Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious...you don't want it to end!
Review: Listening to David Sedaris's voice narrating 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' is a danger if you are behind the wheel! In his voice you can hear the tough (yet funny) times at school & the Speech Pathologist, with his dad and the Music Teacher. Sometimes it's almost too much to listen to!Sedaris's voice is very similar to his sister Amy Sedaris who was Jerry Blank in the cult show 'Strangers with Candy.' They share the same brand of humor: dry, cynical, witty. This is one you certainly don't want to miss and I would suggest the audio version for more personalization (and laughs).
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious Sedaris
Review: I read his books while on the treadmill at the gym .. and it can be dangerous! Laughing so hard I lose my balance! The funniest story is the one about his brother and language.
Rating:
Summary: Me Like Sedaris
Review: Funny, charming, and heartwarming. I laughed. I cried. It was better than Cats. Sedaris has been around and these stories are testament to the freakish family members and miserable jobs that are part of his life. I was cautioned by one trustworthy book-loaning friend of mine, "It's just not that funny. He's not the same in print as on NPR." Well I say, "To hell with that." The stories aren't all pee-in-your-pants-laugh-till-you-cry funny, but they do make me smile. Furthermore, Sedaris has a knack for setting a mood, even though it's mostly his own mood that we share. Buy it. Read it. I told you so.
Rating:
Summary: A Blast!
Review: Like NAKED, ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY is a collection of personal essays. Once again, Sedaris tackles territory that will be immediately recognizable to anyone who is familiar with his work: his family, his childhood in North Carolina, his early days in New York and his sexuality. However, there is much new material covered in this collection, most of it influenced by the time that he has spent recently living in France. While the rest of us have been going about our normal lives, Sedaris has been living part-time in France with his boyfriend, artist Hugh Hamrick, exploring Paris, struggling with the language, dealing with American tourists, and generally hating all things Gallic. With this collection, I found that David Sedaris has matured, but he hasn't lost his edge. It is hilariously funny, and had me laughing aloud from start to finish. Also recommended: THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez
Rating: 
Summary: pleasant surprise
Review: I knew nothing of Sedaris when I picked this one up, it just
looked interesting. I laughed out loud from cover to cover.
The New York stories nearly killed me, and the tangents his
imagination rides off on are scarily familiar and hilarious.
One of the best books I've read in a long time. Sherman Alexie's work got me interested in the short story arena, and Sedaris showed me another side of it that was equally enticing.
I promptly went out and read his other works and am looking forward to more.
Rating:
Summary: Sedaris is a genius, no matter what he says...
Review: I have recently discovered David Sedaris and I am all ready a huge fan. However, he is even funnier when you LISTEN to him read. I strongly recommend that you buy the Audio CD of his work if you can. The version I have of Me Talk Pretty One Day is ABRIDGED. I do not know if they make an unabridged version. It is missing the story Big Boy, which is many people's favorite. On the other hand, there are bonus tracks from Sedaris live that are VERY funny and not available anywhere else.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasure to Read
Review: David Sedaris is one of the funniest writers I've read in a long time. This was a great treat. The part about learning French had me rolling on the floor. This summer has been fun reading books like this. I also recommend "Delano" by John Orozco and "Stupid White Men," by Michael Moore.
Rating:
Summary: Me laugh hard all day
Review: The pieces gathered in this collection of humorist David Sedaris's writings are all interesting, insightful (into the human condition), and funny. But behind the humor, I suspect, is a deep well of pain. Sedaris is a gay author who writes about things other than being gay; and when he writes of his own homosexuality, it is always without any fanfare. In fact, the unifying theme of these stories seems to be the pain of being "odd" or an outsider. In some cases, Sedaris's outsider status can be clearly linked to his being gay (as in the opening story, "Go Carolina," which describes the ordeal of being one of several sensitive boys in his school who is singled out for speech therapy for their lisps and effeminate speaking patterns). Elsewhere, his outsider status is due to being a northerner who moved to North Carolina, or an American who spends summers in France. On top of this, just being a member of his family seems to automatically qualify him for instant alien and mutant status. In fact, because of this many of his stories reminded me of souped up (some may say "vulgarized") versions of James Thurber's classic stories of his eccentric Ohio relatives. In fact, one story about his struggle to give up drinking, "The Late Show," reminded me of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." As Sedaris struggles to make it through painful nights of insomnia he fashions a variety of outlandish identities for himself. While exagerated humor is a constant in Sedaris's stories, there is always something else present just below the surface that almost anyone can identify with. In flaunting his eccentricities and outsider status, Sedaris has presented himself as a universal type, a true everyman.
Rating:
Summary: Just a great read
Review: 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' is my first exposure to the work of David Sedaris, and it will surely not be my last. It's a book which is consistently humorous throughout, and at times devastatingly accurate in it's assassination of character flaws, delusions of grandeur, and idiocy in general - quite often of which is the authors own.
The magic of Sedaris' writing, is, that while he can make light of normally heart-breaking subjects like drug addiction or the death of his mother, it's only when he describes his ordeal of trying to flush a 'big-boy' - (not his own), that you begin to feel sympathetic. He treats everything with the same level of amusement without going over the top. Some writers of humour are extremely witty and insightful but they don't really make you laugh. Sedaris is one of few that has the gift of inciting genuine laughter without seemingly trying too hard - and for that he has my full endorsement. Keep 'em coming David.
Rating:
Summary: A riot
Review: I had heard Sedaris on public radio & seeing this in a bookstore in Napa, I bought it. I read it on public transortation & that was a mistake. I laughted out loud and I missed & nearly missed several stops. It's a very engaging book of autobiographical stories. Sedaris lived for a while in France and the title story is a self-deprecating look at his efforts to learn French. I highly recommend this. It's delightful.
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