classics

"Oh, please, please do not put my parrot in your movie,
but if we are included will you have me played as fat?" implores Lisa to her brother, David Sedaris. Thus goes the life of David Sedaris in his new book "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim".

David Sedaris most often known for the stories he portrays on NPR's "This American Life" is a prolific writer and story teller.
We laugh out loud at some of his antics or those he causes. In this new book, some of the stories have been heard before on NPR or in his CD or read in the "New Yorker" Some of the stories are gross- like his younger brother's wedding night where he shows David how he gets his larger bull dog to eat the smaller dog's poop. Yuckadew!

Most of the stories are not ones I can really relate to, but I can understand. The chapter that focuses on Holland's Christmas night with Santa and the 7 or 8 black men ( no one really knows whether it is 7 or 8 black men who accompany Santa) is hilarious and one of the funniest stories in the book. David takes us to Paris where he and his roommate are looking for a new apartment. The one they have is beautiful, but the landlord cannot sell it to them, can only lease it for 26 years until his daughters are old enough to inhabit it. Or, the time his father kicked him out of the house. David thought it was because he slept all day, smoked pot all night and listened to one record over and over. But in reality it was for another reason that David was asked to leave. David brings us to Boston to visit his sister. She is a baker and lives in a house in Somerville. She has become by way of a rickshaw a deadbeat, a hippie, a collector of "things". David's job is to clean the house although sister wants no part of that- it is David's obsessive cleaning behavior that makes him do it. One of the more outrageous stories takes place when he has a job as a house cleaner. David was mistakenly called instead of an S&M cleaning outfit.

On and on, David portrays himself and his family as a little loony, a little too obsessive. But, this is David's perspective and his writing style pulls you in. Mom seems to me to be the one that held the family together and as strange and funny as she is, I like her a lot. She kicks the kids out of the house on a snowy winter vacation day. They end up playing in the street, and she comes to rescue them as if nothing unusual has happened. She can cry, she can yell, and we see where the family might get their interesting personalites! She always wanted grandchildren and one of the stories centers on which child will have the first baby,and by gosh it does happen!

I left the strangest story for last because it takes place in New Hampshire. It centers on a small hotel with few amenities and David carrying coffee with a small child to........

I love David Sedaris and his writing. I buy his books eagerly and am not disappointed. This one is a doozy and will entertain you for hours. prisrob

First off, I'm a fan. I joined Audible just to get the This American Life episodes Sedaris stars in, went to see him read at my local theatre, have all his books and consider Me Talk Pretty One Day to be one of the funniest collections of stories on self-loathing and misanthropy ever committed to paper. Suffice to say, I've been looking forward to this book for a fair while...

Almost every story here will make you laugh in some way. And if you're particularly susceptible to black humour, some will make you choke on your food. Here I'm thinking, among others, of the story where he's house hunting in Europe and finds the perfect location for him and his partner- the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. His family, as usual, comes in for some of the harshest scrutiny and makes for hilarious subject matter though there's a section on how they have all become more guarded, only too aware that their smallest action could prove to be fodder for a new best-selling novel. Somehow his love for them still shines through.

Still a great book, and I'd give it 4 and a half if Amazon could deal with non-integers, but it's not quite as good as Me Talk Pretty. The observations and anecdotes have not quite gelled together in the same way; they are a little episodic in nature and some stories feel forced in trying to contain the disparate elements within one theme; like he has a whole notebook full of entries and has tried to shoehorn them in where they don't necessarily fit. Something that, from a comedic angle, makes not an iota of difference, but does detract from the book's stylistic whole.

I get the feeling that with a little more rumination some of the stories could have been even funnier still. But then I'd have had to wait longer to read this, and the instant-gratification-seeking now ingrained in me from 4 years living in the US means that's not an option. If you're new to Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day is the place to start, but long-term fans will not be disappointed with Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.

Once again Author David Sedaris writes a fantastic memoir!! Done is such away as to be canny and witty. Excellent! Also recommended: Running with Scissors, Me talk Pretty One day,Nightmares Echo, She's Come Undone