Rating: 
Summary: well-written and funny
Review: Summary:
The book is a collection of short stories, all of which I believe are based on the author's actual experiences. Some of the stories are about Sedaris's childhood and his life just before leaving for France, but the majority about his time spent in France. 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 that all of these were non-fiction (though there might be an embellishment here or there). I'm also not sure what, if anything, I missed because I listened to this book on CD, but the live recordings for some reason were even more funny than his normal writings. Listening to them live is definitely a boon for the CD version. 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Great collection of essays
Review: This is my second David Sedaris book, and after the mixed feelings I have regarding Barrel Fever I can say this is much better overall. Sedaris describes, through vaguely connected essays, his own often difficult battle with communication, and the insights he gains are painfully funny. A bit like an autobiography, "Me Talk" is layered throughout with Sedaris' bits of wisdom and wit, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't find myself rolling in the floor with laughter except on a few occasions, but the book as a whole is a good look at the difficulty we all have on occasion to say what we really mean, or let people know what we're thinking. The parts about Sedaris' efforts to learn French and justifiably cited as the funniest parts, but I also enjoyed the essay dealing with his stint as a college teacher, assigning writing projects on soap operas. This is a good introduction to Sedaris, and I recommend it highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Really not that funny
Review: I'm not without humour however, I do know humour. This book simply leaves something to be desired. Its not terrible but more importantly, its not that great. It has been touted as laugh out loud funny, but it lacks the ability to, in most places, crack a smile. Don't waste your time or prepare yourself for a dissapointment. If you lower your expectations then you can be better prepared for "laugh inside, without smiling" funny.
Rating:
Summary: Forget Your Troubles -- And LAUGH!
Review: I purchased "Me Talk Pretty One Day" recently from Amazon and I'm glad that I did. I really needed this book when I got it, as I'd been stressing out over finding a job and a place to live for the past few months. The crappy economy has taken a toll on my patience and my otherwise positive outlook on life. But when I opened up this book and started reading one day, I was fully absorbed into the stories, forgetting my worries. Sedaris starts with a description of his fifth grade speech therapy lessons for a lisp he couldn't seem to shake. Observations about himself, the therapist, the other kids, and the various ridiculous notions that entered his mind abound, right from the start, and persist right through to the end of the book, describing his adult life in Paris. It's his unique perspective that really turns the stories into something worth reading. From the first chapter on, he introduces readers to his father, mother, sisters, and brother, each with their own unique characteristics, but managing to share that kookiness gene that seems to have run in the family. You will read about his experiences at college, and at attempting to make a living by creating contemporary artwork, and later becoming a creative writing teacher, a personal assistant, and a mover. You will learn of his travels from New York, to Raleigh, to Chicago, back to New York, and finally to Paris. The entire second half of the book focuses on his French adventures, adding another layer of perspective as he finds himself in completely different surroundings. I am not a particularly avid reader, but I'd quickly read through the entire book in just a few days - simply because it was so fun to read, that I couldn't put it down. I'd found myself reading chapters at a time, staying up late at night to read just one more story. Aside from Me Talk Pretty One Day, let me tell you about two other Amazon purchases I liked, Barrel Fever by Sedaris, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez. Like I said, I don't read as much as I should, but I enjoyed these books a whole lot. Happy Holidays everyone -- let's look forward to a great new year!
Rating:
Summary: Funny, acid, and loving
Review: I haven't read something this funny in recent memory. Through all the essays in the book, Sedaris talks about his world from a completely outside view, like he's been stuck here in a vaguely mean-spirited joke. He does this in the first part of the book explaining the equally bizzare worlds of his education, his family and his art. In the second half of the book, telling the story of living in France, the outsider-ness is magnified. It is hysterical. Any time he tries to explain Americans, he does with this strange combination of ownership and disdain. Sort of like someone telling stories about the family screw-up. It's no problem for one of them to call Uncle Joe a loser, but heavan forbid one of us does. In aspects like that, its clear he's not writing comedy exactly. He's got some warmth for his subjects, some love for it all. And he's trying to figure himself out, trying to make sense of everything. I think its that aspect, the solidity of his observations, that makes this a really interesting book. Which is not to say I wasn't laughing out loud, tears in my eyes reading about the Pickapocketioni on the Paris Metro.
Rating:
Summary: A Hilarious, laugh-out-loud book
Review: I listened to this book on tape, read by the author. I really enjoyed his humor. Sedaris makes observations about his life and laughs at himself and his family. He doesn't take anything too seriously and is usually the subject of his own jokes. It was a treat listening to him, because he does accents and imitations quite well, but I think this book would be just as funny if I had read it. A good portion of the book focuses on his time in France. His tales of trying to learn and speak French are too funny. It is hard to explain why this book is so funny, but it definitely is.
Rating:
Summary: A Complex World and A Lot of Perspective
Review: What makes the work itself so intriguing is its affinity for authenticity. His first essay details the ridiculous obsessions of his father with hiding and eating rotted food as if it were his life treasure. In all of his essays, there remains something original or personal from the author's life and it is far from boring or long, but simply witty and astounding.
David Sedaris, the character, is the focus of the book - as he explains in great detail the most memorable episodes of his life, whether it is embarrassing, funny, absurd, or deeply personal. It remains clear throughout the entire book Sedaris examines moments, events, and language as though he was a shrink. A lot of writers fail due to their inability to recognize their own bias, but where other writers fail - Sedaris is successful. He recognizes his personal bias in numerous stories, and surprisingly makes a mockery, or perhaps a joke, out of it. Take for instance, his seemingly shrewd personal indictment of the ever-growing technological era of computers. "I hate computers for any number of reasons, but I despise them most for what they've done to my friend the typewriter. In a democratic country you'd think there would be room for both of them, but computers won't rest until I'm making my ribbons from torn shirts and brewing Wite-Out in my bathtub. Their goal is to place the IBM Selectric II beside the feather quill and chisel in the museum of antiquated writing implements. They're power hungry, and someone needs to stop them." The reason why David Sedaris, the character, works so well in the book is because of his flat-out honesty on any number of subjects and issues. He also has an extraordinary sense of self-awareness most do not possess, or at least are less than eager to broadcast it.
He weaves in and out of his own personal life, writing about the misfortunate (and comical) habits of his sister, Amy, who has always took a liking to 'fatty suits' and mind-games. She has had a field day masterminding such stunts as disguising herself as a victim of physical abuse, masking her identity to flirt with her father, and stealing money from an unguarded till at a grocery story and then simply explaining that "she wasn't stealing, she was simply pretending to be a thief. 'And thieves steal,' she said. 'So that's what I was doing.' It all made perfect sense to her." Amy appears in several of the essays, each time with an unusual story and same role.
Comedic short-story essay books are generally at a great disadvantage because they lack what non-fiction books have to offer - which is an education. They are at another disadvantage because they lack what fiction has to offer - a world filled with what the author desires, whether it is a representation of reality, fantasy, horror, or a mixture of everything in between. Instead, David Sedaris has defied the expectations and proved that essays can be as equally effective and compelling as historical accounts of world or national events.
David Sedaris writes hilariously of being offered a position as a college professor: "The position was offered at the last minute, when the scheduled professor found a better-paying job delivering pizza. ...In a voice reflecting doubt, fear, and an unmistakable desire to be loved, I sounded not like a thoughtful college professor but, rather, like a high-strung twelve-year old girl; someone named Brittany. My first semester I had only nine students. Hoping they might view me as professional and well prepared, I arrived bearing name tags fashioned in the shape of maple leaves. I'd cut them myself out of orange construction paper and handed them out along with a box of straight pins. My fourth-grade teacher had done the same thing, explaining that we were to take only one pin per person. This being college rather than elementary school, I encouraged my students to take as many pins as they liked. They wrote their names upon their leaves, fastened them to their breast pockets, and bellied up to the long oak table that served as our communal desk." He then talks about his empty brief case and fantasizes about a class full of enthusiastic students, struggling to maintain order while students simultaneously shouted to be heard. This is only a small glimpse into Sedaris' larger insights and analysis of the human condition. Sedaris has managed to convert ordinary happenings from one's life to incredibly comical vignettes worth discussing. His linguistic tongue most closely resembles a sharp and oddball Woody Allen for his clever ability to make situations funnier than they normally would be and his over-the-top affair with words. In creating something more valuable than a simple comedic story-telling book, he has both educated and entertained us with his personal experiences and observations of the world. Hats off to David Sedaris, whose contribution to the literary world make us all the more grateful for his endless campaign to keep us thinking, and reading.
Rating:
Summary: Hysterically Funny
Review: David Sedaris has done it again with a delightful look into his childhood, in the first half, and a sidesplitting recount of his French adventures in the second half of this book. From learning of his early stuggles with his lisp (thus having difficulty with his own last name), to his description of "the rooster", his brother, a man's man whose speach is peppered with four letter words, Sedaris kept me laughing. Those who have ever studied French will find his musing particularly wonderful when he ponders the masculine and feminine assigned to all objects: "I wonder whose job it was to assign these sexes in the first place. Did he do his work right there in the sanitarium or did they rent him a little office where he could get away from all the noise?" I recommend this book one hundred percent. It is good for a laugh and also makes a great gift.
Rating:
Summary: Tries just hard enough . . .
Review: Interestingly, this is the most serious funny book I've ever read. It will make you laugh out loud, no matter where you are, it made me cry (I never cry) and it sweetly describes everything that is lovely and depressing about the world we live in.
What I also found is that this book fairly speaks about the true nature of France and the French. It speaks honestly to the dilemmas Americans face when dealing with the French, without resorting to stereotypes and doting, blind admiration.
But make no mistake- this is not a book about international relations, gay issues, greek heritage or the trials of being poor in New York. It is a book about a life, played out and described in simple, self-deprecating prose, by a man who is halfway through and still learning to talk pretty.
Rating:
Summary: He sure talks pretty to my ears
Review: Are you ready to read a book that is written as relaxed as you are reading it? David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day is one of the funniest true to life books I have ever read. This book takes you through David's dysfunctional childhood all the way up to his life in the present. The situations he encounters in life are written so beautifully that you feel like he is sitting next to you at a party and everyone is laughing around him. I started reading the first chapter, which is written about his eccentric father who loves his family but has problems expressing support for his weird children, next thing I know I'm on page 112 and hanging on his every word like it's juicy high school gossip. Reading further in the book you come to know that David Sedaris's inner thoughts remind you of the thoughts you giggle about to only to yourself. The life of David Sedaris you would think would be filled with happy childhood memories surrounded by scholarly achievements and lots of money. After putting the book down I forget sometimes this guy is the author of a National Best Seller and not a buddy of mine. You can find truth and humor in every one of his chapters as well as a story you can relate to. Using humor and a great writing technique Sedaris takes you to Paris where he has moved without knowing anything about the French language. He enrolls in a French class where he is instructed by a professor who takes her language a little too seriously. This chapter starts his many triumphs to win over the life of Parisian in a country that hates him. With his adventures changing in every chapter you never become bored with each insight he pulls you closer. Sedaris's descriptive storytelling style is the greatest I ever read and I'm not surprised I haven't heard of him sooner. When you think your life is crazy read a couple chapters and you can put that same funny twist on life and survive anything with a good sense of humor. The last chapter like the first is about his father, there you see his father may be strange but the respect he has for the man that wanted David to be happy and supported no matter what crazy dream he would follow. Finishing the book I reflected on the many different struggles David Sedaris lived through the most was drugs and the influence it had over his art and what he did to overcome his addiction. The end result impresses me the most; he has taken a troubled life and made it a funny learning experience that all can relate too.
-Lee from Louisville
|
