Naked / Cd Abridged

Rating:
Summary: Favorite
Review: This is my favorite Sedaris memoir. I love everything he's written practically across the board, and I know I sound like a suck-up, but it's true. He amazes me with his ability to have me screaming with laughter (no, I am not nuts) one minute and the next chapter have me choking up.

Rating:
Summary: Wicked Funny!
Review: Sedaris writes in a way that is both amusing and poignant, but never self-pitying. His mother, who sounds to me like the best mother of all time, downplayed his rituals and odd behaviour and managed to make him feel much better about himself, to the point of helping him to enjoy her stories about his tics.

All of the stories in this volume contain funny bits, but not all are uniformly hilarious. His tales of being on the road , hitch-hiking to Oregon, working there, and his run-ins with the local crazies are all quite dark, and I found them a little frightening. Sedaris seems to have had a self-destructive period, but even this is chronicled in his usual self-deprecating manner.

I found some of the stories to be particularly heart-wrenching, even while laughing hysterically ("Never mind," my by now disgusted thirteen year old would say. "It's just Mama reading her book about underpants again"). The chapter called,"I Like Guys" was like this. Being a teenager isn't easy for anyone, and Sedaris, who apparently had to come to terms with his own sexuality while enduring a summer camp with other teens at the same time, didn't fare as well as most, quite predictably.

All in all, I do recommend this book, although some people will probably not like his way of laughing through tears at topics such as being handicapped, mental illness, segregation, homosexuality and OCD. It seems that dry, humourless people can be found anywhere. However, even the most easily offended ought to be in stitches after reading the title story, 'naked'. Suffice it to say that Sedaris, who calls a nudist colony in order to get a brochure with which to annoy his brother, becomes quite taken with the idea of making a visit in order to become comfortable with being, you guessed it, naked. Hilarity ensues for the next forty pages, as usual viewed through Sedaris's sharply focused lens of humour and pathos.

Buy this book. Read it, and then put it in a nice safe place on your shelf. That way, when the weather is nasty, or your checkbook is overdrawn, or the new puppy has done what all new puppies do for the hundredth time in one day, you can take it out, reread a chapter, and realize that your life isn't so bad. Things could be worse, after all: you could be David Sedaris, interviewing residents of that nudist colony about the naked chocolate pudding toss. Think of Sedaris as medication, to be taken in daily doses. In addition to Naked, I'd like to recommend The Losers Club by Richard Perez - also very funny!


Rating:
Summary: A character for everyone
Review: My worst regret about reading this book is the guilt I feel for not having written down every person I have ever encountered, detail by detail.

Because that is exactly what David Sedaris does in Naked, a collection of short stories that exposes the underbelly of his childhood, youth and college years with a lot of family in between. The title of the book is an apt description of the workings of each story; while some details are salty and shocking, Sedaris' honest voice remains soothing and comic. The reader explores Sedaris' struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder, his mother's biting wit and his father's paranoia.

Sedaris should consider himself lucky as a writer to have the ethnic backdrop of his life. The anecdotes are endless, as Sedaris recounts his misery at a summer camp in Greece and his strange Greek grandmother with a suicidal goldfish and a penchant for steamed greens and ironed dollar bills. Sedaris also chronicles his family's adventures at the neighborhood Greek Orthodox Church.

Sedaris also brings to light his homosexuality through various short stories about his childhood. He recalls having feelings for a bunkmate at summer camp in Greece, aptly titled, "I like guys." He hilariously describes his teachers' open racism and homophobia, and the confusion he felt during high school as his classmates excelled at sports and courted girlfriends.

Sedaris' parents are truly the highlight of the book. His mother, an alcoholic, chain-smoking woman with little patience and a lot of sass adds priceless dialogue and humor. Sedaris' father, a paranoid, Greek golfer who cannot seem to connect to his children also adds depth to the long list of characters.

Sedaris is a master of words, and the language of the book is rich in wit and description. Sedaris describes to perfection what few can only hope to explain, and he does it for everyday people. When describing the racist comments of his Spanish teacher, Sedaris says, "She paused, positioning herself on the edge of the desk as though she were posing for a portrait the federal government might use on a stamp commemorating gallantry" (82).

Some of Sedaris' stories are edgy, such as "Next of kin," in which Sedaris tells about when he found a book of literary pornography in the woods. His sisters end up reading it, and by the end of the story the whole family has read it and Sedaris has recounted an extremely odd part of humanity.

I am jealous of Sedaris because he remembers. He remembers details, movements, smells about people that just pass most of us by without a thought. And he creates a story, his story. Through his pain he laughs, and his book is a near perfect tribute to family and growing up.




Rating:
Summary: Very Funny, Could not put it down
Review: David Sedaris gives us a very revealing look at his flawed dysfunctional life in a way that has you laughing.Never having a "Woe is me" attitude, Sedaris arm chair quaterbacks a lot of his decisions with hilarious observations. He comes across as a likeable but flawed guy, not really sure of where or if he fits in. He never takes himself, or anything else too seriously.It makes you realize that life is never as bad as you think, or as good.I will definately buy the other books by him.

Rating:
Summary: Nice...Not thrilling, but nice
Review: Not as good as "Me Talk Pretty One Day", but still definitely worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Naked Riot
Review:
Summary:
The book is a collection of short stories, most of which I believe are based on the author's actual experiences. Most of the stories are about his family and growing up, but the final story, Naked, is about his experience going to a nudist colony/resort.

My Comments:
All of the stories are well-written, engaging, and entertaining. As is the case with 'Holidays On Ice', the author never reveals when a story is fictitious or not, but I was inclined to believe most of these were non-fiction (though there might be an embellishment here or there).

I was impressed by the author's candor about his personal life. To be willing to reveal one's quirks and even poke fun at them takes either a lot of money or a lot of self-security. I'm not sure which is Sedaris's motivation, but whatever it is, it's nice to hear someone being frank about life.

Though the stories jump all over the place and don't really seem to have a common thread, I don't think anyone can argue that Sedaris has a gift for telling poignant and humorous short stories. The stories are a bit outlandish and the author is blunt, meaning they probably aren't for everyone, but I would definitely recommend this book. Don't Miss it! Another Amazon quick-pick I recommend is The Losers Club by Richard Perez.