Me Talk Pretty One Day

Summary (from the publisher): 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

Review: David Sedaris presents a collection of short and witty essays in which he pokes fun at everyone and everything, especially himself. I enjoy anyone with the confidence to indulge in self-deprecating humor, and was able to connect with many of Sedaris' annoyances and insights, although I couldn't help but think some of his stories are gross exaggerations.

My one complaint with this book was a lack of flow. Many of the stories were published elsewhere before they were bound together in this book so characters are introduced without explanation, only to appear in later sections with an explanation attached. Some editing and alterations could have helped give this collection a more cohesive flow.

In all, I would certainly recommend this novel which had me laughing aloud at several points. I think it's incredibly difficult to convey humor through the written word compared to visual humor, and it speaks to Sedaris' skills as a writer that he could provoke laughs.

Stars: 4