Product Details
- Author: David Sedaris
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- Binding: Paperback
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- Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
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- EAN: 9780316776967
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- ISBN: 0316776963
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- Label: Back Bay Books
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- Language: English
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- Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
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- Number of Items: 1
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- Number of Pages: 272
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- Product Group: Book
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- Publication Date: 2001-06-05
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- Publisher: Back Bay Books
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- Studio: Back Bay Books
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- Title: Me Talk Pretty One Day
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: David Sedaris became a star autobiographer on public radio, onstage in New York, and on bestseller lists, mostly on the strength of "SantaLand Diaries," a scathing, hilarious account of his stint as a Christmas elf at Macy's. (It's in two separate collections, both worth owning, Barrel Fever and the Christmas-themed Holidays on Ice.) Sedaris's caustic gift has not deserted him in his fourth book, which mines poignant comedy from his peculiar childhood in North Carolina, his bizarre career path, and his move with his lover to France. Though his anarchic inclination to digress is his glory, Sedaris does have a theme in these reminiscences: the inability of humans to communicate. The title is his rendition in transliterated English of how he and his fellow students of French in Paris mangle the Gallic language. In the essay "Jesus Shaves," he and his classmates from many nations try to convey the concept of Easter to a Moroccan Muslim. "It is a party for the little boy of God," says one. "Then he be die one day on two... morsels of... lumber," says another. Sedaris muses on the disputes between his Protestant mother and his father, a Greek Orthodox guy whose Easter fell on a different day. Other essays explicate his deep kinship with his eccentric mom and absurd alienation from his IBM-exec dad: "To me, the greatest mystery of science continues to be that a man could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests." Every glimpse we get of Sedaris's family and acquaintances delivers laughs and insights. He thwarts his North Carolina speech therapist ("for whom the word pen had two syllables") by cleverly avoiding all words with s sounds, which reveal the lisp she sought to correct. His midget guitar teacher, Mister Mancini, is unaware that Sedaris doesn't share his obsession with breasts, and sings "Light My Fire" all wrong--"as if he were a Webelo scout demanding a match." As a remarkably unqualified teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sedaris had his class watch soap operas and assign "guessays" on what would happen in the next day's episode. It all adds up to the most distinctively skewed autobiography since Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia. The only possible reason not to read this book is if you'd rather hear the author's intrinsically funny speaking voice narrating his story. In that case, get Me Talk Pretty One Day on audio. --Tim Appelo
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Customer Reviews
Didn't live up to the hype
After all the amazing reviews I heard about this book, I maybe laughed out loud twice. I didn't find anything cutting edge about his humor, it was predictable and often downright boring.
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Loved it!
I bought this book for one of my Writing Arts classes and I had never heard of David Sedaris. I thought the book was awesome, very funny, and worth the money. I would definitely recommend it to others!
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Good, but I was looking for more detail on his drug addiction years
This was a great book, but I've been looking for something that stacks up to Burrough's Dry. I loved this collection of essays that took on a biography like feel. He left me hanging on to my seat wanting more, but kept me interested all-the-while. I would recommend this book, but the library may be the best place to get this one because you will be done with it in a couple of hours. Having been my first Sedaris book, I look forward to a couple more.
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Dull
A collection of autobiographical essays by Sedaris which appeared in different magazines before being collected here. Neither funny, nor witty, this makes for very light and insipid reading. I'd rather read Donald E. Westlake or Dave Barry for my humour supply.
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Still the One
By far my favorite of all his books. Dress Your Family in Corduroy comes in second and Naked comes in third. His new one with the skeleton on the cover didn't impress. His dry wit and sarcasm make me laugh out loud. He is able to instill humor in the most disturbing circumstances and that's what makes him uniquely David Sedaris.
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