Selected Product:
| Me Talk Pretty One Day
Paperback
Author: David Sedaris
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Release Date: 2001-06-05
ISBN-10: 0316776963
ISBN-13: 9780316776967
List Price: $14.99
Average Customer Rating:
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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
ISBN-10: 0375725784
ISBN-13: 9780375725784
List Price:$14.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
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
Dull
| Customer Rating: | | 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. |
Still the One
| Customer Rating: | | 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. |
Laugh Out Loud Funny & Great Insight Into Life
| Customer Rating: | | This is the first Sedaris book I've read and I want to read all his others ASAP. I literally laughed out loud through many of the autobiographical essays. While reading at a hotel pool on vacation, I had to get up and move away from all the other people, so I wouldn't disturb them with my uncontrollable laughter. Sedaris' "worldview" is quirky but accurate. His life experiences are often eccentric. This book is a masterpiece of its genre, whatever genre that might be. Maybe Sedaris has invented a new genre --humor/philosophy/autobiography/eccentricity. |
One of the best books I've read in a long time
| Customer Rating: | | This book is laugh out loud funny. It got me through a long day of air traveling. Me Talk Pretty One Day is almost like a collection of short stories put together in one book because it doesn't follow the beginning-middle-end format. Each chapter is more or less a chapter in David's life. Either way, the things written in this book will make you loud so laugh others will stare and ask what's in it. I read it in one day, and might read it again if I need a good laugh. |
Me Talk Pretty...
| Customer Rating: | | I've read most of David Sedaris' books and this is my favorite. I bought this one because I loaned my first copy out and can't remember who has it. I'll happily read it again and laugh. |
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