Rating: 
Summary: I think I get it
Review: Having read three of Sedaris' books, I am beginning to think I get it. Many of the reviews of Barrel Fever, Naked, and Me Talk Pretty One Day, the sum total of my reading experience with David Sedaris, refer to sidesplitting humor. While that component exists in all of his writing, to a greater or lesser degree, I don't think that is what he has set out to create in any of these books. . .least of all Naked. Naked is funny and poignant, as many of the reviews have indicated, but more than that, when coupled with readings of his other books, and listening to his commentaries on NPR, one realizes that ultimately David Sedaris is exposing the feelings, resentments, and ultimate independent victories of a true outsider growing up in America. Some people will read the chapter on his idiosynchrasies in Naked, and find it hilarious. . .which it is. More important, it portrays a mother who figured out pretty early on that she had a very odd kid to get through what would be childhood characterized by a surrounding society not known for acceptance of the unusual.I liked this book a lot. I think that while it may lack some of the out and out screaming humor of barrel fever, and doesn't feature the hysterically funny chapter on the big turd from Me Talk Pretty. . .it offers the best insight into the soul of this obsessively autobiographical writer.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a laugh
Review: I read this book on an overnight train from Florence to Paris and thought I was going to roll out of the bed because I was laughing so hard. I can not remember a book that struck me like Naked. I am embarassed about some of the parts I thought funny, but Sedaris' matter-of-fact style made me have no regret. I am looking forward to Me Talk Pretty - and more laughs!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Place to Visit
Review: The fiendish prose of David Sedaris, once I got past the disorienting first chapter, held me hostage. Never once did I want to be part of this family, but by gosh, I kept wanting to extend my visit. By the time I reached "next of kin", I had surrendered all my critical objectivity, and simply gloried in the family's reaction to the dreadfully proofread pornographic novel that gives the chapter its title. Part of the tremendous humor lies in *naked*'s truths: all children know where their parents keep the porno -- if there is any. (My mother's copy of *Fanny Hill* was hidden behind the fourth shelf above her bed). On the other hand, the faint aura of loneliness that hovers over the text keeps this book from being a quick joke. The conclusion of "the incomplete quad" -- the unsentimental tale of travels with a quadriplegic -- does not spare the reader. And throughout *naked*, as I laughed, I was also haunted by a son who knows his mother is lying for him ("the drama bug"), and whose father tells deliciously gruesome tales and wonders why his children have no gumption ("Cyclops"). I confess that all those tics ("a plague of tics") also worried me. That may come of being a mother. Three major points: *naked* made me laugh hard. Really hard. I even sent a copy of *naked* to my nephew for his birthday. And, finally, and not least, I am delighted that at last I understand the importance of a towel at a nudist colony.
Rating: 
Summary: Funniest memoir I've ever read!
Review: This book is classified as a memoir, and it's the funniest one I've read to date. Growing up Greek in North Carolina couldn't have been easy, but adding to the mix a crazy grandmother and a sibling with a penchant for using towels as toilet paper makes it that much harder (and funnier, to us). David was struck with enthusiastic OCD as a child, only to find ways to "cure" his tics in college. His stories of life after schooling include apple-picking and packing, working with jade (not to mention a crazy, hypocritical Christian), and refinishing woodwork with a Jew-hating Lithuanian and a somewhat confused black guy. He hitchhikes with all levels of human decapitation until a rowdy truck driver combs thicket by the roadside looking for him. Not all of the fifteen stories are side-splitting funny. "I Like Guys" highlights accepting his homosexual feelings, and an undercurrent of seriousness lines the story. "Ashes" tells of his mother's cancer, and a sense of tragedy seems to sober his usually razor-sharp satirical style. The last (and title) story, "Naked", tells of his experience with a nudist colony. It's written in more a journal form (the others are written in a 'flashback' form) and by the end, you feel strange in your own clothing. I definitely plan on recommending this book to my friends. I don't see how you could live your life without picking up a Sedaris book.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book
Review: I far preferred Naked to his previous Barrel Fever, which I found to be mean spirited. Naked is brilliant, funny and touching. Luckily I read Cyclops on a loud plane because I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe for 20 minutes. Also memorable were his articulate characterizations of his parents which vary from vivid to exquisite and kind (Ashes).
Rating: 
Summary: Not funny, but idiotic
Review: This to me is idiot's fare. What's funny is that I bought Barrel Fever a few years ago and wound up returning it. But I thought perhaps I was too swift to dismiss it, so I gave Naked a chance. Inspired by a reader who had it recently while I was vacationing. I was being optimistic that this would not be a bunch of dumb, pointless essays. But I could not get past the first two! Come on, who goes around licking doorknobs, anyway? This is elementary fare. I did not find this amusing at all, just idiotic, as I said. So I have returned this Sedaris pulp too. I think I'll pass on "Me Talk Pretty..."
Rating:
Summary: Side-splitting and sincerely sentimental
Review: I don't like admitting this to myself (and frankly, I don't like admitting this to all of you out there), but I identified deeply with the main character in David Sedaris' book. And before you start screaming at your computer screen, I know that the main character is David himself, and it's not really a novel, but a collection of humour essays. I see him as a character, because I just can't believe that all of these fantastic stories are true. Is there some truth there? I'm sure. But embellishment seems obvious. Anyway, back to my first thought. The David in the book is an intellectual snob, verbose and thoughtful, unsure of himself in most ways except his sexuality, but extremely sure that he knows what's best for the world and all its inhabitants. And he's damn funny, too. I can relate to most of that (I'll let you choose what I mean), so getting inside the head of such a witty and conflicted man was a real treat. The first fifteen 'stories' in the book are well put together pieces on modern life as David sees it. The best of that lot includes "A Plague of Tics" in which David is attacked by a hyperactive form of O.C.D., and "C.O.G.", a wonderful riff on the whole Kerouacian lifestyle gone completely wrong. These first fifteen pieces, however, only form a prelude to some of the best writing I've read in years. The second last piece, "Ashes", about David's mother's battle with cancer is what good writing should be: humourous and poignant, without ever being melodramatic. He wrings literature from real life, and makes the most of a heartbreaking situation. I can imagine what kind of catharsis it must have been for him. The last piece (I want to call it the title track), "Naked", is about a trip to a nudist colony. I found myself busting a gut in the middle of a crowded subway car. It is sparkling comedy.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed until my head exploded!
Review: David Sedaris has the kind of sense of humor we all wish we had. He looks at the world through twisted glasses and the result is hilarious. Sedaris writes simple stories with amazing uniqueness. I have to say, his story "A Plague of Tics" got an A+ for uncanny humor and for provoking side-splitting laughter. Other stories like "I Like Guys" and "Dix Hill" may not have been extremely funny, but they were very satisfying. Read this book, everyone, because we all need a good laugh and no one does it better than Sedaris.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: David Sedaris is one of the funniest writers alive. But this book was just plain dull. What an incredible disappointment coming right after his amazingly hilarious book "Barrell Fever." Fortunately, he's redeemed himself in his latest work "Me Talk Pretty One Day." I'd skip reading Naked.
Rating:
Summary: Cover up!
Review: Mean-spirited and depressing. Didn't find the book funny and felt ill when reading it.
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