Rating: 
Summary: A bit disappointing
Review: After breezing through Sedaris' previous three books -- all of which had me laughing out loud -- I found this fourth entry in his collection to be a bit of a non-starter. The second half of his essays, in which he details his experience as an ex-pat living with his boyfriend in France, whizzes by with typically sardonic Sedaris wit. But the first half felt stunted, tired, and a bit...dare I say it? Unfunny. I guess I expected a bit more. The droll humor didn't quite do it for me.
Rating: 
Summary: A Nice addition to my Sedaris Collection...
Review: I am a Hard core Sedaris Fan. I have the books, the books read by author on tape and if the man is in New England, we travel to see him.Like many others, NPR and Ira Glass were my first conduit into the world of Sedaris. My personal treat about this book is that I was able to see the Author doing a Public Radio support tour, where he was reading many stories from this still to be published at the time book. He tried out some different versions of these edited stories and made no bones about the fact that he was trying these out on us to gauge their effect. His writing style is at times a bit uneven, but much more personal in this book than in the previous books. I did not find every story "Laugh out loud" funny, but I don't think that Sedaris has ever framed himself as a comedian. He's just a guy who fights Obsessive Compulsive disorder who grew up in an odd American Family - likes bizarre knick knacks and happens to be a gay man, with a tremedous talent for crafting words and phrases. Plus, once you hear his voice, you will never again read anything of his without hearing that reedy, oddly pitched voice humming away.
Rating: 
Summary: The laughter nearly burst me
Review: I picked up this book right before a flight, and I spent the entire flight scaring the guy next to me, what with all my shaking, squeaking, and tears flowing from my eyes. I wanted to out-and-out guffaw, but I thought that a bit much in such a cramped space. First of all, I've seen the reviews here of people bitching that he doesn't really talk about Paris much. I beg pardon? Have you =heard= David Sedaris before? Did you think he wrote travelogues? Sedaris is a humorous, sardonic essayist, and almost all his essays are autobiographical. What do I mean almost, =all= of them are autobiographical. This book follows David from his childhood in Raleigh, to Chicago & New York (&somewhere else I can't remember, all I know is it involved hitchhiking), and then finally his escape to France, where he finds three French teens lying in the road in front of his house, supposedly waiting for Madonna to drop by to visit him (ha.) Many of these essays have been published in magazines like Esquire, and some form of most of these have also been heard on the public radio show "This American Life". He really knows how to exploit his material, and I admire him for that. Do =not= buy this to learn deep insights into the human soul, for crying out loud, do =not= buy this to be inspired, and unless you're an idiot, do =not= buy this to find out what living in France is like for an American. Buy this because you want to laugh uncontrollably, buy this because you like reading about people who have very strange lives, and buy this to see how writing should be done.
Rating:
Summary: Funny Read
Review: This book cracked me up. I bought it for a few of my friends... He is very synical, but VERY funny! I would read it again...
Rating:
Summary: Sedaris writes Funny but Repetitive
Review: I recently read "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Naked" (both by David Sedaris). Sedaris' style is very funny, tongue in cheek though some of the humor is extremely subtle. Anyone with a dry sense of humor will enjoy this, and gay men who can relate to the vignettes about growing up different will find it especially familiar. The later chapters of each book seem to have a sitcom-esque quality to them, though. The chapters seem to end where they began, as if they could be read in any order. Despite the subtlety of the humor, the comedy seems dull and repetitive by the end of the book. ...
Rating:
Summary: Funny but not my favorite Sedaris collection.....
Review: ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY is another collection featuring David Sedaris' especially mordant and hilarious sense of humor. He muses on the most ordinary events, but gives us a unique perspective. My two favorite stories concern his childhood guitar lessons and his sojourn with his French boyfriend renovating a house in the French countryside. While reading David Sedaris is entertaining in itself, nothing compares to HEARING him tell his stories on audiotape or CD. His humor comes through so much more vividly through his voice and not the printed word. Do yourself a favor and pick up an audio copy even if you've read the book. The experience is greatly enhanced. I know because I first encountered his work from listening to the audio version of NAKED, which is to this day my absolute Sedaris favorite!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing On Several Counts
Review: I bought this book because I wanted to get an overview of contemporary Paris and the title came up when I searched for something on that subject. Reading this to learn about Paris is like reading War and Peace to learn about military uniforms. There isn't much and what there is is trivial at best. Beyond that, Sedaris is a Dave Barry wannabe with anecdotes that may stimulate laughter in conversation but usually "clunk" in writing. His chapter about his brother "Rooster" who has a twenty word vocabulary, almost entirely profane, is painful, even to this six year army veteran from a "line" company.
Rating:
Summary: It's Not Naked
Review: David had a brilliantly funny one with Naked, I laughed, I loved. But I was disappointed with Me Talk Pretty One Day, the reviews hyped it up to be this extraordinary passage of life abroad, but it took forever to get abroad. It was not as funny as Naked and I expected way too much.
Rating:
Summary: Humanity as seen through slightly jaundiced eyes
Review: David Sedaris is a humorist who writes essays on the human condition - his specifically and in general. He strikes me as a curmudgeon-in-training, who, after further aging, will qualify for the closing act on a very popular and long running TV newsmagazine broadcast on Sunday evenings. ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY is a series of 28 essays spanning the author's childhood to the present. The book's title is also that of one of the chapters, in which he relates the experience of learning French in Paris under the tutelage of a xenophobic Frenchwoman whose style relies heavily on the liberal application of humiliation and abuse. Most of the essays succeeded at making me laugh - certainly not in guffaws, but at least amused snorts. A few didn't. The subjects of some of the more successful included: being mistaken for a local pickpocket on the Paris Métro by two American tourists, describing American idiosyncrasies as perceived by foreigners, doing New York Times crossword puzzles, describing the concept of Easter to a Muslim, and showing two friends from North Carolina around New York City. For me, the funniest selection was "Big Boy", which, unfortunately, was pure bathroom humor that can't be described here. (Hey, I never claimed to have elevated tastes!) David's brand of raillery won't appeal to everyone. While always perceptive, it often is, like Mark Twain's, tongue-in-cheek. The following three examples will serve to illustrate. They concern, respectively: American nouveau cuisine, speaking "French" in France, and politically correct water conservation. "The patty melt has been pushed aside in favor of the herb-encrusted medallions of baby artichoke hearts, which never leave me thinking, Oh, right, those! I wonder if they're as good as the ones my mom used to make." "The second, less complicated form of French amounts to screaming English at the top of your lungs, much the same way you'd shout at a deaf person or the dog you thought you could train to stay off the sofa... Easy French is rooted in the premise that, if properly packed, the rest of the world could fit within the confines of Reno, Nevada." "The card (in the hotel bathroom) reported the amount of water used every year in hotel laundry rooms and suggested that, in having my sheets and towels changed on a daily basis, I was taking this precious water directly from the cupped hands of a dehydrated child. I noticed there was no similar plea encouraging me to conserve the hot water that came with my fifteen-dollar pot of room-service tea, but that apparently was a different kind of water." You know, I like this guy.
Rating:
Summary: A Laugh and a Tear
Review: As with almost everything Sedaris writes, each of the autobiographical stories in One Day Me Talk Pretty will cause you to laugh out loud, but one story in particular will cause you to go from laughter to tears. "The Youth in Asia" is one of the most touching stories I have read in years. Sedaris writes about his family's pets -- how attached they got to them, how they treated them like humans and how sad they were to see them go. Sedaris uses delightful descriptions of the cats and dogs who shared his family life to capture the subject matter perfectly. As I began reading this story, enjoying Sedaris' usual humor, I was not prepared for how this story would affect me for some time after I read it. I highly recommend this book. Read "The Youth in Asia" first!
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