Rating: 
Summary: A Funny and Entertaining Read
Review: This is the first David Sedaris book I've read, and now I plan to read them all! There were a few stories that made me laugh out loud like "You Can't Kil te Rooster" and "A Shiner Like a Diamond". The other stories were very entertaining and witty. It's an excellent light read, and I highly recommend it!!
Rating: 
Summary: He's scrawny but he kicks ... (and takes names--in French!)
Review: David Sedaris is deeply funny. You laugh loudly (nay! guffaw--with unappealing horse-like overtones if you're like me) when you read it, sure.
But you laugh months or even years later because it was just so true and dead-on and so exquisitely phrased and also pleasantly perverse that you just can't forget it.
His humor burrows its way (pardon the vaguely disturbing rodent metaphor here) into your psyche and you're funnier just for having read it. AT least, I think I am....
Rating:
Summary: Me laugh pretty one day
Review: David Sedaris is a comical genius! His books of essasys 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' is one of the funniest things I've ever read. And not only is it funny, but it is also very witty. His text is so good that you don't want to put it down, because you know that in the next page there will be more laughing coming for you. Moreover, his comments about life, family and being a foreigner are very pertinent and never silly. There 'characters' --real life people who are related to Sedaris-- are so good that you may believe they were made up, but on the other hand, we know that there are every kind of people around, so the people in the book they do exist. My favorites are his sister Amy, Bonnie(this woman deserves a whole book about her!!), his brother Paul, aka The Rooster (and believe me You Can't Kill the Rooster!). I believe that all these people should be flatered on being in Sedaris's book, because he writes about them with such a passion, that even when he is making fun of them it is impossible to be angry with him. It is hard to choose one favorite essay because they are all so good, but there are a couple of them that can be pointed out as even better. My favorites are 'Picka Pocketoni' (you have to read to find out what it is!), Go Carolina, The Learning Curve, The City of Light in the Dark and Jesus Shaves. But above all, the essay title Me Talk Pretty One Day is close to perfection. Anyone who has taken a single class of a foreigner language will easily identify him/herself to the story. Everything is there: the student who can understand everything but the most important word in the sentence and is afraid of having to talk, the native teacher to whom everything is obvious, the student who knows 'everything' and is only taking classes to polish his/her language --but, as a matter of fact he/she wants to snob the other ones who know less than him/her-- etc. My suggestion is: after a hard day, find a confortable armchair, open this book, and have non-stop laughs. And if you read this book and don't laugh, please, go to the doctor, you must have serious problems. Enjoy it! And Congratulations, Sedaris. I'm looking forward to reading more of his writings.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, but not Uber Funny
Review: This book is funny; however I definitely have read things far more comedic. I like the short story format, and some of the stories are great - however I did not read the first book, Naked, so perhaps I am slightly out of the loop. Despite the fact it isn't supremely funny there are some laugh out loud moments that make the book certainly worth you while.
Rating:
Summary: Sedaris is on fire!
Review: If you have never read David Sedaris or heard him read portions of his books on David Letterman then you need to pick up one of his books and treat yourself. I have not read one of his books and not laughed hysterically. I also recommend any book by his sister, Amy Sedaris (I constantly wonder what Thanksgiving dinner is like at their house!)
Rating:
Summary: Be prepared to laugh out loud... repeatedly!
Review: I made the "mistake" of bring this book on a cross-country flight, and by the time we touched down, was asked by 3 people sitting near me who the author was. Any book that causes you to lose composure is a good one.
David Sedaris lets you in on his life experiences with wit, self-depracation and humor.
Do kids with lisps automatically end up gay? How do you let your music teacher know that you don't want to name your guitar after a woman? How stupid do Americans really look to Europeans?
The books feels like you're drinking one-too-many with a new friend, and getting lost in their unique family stories. He has an awesome abilty of writing in a voice that's at once easy to read, and equally as easy to see played out internally. You'll have trouble putting it down!
Rating:
Summary: Dont read it while you are outside..
Review: yOU know if you do care about what others would think of you, just do yourslef a favor and read this book when you are home. After reading the first story, I thought I could manage holding my laughs so I went out in public and start getting into it. Boy, I had to leave the cafe' soon cuz nobody in that place had any doubts that I am either lack some manners or crazy. The book is full of provoking jokes..But if you think of it, you just cant help but grining. From batteling with the letter "s" and all those trying hard to fix his flaws to putting up with his father saving up till starvation, Mr sedaris was helarious in dealing with every shot in his life...
Rating:
Summary: Pure Pleasure
Review: Me Talk Pretty One Day is David Sedaris' very funny look at himself through both his family and his time in France. The good news that his sister's comedy, Strangers with Candy, is coming out on DVD made me pick this book up again and remember all over what a truly Talented Family this is (and Amy's appearances in David's essays are amongst the funniest sections, outside of the David learning French, of course). These essays seem fresh on second and third helpings. Since the first time I read this I have finally heard many of them on NPR and now can read them with the author's rather distinctive voice in my head. Now my brain is, sadly, changing all commerical jingles into rather nasally, high-pitched Billie Holliday-emoting songs. That may not be a blessing but this book is and will always be.
Rating:
Summary: Funny But Not Solely About France or the French
Review: As I purchased this book simply because it appears on so many Francophile Amazon.com listamania lists, I prepared myself for a throughly enjoyable and hysterically humorous read based on the 400+ reviews that pumped up the pleasure factor of this book to the almost unrealistic level of master satirist Mark Twain. While the book is funny, I was disappointed to discover that it really was not about France or the French---the essay entitled "Me Talk Pretty One Day", indeed narrates the author's amusing and insightful struggle with learning the French language while at a language school in Paris, but it is only one out of perhaps four or five essays about France, the majority of the book deals with Sedaris' issues with himself and his colorful family back in the US. (Now, please, just because I am warning those Amazon customers who wish to purchase a book about France and the French and were directed to this book by listamania listings, don't immediately click the "no" button as if the rest of my review isn't worth reading. Alas, I was sadly misdirected as most likely others are, too and should not be penalized for telling the truth as I see it. Nor should anyone rate anyone's review negatively simply because it expresses an alternative opinion.) Because of this misdirection, I read the first half of this book--which has nothing to do with France--with anticipation of when France and the French were going to pop up in the author's humorous anecdotes and musings regarding this understanding of life. By the time I got to the second part, where Sedaris travels to Paris with his boyfriend, I had already realized that this book of essays was just that: a book of essays containing only a few essays about France. I confess to skimming through the contents of each essay before deeming it worthy of my time--sorry to those of you who simply love everything Sedaris--and I will say that the French essays in the book are well worth the read---I just wish there had been a whole book dedicated to just this topic.
Therefore, if like myself, you have happened upon this page simply to read a book about France, save your money and either read the few French themed essays in the library or bookstore. Buy instead "On Rue Tatin"--the telling of an American woman and her husband who buy an old convent north of Paris or any of the Provence books by UK author Mayle. These books are not meant to be funny in a satirical manner, but instead convey an idea of the French and their country from alien prospectives.
Rating:
Summary: Moderation
Review: Me Talk Pretty One Day was my initiation into the quirky and warped world of David Sedaris, and after the first few pages I knew I would like it there. This was a guy who tried to construct a vocabulary without using the letter "s" so that he could mask his lisp. As a child, he hilariously tells us, his midget guitar teacher had a voice like a recording played back too fast and he taught his students to love their guitars by suggesting they imagine them as a "stacked" woman. And that's just in the first two (short) chapters. But suddenly, the same sharp commentary that had me laughing out loud in public a few chapters earlier started to seem predictable, and the sarcastic wit I identified with early on had somehow eroded into a grating kind of pessimism. Fortunately, I put the book aside and read something else for a few days. When I picked it up again, it again seemed fresh and bitingly comical. And then I realized what I now think is essential to enjoying Mr. Sedaris' work: it needs to small bites in order to be digested correctly. So I end up with three stars -- an average between the two stars I would give it had I read the book straight through and the four I think it deserves when it comes in drips and drabs. I can't agree with my fellow reviewers who consider Mr. Sedaris a modern day Mark Twain or P.G. Wodehouse, but he is pretty damn funny. Just remember, like most things, the key is moderation.
|
