Me Talk Pretty One Day

Rating:
Summary: Moderation
Review: Me Talk Pretty One Day was my initiation into the quirky and warped world of David Sedaris, and after the first few pages I knew I would like it there. This was a guy who tried to construct a vocabulary without using the letter "s" so that he could mask his lisp. As a child, he hilariously tells us, his midget guitar teacher had a voice like a recording played back too fast and he taught his students to love their guitars by suggesting they imagine them as a "stacked" woman. And that's just in the first two (short) chapters.

But suddenly, the same sharp commentary that had me laughing out loud in public a few chapters earlier started to seem predictable, and the sarcastic wit I identified with early on had somehow eroded into a grating kind of pessimism.

Fortunately, I put the book aside and read something else for a few days. When I picked it up again, it again seemed fresh and bitingly comical. And then I realized what I now think is essential to enjoying Mr. Sedaris' work: it needs to small bites in order to be digested correctly.

So I end up with three stars -- an average between the two stars I would give it had I read the book straight through and the four I think it deserves when it comes in drips and drabs. I can't agree with my fellow reviewers who consider Mr. Sedaris a modern day Mark Twain or P.G. Wodehouse, but he is pretty damn funny. Just remember, like most things, the key is moderation.

Rating:
Summary: Milk-through-the-nose funny, and yet often poignant
Review: Sedaris has a real gift for language. Although according to the book, that langauge is decidedly not french.

The tales that comprise the first half of the book relate his childhood and family - they're the sort of absurd family everyone has but never really talks about. They're an odd bunch, and Sedaris truly manages to make them seem larger-than-life even though you know deep-down they're no stranger than anyone else's clan. Particularly howl-inducing is the story of his youngest brother, who has mystifyingly deisgnated himself "the Rooster" and is about as far at-odds with the rest of the family as could possibly be. And yet, between the Rooster's foul language and rough manners, the sense of kinship between him and the clan's detatched patriarch si definitley conveyed in a heartfelt and stupifyingly funny manner.

Also notable is the vignette "12 Moments in the Life of the Artist" which self-deprecatingly plays on Sedaris's own artistic pretension and relates his daliances with art school, sculpting, methamphetamines and most terrifyingly conceptual and performance art. An absolutely brilliant piece, he manages to skewer the whole performance art movement as well as his own silly notions of the artist lifestyle in one fell swoop.

The second half of the book details his life in France and his struggles with the language. While slightly less emotionally attached than the first half of the book, it is often even funnier, with the ridiculous mangling of the french langauge, the odd things he learns to say (he studies medical french for fun), the aggressive and verbally abusive french teacher, and the difficulties with noun gender.

I've read this book a dozen times already and never does it fail to send me into fits. Definitely one of my all-time favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Sedaris is such a master storyteller with his amazing ability to have the reader weeping and laughing from one sentence to the next sometimes. His stories relating his childhood are on one hand painfully real and hilarious. He spares no embarassment for the sake of the story, thank goodness. ;o)

Rating:
Summary: Me Talk FUNNY One Day! (And You'll laugh, too)
Review: Sedaris, in another collection of autobiographical essays, showcases his wit and dares to be as politically incorrect and offensive while still maintaining a strong pull at the heartstrings of the reader. This is a book to read on those days when you just think your life couldn't get any weirder- and you will thank Sedaris for demonstrating how relatively normal your life is.

Part One of this book is a collection of autobiographical essays from various times in his life, including a hysterical essay about teaching a writing class entitled "The Learning Curve," as well as the essay entitled "The Youth in Asia" about his family's pets, which is all at once laugh-out-loud funny, and oddly touching and thought-provoking. This is a pattern one will find in Sedaris's writing. He falls in the same category as Kurt Vonnegut was labeled: a Zany satirist with a heart. And indeed, he has a heart, strange and twisted, but still lovable. Through his misadventures, tales of a grandmother who he couldn't stand and being glad of her passing, and tales of weeping at the death of a cat ("she was never really fond of the outdoors, so I sprinkled her ashes on the carpet and vacuumed them up,") we gain a particular insight into our own social dysfunctionalities while laughing at another person's.

Part Deux (part TWO, for those of you less inclined towards the French language) is about Sedaris's (mis?)adventures in France with his partner. Sedaris takes a stab at religion, the Easter Bunny and French Easter traditions all in one swipe in the essay "Jesus Shaves," while providing a touching and serious explanation of the importance of faith. In his typical style, however, he pins onto the end of this touching monologue the phrase "that's just f*cked up" as a mischievous punchline. In this section of the book, we also follow him on adventures with the concept of masculine and feminine vowels in French, and how he avoids this conflict by referring to everything in the plural. ("Hugh may be annoyed by the two turkeys in the freezer, but wait until he sees the CD players I got him for his birthday.")

This collection of essays will consistently make you laugh, while maintaining a strong emotional connection to your own life: In this book one can glimpse elements of their own predicaments and faults, while laughing over how much stranger Sedaris's are. For all the authors that strive to make their everyday characters able to relate to everyday persons, Sedaris makes the reader able to relate to himself through the insane exaggerations and misadventures that we all like to think we have. Me Talk Pretty One Day is a great book! Don't Miss it! Another Amazon quick-pick I recommend is The Losers Club by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: This book was the funniest I've read in years! In fact, I actually laughed out loud for several minutes quite a few times. What made it so good for me was I could really relate to his family and their quirks, having grown up in dysfunction myself. Although, some things in the book touch on difficult subjects it never gets too dark, only more humorous. The chapter Big Boy was one I still think about and chuckle, but my favorite parts of the book involved his sister Amy and brother "Rooster".

I feel sorry for people who gave this book negative reviews based on their homophobia. I can understand some being squeamish about the subject, and I don't judge them for that, but Sedaris never gets explicit. I don't get in this day and age the outrage over an author mentioning their boyfriend or dealing with prejudicial remarks while growing up which is the extent of the homosexuality in this book.

I wish there were more books as hysterical as this one. I recommend it for everyone with a sense of humor and an open mind.

Rating:
Summary: Uhh, why the hype?
Review: This is a compilation of about 200 Andy Rooney 60 Minutes essays, just that Andy Rooney is funnier and more interesting.

There is no story here, just the author ranting and raving about his life, which to me, doesn't make a book interesting or enjoyable. I can complain about my own life. Why should we care about Sedarris complaining? Amusing, but once you are done, it will leave you mind forever.