites, biography, humor

The Sedaris family is certifiably crazy and I love them.

Out of everything he's produced (I've read all of his major work and only missed a few short pieces) this is my favorite David Sedaris book. Yet, I don't recommend it...

...not always, not to everyone. The subject matter can be too much for some people, especially if they've been told that David Sedaris is a humorist and then they encounter some the more depressing details of his real life experiences. I laugh my ass off at the bottom-feede ...more

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May 22, 2020 Candi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, essays, non-fiction, audio-book

“She's afraid to tell me anything important, knowing I'll only turn around and write about it. In my mind, I'm like a friendly junkman, building things from the little pieces of scrap I find here and there, but my family's started to see things differently. Their personal lives are the so-called pieces of scrap I so casually pick up, and they're sick of it.”

I think David Sedaris would be surprised to hear that he has been a hero of sorts for me during the last few weeks. He’d probably go so far “She's afraid to tell me anything important, knowing I'll only turn around and write about it. In my mind, I'm like a friendly junkman, building things from the little pieces of scrap I find here and there, but my family's started to see things differently. Their personal lives are the so-called pieces of scrap I so casually pick up, and they're sick of it.”

I think David Sedaris would be surprised to hear that he has been a hero of sorts for me during the last few weeks. He’d probably go so far as to say he’s been called many things but never a ‘hero’! But he has saved me from singing the blues on a number of days and lifted me from boredom on many more, so ‘hero’ he shall be named.

This was my second Sedaris collection, my first being Calypso which I read and made a big to-do over back in March of this year. I ran around telling everyone about that one, trying to force the book in a few pairs of hands. I’m not always easy to please when it comes to humor – not a big fan of outlandish slapstick or inane bodily jokes. But the Sedaris brand of comedy has won me over wholeheartedly. I guess you’d call it more of an observational kind of humor. Looking at ordinary events and finding the absurd in them. Things many of us can relate to regarding family life, relationships, run-ins with strangers and that sort of juicy stuff.

After reading Calypso, it was recommended to me by several friends here on Goodreads that I must absolutely listen to David Sedaris read his own stories. Well, these friends are wise, so I did just that! Naturally, they were right! What an added pleasure to hear David’s voice as he relates what would seem at first like mundane occurrences transformed into hilarious anecdotes. I don’t think I can experience his writing any other way other than audio from this point forward. Some of these I played twice, once for myself and then holding my teenage children as captive audience at the dinner table for a second listen. I think I may have converted them into fans as well!

Do yourself a favor and give him a listen if you haven’t already done so. I’m currently on a wait list for the next audio that becomes available through my fine library system. ...more

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Nov 16, 2017 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: like-this-or-we-cant-be-friends, liburrrrrry-book, funny-haha, non-fiction, loveable-losers, read-in-2017, memoir, dysfunction-junction, favorites, audio

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

I think by this point it’s pretty much common knowledge that I love David Sedaris like ~~a fat kid~~ I love cake and, well . . . . .

Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim might be my favorite collection yet. I could seriously kick myself for not only not trying audiobooks before this Fall, but also for not thinking of collections like these as something that would fit into my short commute time perfectly. We’re talking true . . . .

...more

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Nov 12, 2019 Cindy rated it liked it

I chuckled out loud a couple of times while reading this book, and enjoyed learning more about Sedaris's quirky, dysfunctonal, yet endearing family. There wasn't one particular thing that majorly stood out to me that would push it to 4 stars though - I wonder if this would've been stronger had the essays tied together for an overarching theme or thesis. The book reads as if it were supplementary info about David's life, and since this is my first time reading his work, I desired more. I plan on ...more

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Apr 27, 2010 karen rated it liked it

Shelves: it-is-for-class, bossy-book-titles, nonfictions

this is a book by david sedaris.
shrug.

i mean, what else am i supposed to say? it's not like he went out on a limb here and wrote a space opera or a bodice ripper. it's david sedaris. if you like him, you will probably like this one. if you don't, you probably won't.

this is not my favorite of his collections, but i laughed out loud three times, which i think is pretty good. i like laughter.

**one time, connor made david sedaris laugh. he has yet to write a story about this incident, but we are all ...more

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Aug 12, 2009 Fabian rated it liked it

Okay so the Chip Kidd covers usually ruins authors like this for me. These covers almost ooze a Wes Andersonish Americana... I'll let prejudices slip past.

So this writer has a following and it is understandable. This guy CAN WRITE. And topping that: he can write short stories. I am very ambivalent about short vignettes or even the lofty novella: why don't writers just extend the s**t out of whatever story they are writing to fit the perimeters of the novel? O so close.

Sedaris observes, writes. H ...more

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Oct 03, 2020 Jean-Luke rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"He demanded and received an extended lifetime warranty on the refrigerator, meaning, I guessed, that should it leak in the year 2020, he'd return from the grave and trade it in."

In many ways 2020 probably hasn't turned out quite as David Sedaris imagined it in the early 2000s, his father still being alive--going on 96 and living an assisted living home last I heard--being the most positive aspect.

Having read all about rich and fabulous Sedaris in Calypso, it was nice to read not always so rich ...more

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Sep 12, 2018 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, funny-haha, favorites, like-this-or-we-cant-be-friends, memoir, liburrrrrry-book, read-in-2018

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

I think I may have broken free of the endless Sedaris loop which I have had playing in my car, but I’m sure I’ll return to it eventually. If for no other reason than to hear about . . . . .

I will tell you, audio is the ONLY way to go when it comes to stories about the youngest Sedaris – be it David or Amy’s impersonation, you’ll be hard-pressed not to look like a hysterical maniac if driving while listening.

When my sisters and I ...more

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Jun 06, 2009 Michelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

I thought I was over David Sedaris. I don't mean that I don't like him. I do. His essays are funny, but after a while they all seem to run together. He mines the same territory again and again -- stories of growing up with his dysfunctional, quirky, yet lovable family. Stories of himself as the odd and awkward kid growing up and trying to figure out how to live in this world.

I wasn’t going to buy Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim in print, but I saw the audio version, read by Sedaris himse I thought I was over David Sedaris. I don't mean that I don't like him. I do. His essays are funny, but after a while they all seem to run together. He mines the same territory again and again -- stories of growing up with his dysfunctional, quirky, yet lovable family. Stories of himself as the odd and awkward kid growing up and trying to figure out how to live in this world.

I wasn’t going to buy Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim in print, but I saw the audio version, read by Sedaris himself, on sale at CompUSA when they were going out of business and selling their entire inventory for cheap. I couldn’t resist even though I much prefer to read books rather than to listen to them. I did nothing with it for more than a year until I decided I should listen to it while going for walks around my neighborhood.

I found myself rolling my eyes, not laughing, and quickly becoming bored. Finally I had the idea to take the book with me when I drove places. I felt I would get through it much quicker that way and could finally move on to something else.

It turned out that that was the way to listen to David Sedaris. Walking around the neighborhood while thinking about the pain in my hip and how at 38 years old I’m afraid I’m going to have to have a fucking hip replacement is no way to appreciate him. I just wanted to slap the shit out of him and his idiosyncratic family/neighbors/and everyone else he was talking about. Relaxed and driving on the freeway with his pleasant voice in my ear was the way to go. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that it made me want to listen to his books rather than read them, which was kind of a first for me.

That being said, it’s not going to come as a big surprise that this collection is more of the same types of stories we’ve heard in the past, but I have to say that Sedaris really shines when he talks about his sister, Tiffany, and his brother, Paul (a.k.a. The Rooster). Those were my favorites in the collection.

I was also sad to learn that Sedaris’s mother, Sharon, has passed away. I’ll never forget his Ya-Ya refusing to call Sharon by her name and stubbornly referring to her as “The Girl” because she was pissed she wasn’t Greek. And if you already know and love The Rooster, man are you in for a treat when Sedaris reads in Paul’s voice. Something about this charming, well-spoken man saying the words “She had tubes coming out of her pussy” in a thick southern accent cracked me up more than reading it on the page ever could. ...more

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Jul 08, 2007 David rated it it was ok

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 beg 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.

...more

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Nov 10, 2015 Calista rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-comedy, wordsmith, z-david-sedaris, 2004, bage-mature, lgbtq, want-to-own, award-various, genre-memoir-biography, famous

I read this again which was a happy accident. I didn't think I had. I have heard several of these stories in other works, so David does recycle a story here or there. This was a wonderful laugh and tension drainer for me. I really enjoyed some of these stories.

I have to say that I think my favorite stories of his are when David uses his brother Paul. That man is crazy and so funny. He just had me laughing. He has a way of finding the funny in the mundane. I would love to be able to do that.

A l ...more

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Jun 21, 2019 Malia rated it really liked it

Shelves: humor, non-fiction

This was my first book by David Sedaris and though there were some stories that spoke to me more than others, all in all, I enjoyed it and would read more by the author. Yes, he came across as kind of cranky and irritating at times, but I think that is probably part of his charm. He doesn't seem to put up a facade, which makes for entertaining reading. I very rarely read collections of anecdotes like this, because I already know a number will stand out and others will not, and I tend to prefer o ...more

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Jul 24, 2007 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: post-college-greats

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 t ...more

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Mar 15, 2019 Jessaka rated it liked it

Shelves: humor

Books to Sleep By

I wonder if you have to be weird to like Sedaris’ books, or maybe even weirder to use them to get to sleep at night like I do?

I have listened to his books many times over, that is, what I remember of them, as I am lying in bed trying to not think so I can sleep. What is it with old people and insomnia? At least I am not alone. But that is not comforting.

Maybe it is that old people think too much because they have a lot in their brains from all the years of accumulating knowled ...more

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Oct 05, 2017 britt_brooke rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir-biography, nonfiction, essays-short-stories

Always a pleasure, Mr. Sedaris. A reread/listen was just the ‘rona distraction I needed.

Can’t wait for the second installment of his diaries, due out this summer.

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May 02, 2015 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, 2015, non-fiction, audio, library

Sometimes cynical, sometimes neurotic, always entertaining. These stories are great for a few laughs and just might make you think.

Often Sedaris says what we are thinking, but too afraid to say out loud.

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Nov 30, 2019 ABookwormWithWine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, non-fiction, audiobooks, library-books, made-me-lol, favorite-authors, made-me-chuckle

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is another hilarious winner from David Sedaris. This is my second audiobook (and book) by him and I loved it even more than the first one I listened to {Calypso}.

Sedaris talks about growing up, Santa Claus, drowning a mouse, a little girl that stole an eraser from him and so much more. I found Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim to be less serious than the other book I read and a lot more lighthearted as far as stories went. Sedaris is so ...more

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Apr 25, 2019 Lisa rated it really liked it

Shelves: essays, audiobook

David Sedaris makes me happy. This is my second (after Calypso) and I am thrilled about his lengthy backlist. There were many laugh out loud moments here and also some poignant ones.

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Aug 28, 2007 Jennifer Good rated it it was amazing

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, accidentally finishing the ...more

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Oct 05, 2017 J.K. Grice rated it really liked it

Shelves: humor

I actually listened to the audio book version of this, and I found myself laughing my head off to Sedaris's stories. Now, I don't usually laugh out loud very easily, but this guy is absolutely HILARIOUS. When Sedaris voiced his down south family story, I just about drove my truck off the road I was laughing so hard. Also, if you've never heard his narration of the Christmas season where he worked as a Macy's elf....amazing. My wife (who had never heard of Sedaris before) and I were driving home ...more

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May 04, 2020 Antoinette rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

David Sedaris has been a mainstay through everything over the past couple of months. He has been my companion when I walk with just my dog. His reflections on the minute details of life are humorous, but sometimes also very poignant. This is the third book of his I have listened to over the past 6 months. Easy to fall into and easy to listen to.

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Dec 13, 2017 Dana rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, comedy, buy, the-price-is-right, memoir

Just as reliably entertaining as his previous books!

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Dec 21, 2019 Kelli rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio

This is my second favorite David Sedaris, so apparently I really prefer his older stuff. Six to Eight Black Men was the funniest thing I’ve heard in a very long time. 4 plus stars

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Apr 05, 2018 Ginger rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, 2018

Another good collection of short stories by David Sedaris!
3.5 stars!

I decided to do the audiobook for Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim and I’m glad I did. At times, his voice bugged me a bit. It was more indifferent then I liked, and I know he was going for deadpan. But at the same time, David Sedaris is cynical, funny and does the best job of explaining his crazy family and all his neurotic thoughts. Boy does he have a lot of neurotic thoughts!! Ha! I think we all do at times.

His humor ...more

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Oct 01, 2007 Adam rated it did not like it

Honestly, I tried to like this book. Maybe it's one of those that, at page 100, kicks everything glorious into overdrive, making you gleeful and giddy and full of delight at reading it. Maybe I should have read further and waited longer. But, you see, I only really started to read this because it seemed hip at the time to do so. I'm not too sure that I care enough about maintaining some form of imagined quasi-hipness to make myself sit through the rest of it. There. I'm admitting I didn't read t ...more

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Mar 19, 2020 Anne (On semi-hiatus) rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, 2020, audio, bio-memoir

I really enjoyed listening to Sedaris read his own book. Christmas in the Netherlands was straight up hilarious . A lot happens to Sedaris and to his family members that is bizarre as well as moving or downright sad. All of this material is fodder for Sedaris' humor and his special spin on people. Due to all of the GR reviews I was prepared for the humor in this book but not so much with it mixed in with so many poignant and sad anecdotes and told in such a deadpan style. I found this mix of sto ...more

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May 11, 2012 Pixelina rated it really liked it

Shelves: funny, biography

The last episode 'Nuit of the living dead' had me break down in tears from laughing so hard. A lot of the other chapters are funny, but I read it before in other Sedaris books. I just need to think 'Oh I see you have a little swimming mouse' to start laughing like mad though.
Someone told me I should try and get one of his books on audio cause it is even funnier hearing him reading it. Will try that for sure. ...more

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Feb 26, 2019 Thomas rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: humanities, nonfiction, writings-essays

This is the first time I ever read anything by David Sedaris.

It had its moments, but I was expecting it to be more laugh-out-loud funny. At times it was clever and occasionally amusing but mostly it was kind of depressing. At least when you're reading a book about some horrible crime you know you're dealing with the extremes of human behavior, but these stories reminded me of just how common pettiness, stupidity and flat out meanness are. If this is really anything close to an accurate portraya ...more

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Aug 26, 2008 Lucy rated it really liked it

What if you could write about whatever you wanted? What if no topics were off limits, no person's feelings or privacy taken into consideration, no personal flaws purposely left unmentioned in order to be protected from ridicule?

You would probably write exactly like David Sedaris.

To actually write like David Sedaris, however, you'd also have to be intelligent, impeccably attentive to details and most importantly - uncommonly funny. With that winning combination, Sedaris's unencumbered writing cre What if you could write about whatever you wanted? What if no topics were off limits, no person's feelings or privacy taken into consideration, no personal flaws purposely left unmentioned in order to be protected from ridicule?

You would probably write exactly like David Sedaris.

To actually write like David Sedaris, however, you'd also have to be intelligent, impeccably attentive to details and most importantly - uncommonly funny. With that winning combination, Sedaris's unencumbered writing creates a truly fascinating look into his life and way of thinking.

Take, for instance, a neighborhood family that supposedly doesn't watch any television. You've know them, or at least heard about them. But have you hidden yourself in bushes outside their house watching them at night? Sedaris spied on this family with fascination, watching them interact at the dinner table during the evenings and feeling sorry for the absence of television in their lives. After watching one of their children at school being left out of a joke that made reference to a TV show, Sedaris writes, "It occurred to me that they needed a guide, someone who could point out all the things they were unable to understand. I could have done it on weekends, but friendship would have taken away their mystery and interfered with the good feeling I got from pitying them. So I kept my distance."

Then, when this same family showed up for Trick-Or-Treating the day after Halloween, Sedaris expresses what must be universally believed: "Asking for candy on Halloween was called trick-or-treating, but asking for candy on November first was called begging, and it made people uncomfortable. This was one of the things you were supposed to learn simply by being alive, and it angered me that the Tomkeys did not understand it."

The subject matter varies wildly from chapter to chapter, but each contains Sedaris's hilarious spin on what would probably appear to most outsiders, nothing to write home about. Although there are several uncomfortable chapters that touch on situations involving his homosexuality, his willingness to expose himself, and, I suppose his willingness to expose his loved ones, give his writing an important and appreciated perspective. It's so enjoyably honest! I mean, he writes about going through the Anne Frank House while simultaneous apartment hunting and wanting to live there because it's "cute." Totally irreverent. But when he talks about ripping out the wood stove so that the fireplace would be the focal point and thinking the attic, with its charming dormer windows, could be his office...it ends up being really funny.

The best chapter for me was called Six To Eight Black Men when he describes in laugh-out-loud detail the Christmas traditions in the Netherlands. Of course he begins the chapter by pointing out some of the more unusual local gun laws in various states of the USA, mentioning as an interesting fact that in Michigan - blind people are allowed to hunt...alone. As the chapter nears its end, and you wonder what the two stories have to do with each other, he finishes by sharing his thoughts while sitting in a Dutch train station. "I couldn't help but feel second-rate. Yes, the Netherlands was a small country, but it had six to eight black men and a really good bedtime story. Being a fairly competitive person, I felt jealous, then bitter. I was edging toward hostile when I remembered the blind hunter tramping off alone into the Michigan forest. He may bag a deer, or he may happily shoot a camper in the stomach. He may find his way back to the car, or he may wander around for a week or two before stumbling through your back door. We don't know for sure, but in pinning that license to his chest, he inspires the sort of narrative that ultimately makes me proud to be an American."

Funny, funny stuff. ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Belmont Book Finders: I found Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim	1	4	Nov 11, 2016 09:45AM
Madison Mega-Mara...: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris	1	4	Mar 21, 2013 09:57AM
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About David Sedaris

David Sedaris

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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

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The word “essays” may bring up memories of tedious composition classes, but today’s collections are anything but dull. Whether it’s...

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“Real love amounts to withholding the truth, even when you're offered the perfect opportunity to hurt someone's feelings” — 644 likes

“He took a sip of my father’s weak coffee and spit it back into the mug. "This shit’s like making love in a canoe."
"Excuse me?"
"It’s fucking near water.” — 543 likes

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