Rating: 
Summary: pleasant surprise
Review: I knew nothing of Sedaris when I picked this one up, it just
looked interesting. I laughed out loud from cover to cover.
The New York stories nearly killed me, and the tangents his
imagination rides off on are scarily familiar and hilarious.
One of the best books I've read in a long time. Sherman Alexie's work got me interested in the short story arena, and Sedaris showed me another side of it that was equally enticing.
I promptly went out and read his other works and am looking forward to more.
Rating: 
Summary: Sedaris is a genius, no matter what he says...
Review: I have recently discovered David Sedaris and I am all ready a huge fan. However, he is even funnier when you LISTEN to him read. I strongly recommend that you buy the Audio CD of his work if you can. The version I have of Me Talk Pretty One Day is ABRIDGED. I do not know if they make an unabridged version. It is missing the story Big Boy, which is many people's favorite. On the other hand, there are bonus tracks from Sedaris live that are VERY funny and not available anywhere else.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasure to Read
Review: David Sedaris is one of the funniest writers I've read in a long time. This was a great treat. The part about learning French had me rolling on the floor. This summer has been fun reading books like this. I also recommend "Delano" by John Orozco and "Stupid White Men," by Michael Moore.
Rating:
Summary: Me laugh hard all day
Review: The pieces gathered in this collection of humorist David Sedaris's writings are all interesting, insightful (into the human condition), and funny. But behind the humor, I suspect, is a deep well of pain. Sedaris is a gay author who writes about things other than being gay; and when he writes of his own homosexuality, it is always without any fanfare. In fact, the unifying theme of these stories seems to be the pain of being "odd" or an outsider. In some cases, Sedaris's outsider status can be clearly linked to his being gay (as in the opening story, "Go Carolina," which describes the ordeal of being one of several sensitive boys in his school who is singled out for speech therapy for their lisps and effeminate speaking patterns). Elsewhere, his outsider status is due to being a northerner who moved to North Carolina, or an American who spends summers in France. On top of this, just being a member of his family seems to automatically qualify him for instant alien and mutant status. In fact, because of this many of his stories reminded me of souped up (some may say "vulgarized") versions of James Thurber's classic stories of his eccentric Ohio relatives. In fact, one story about his struggle to give up drinking, "The Late Show," reminded me of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." As Sedaris struggles to make it through painful nights of insomnia he fashions a variety of outlandish identities for himself. While exagerated humor is a constant in Sedaris's stories, there is always something else present just below the surface that almost anyone can identify with. In flaunting his eccentricities and outsider status, Sedaris has presented himself as a universal type, a true everyman.
Rating:
Summary: Just a great read
Review: 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' is my first exposure to the work of David Sedaris, and it will surely not be my last. It's a book which is consistently humorous throughout, and at times devastatingly accurate in it's assassination of character flaws, delusions of grandeur, and idiocy in general - quite often of which is the authors own.
The magic of Sedaris' writing, is, that while he can make light of normally heart-breaking subjects like drug addiction or the death of his mother, it's only when he describes his ordeal of trying to flush a 'big-boy' - (not his own), that you begin to feel sympathetic. He treats everything with the same level of amusement without going over the top. Some writers of humour are extremely witty and insightful but they don't really make you laugh. Sedaris is one of few that has the gift of inciting genuine laughter without seemingly trying too hard - and for that he has my full endorsement. Keep 'em coming David.
Rating:
Summary: A riot
Review: I had heard Sedaris on public radio & seeing this in a bookstore in Napa, I bought it. I read it on public transortation & that was a mistake. I laughted out loud and I missed & nearly missed several stops. It's a very engaging book of autobiographical stories. Sedaris lived for a while in France and the title story is a self-deprecating look at his efforts to learn French. I highly recommend this. It's delightful.
Rating:
Summary: A Funny and Entertaining Read
Review: This is the first David Sedaris book I've read, and now I plan to read them all! There were a few stories that made me laugh out loud like "You Can't Kil te Rooster" and "A Shiner Like a Diamond". The other stories were very entertaining and witty. It's an excellent light read, and I highly recommend it!!
Rating:
Summary: He's scrawny but he kicks ... (and takes names--in French!)
Review: David Sedaris is deeply funny. You laugh loudly (nay! guffaw--with unappealing horse-like overtones if you're like me) when you read it, sure.
But you laugh months or even years later because it was just so true and dead-on and so exquisitely phrased and also pleasantly perverse that you just can't forget it.
His humor burrows its way (pardon the vaguely disturbing rodent metaphor here) into your psyche and you're funnier just for having read it. AT least, I think I am....
Rating:
Summary: Me laugh pretty one day
Review: David Sedaris is a comical genius! His books of essasys 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' is one of the funniest things I've ever read. And not only is it funny, but it is also very witty. His text is so good that you don't want to put it down, because you know that in the next page there will be more laughing coming for you. Moreover, his comments about life, family and being a foreigner are very pertinent and never silly. There 'characters' --real life people who are related to Sedaris-- are so good that you may believe they were made up, but on the other hand, we know that there are every kind of people around, so the people in the book they do exist. My favorites are his sister Amy, Bonnie(this woman deserves a whole book about her!!), his brother Paul, aka The Rooster (and believe me You Can't Kill the Rooster!). I believe that all these people should be flatered on being in Sedaris's book, because he writes about them with such a passion, that even when he is making fun of them it is impossible to be angry with him. It is hard to choose one favorite essay because they are all so good, but there are a couple of them that can be pointed out as even better. My favorites are 'Picka Pocketoni' (you have to read to find out what it is!), Go Carolina, The Learning Curve, The City of Light in the Dark and Jesus Shaves. But above all, the essay title Me Talk Pretty One Day is close to perfection. Anyone who has taken a single class of a foreigner language will easily identify him/herself to the story. Everything is there: the student who can understand everything but the most important word in the sentence and is afraid of having to talk, the native teacher to whom everything is obvious, the student who knows 'everything' and is only taking classes to polish his/her language --but, as a matter of fact he/she wants to snob the other ones who know less than him/her-- etc. My suggestion is: after a hard day, find a confortable armchair, open this book, and have non-stop laughs. And if you read this book and don't laugh, please, go to the doctor, you must have serious problems. Enjoy it! And Congratulations, Sedaris. I'm looking forward to reading more of his writings.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, but not Uber Funny
Review: This book is funny; however I definitely have read things far more comedic. I like the short story format, and some of the stories are great - however I did not read the first book, Naked, so perhaps I am slightly out of the loop. Despite the fact it isn't supremely funny there are some laugh out loud moments that make the book certainly worth you while.
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