Rating: 
Summary: Just Like Your Mother...
Review: I can't quite catch where this book came from or where it was going - unlike other Sedaris books - this book is more like a collection of short stories and thoughts than a theme explored.His mother is clearly a focus throughout the book - and the ways in which Sedaris related to his mother while she was alive. More, he seems to explore his understanding of her now that she is dead. Other books have allowed his father to lead as the "character" that was being studied. Sedaris seems to be looking at himself and seeing the things in him that are distinctly from his mother. There is, as expected, that dry, almost painful humor that had me chuckling as I read along. It is the kind of humor that you just can't pass along to someone in a line, should someone ask, "What's so funny?" That person really needs to follow Sedaris from the beginning of each story and ... well, maybe have an awareness that there's a little of this life in each of us. One thing: this book is much more painful and self-revealing than much of Sedaris's previous work. The humor is sometimes overwhelmed by this tone.
Rating: 
Summary: Bettah than Evuh
Review: I know people may not agree, but I found this book to be the best one yet. I know it isn't as light and fluffy or as sitcom-ish as the previous ones, but I felt there's more gravitas here. I suspected there was a certain amount of filler in Naked, Me Talk...etc. If this one veers off slightly, I think that's because the author just effortlessly veers off also. What I like most about this book is that it's the most intelligent and least "goofy". "Full House" is the most subversive story I have EVER read! And I MEAN this. And I still busted out laughing. "The Girl Next Door" is chilling, scarier than that movie "The Ring." His essay on his sister Tiffany is alarming. Is he writing this in case something unpleasant happens with her or is it just another family portrait? He's too smart to just let this out there. He also has an uncanny knack for picking out the obscure: parrots. I'd never given much thought before to birds that can repeat words, but he's picked up on it. Classic David. Is the writing really THAT painstaking? What I think happened is that he has been studying French for so long that he has become finer with his use of words and pays more attention to structure and meaning. You can't write one essay after the next without being able to KNOW how to do this. I suspect this is all rather easy for him. Everyone seems to be whining about how "sad" it is. I think this is somewhat homophobic. Before he would only politely mention Hugh, like he was some whimsical pet; now there are more chapters and insights into their relationship. Where's the Norman Rockwell painting that depicts two men in a gay adult relationship that he can somehow refer to? But, honestly, there is something THERE though. You somehow suspect he's going to hell for some reason or is it just getting older or is it just that he's a literary celebrity in a foreign culture when his schtick is all about upper-middle WASP/Greek kitsch, basically amusing Americana. I know I shouldn't say this, but there seems to be some kind of void that he's been sucked into. You sense it as the book progresses. He's achieved mainstream acceptance, but is he holding himself back? Is he allowing himself to get too gay or political? Does he have his own internalized homophobia that's become a self fulfilling prophecy for his adult relationship or is the relationship just doomed in and of itself? I still like reading all this more than the other fluff because it's unflinching. It's fun to review a book that's number 6 on the bestseller list (there, I've had my David Sedaris moment).
Rating:
Summary: Great fun
Review: I received DRESS YOUR FAMILY as a gift, and let me promise that you will not be at a loss if you read this book, it is light and helps very easily to bring you into his world of wonder and out of yours. This book is a great escape... it is hard for me to say that it is better than his previous books, however it stakes out its place and leaves its stamp... Full House was one of my favorite chapters in the book, so maybe read that chapter if you're unsure about the purchase...Other recommendations--------------------------Me Talk Pretty, Children's Corner by McCrae, The Daily Show
Rating: 
Summary: Made me feel icky
Review: I recently bought Sedaris' Carnegie Hall CD and thought it was hilarious. I am also an enthusiastic fan of This American Life and have loved his many contributions. This book proves that NPR highlights Sedaris' best work and leaves the rest. Unfortunately this is a book mostly of "the rest". I had a tough time finding any redeeming value in the story of his rickshaw hauling, trash picking sister and her ability to put out cigarettes with her bare feet. I was much more repulsed by the story of his budding homosexuality and the way he was able to coerce young, naked boys to sit on his lap. If I were to choose one word to describe this book it would be "icky". Skip the ickiness and buy the CD. Or, better yet skip the expense and listen to This American Life. It's free and it's his best material.
Rating: 
Summary: Sedaris the melancholy
Review: If your first introduction to David Sedaris was hearing him live (or at least live on radio), you might have found him 4 parts hilarious to 1 part breathtakingly sad. Live, the audience responds quickest to the funny bits but might easily leave the auditorium a little unsettled at the underlying bitterness of his previous escapades as, say, a Santaland elf at Macy's.
In "Dress Your Family" the recipe is reversed - it seems more sad than funny - but as a result you can more easily hear what a fine writer Sedaris really is. The stories here are nothing short of tragic in several cases - the one moment of family happiness while shopping for a 2nd home (before the family falls apart behind his mother's alcoholic stupors), the unspoken but apparent mental illness of his sister, the terrible life of the little girl in the apartment next door who takes a liking to her neighbor David.
This allows us to see that Sedaris-the-writer is even more expert at description and character than he is at making us laugh. Personally, I value this ability more, but if you are looking for your life to be made lighter by something light and humorous, this is not the book for you.
The most touching stories are those involving his brother, Paul, who seems to be the token regular guy in the Sedaris family (like that blond chick on the Addams family). David Sedaris uses the occasion of Paul's wedding and the subsequent birth of Paul's daughter to demonstrate both his own fierce love of his family and his total alienation from this ordinary, straight world.
On audio this comes through even stronger (Sedaris' imitation of his brother's Carolina accent and irony-free straight-guy behavior enhances it), but it's still at its core a message both totally peculiar to Sedaris and totally universal - the way we love our families and can yet feel totally, even existentially apart from them.
It's much deeper than you probably knew, or perhaps even wanted, from Sedaris, but it's worth a try.
Rating:
Summary: There are lots of reasons to love this book.
Review: It's great, in this day and age, to see a book that has been proofread so well that I actually don't give any thought to the editing. That alone makes this book a breath of fresh air, but there's also an ease and purity in the storytelling. I hadn't had a book this size go by so quickly in quite some time.
David Sedaris, I feel, is a great guy who hasn't yet found the wonderful life he ought to have. As such, he's easy to identify with--who hasn't thought, "If they only understood me and gave me a chance, I'd be able to get all the fabulous things I deserve"?
Some of the language and imagery I saw while flipping through Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim for the first time troubled me, but I'm glad I read the book anyway. There may be unpleasant concepts in it, but the writing and the author's outlook are so pleasant that they more than override the discomfort a reader feels when experiencing those concepts.
Rating:
Summary: Funny! (No, really)
Review: No. Really. Most "funny" books I read, just aren't. David Sedaris is the real thing. This is a deeply pleasurable book about family, life, homosexuality, cultural difference, and the incidental details that pass most of us by but in Sedaris' hands are grist to his humor mill.
The finest parts of this memoir/cultural investigation concern his family. And Sedaris is cursed/blessed with a family that is stranger than most. His understated prose is delightful and his self-deprecating humor (he visits Ann Frank's house, suffers real-estate envy, and finds another stick with which to beat himself) saves him from accusations of fatuousness.
This book made me laugh out loud and envy the lightness of touch that Sedaris brings to everyday tales of family dysfunction.
Rating:
Summary: the sweaty bits were a little weird
Review: okay, i loved most of this book. sedaris is, in my opinion, the best essay writer of our era. what i loved about "DENIM" was how, as children, the author and his sisters knew the theraputic value of a good cry. hilarious. and the brother paul is just an all-too-familar slice of suburban life. but all the mention of sweat... ick... c'mon, just creepy. nonetheless, i will happily be passing this book on to a certain suburban mother of a ten year-old boy with vase full of cat tails (pg 165) in his room (and possibly scotchguarded drapes). maybe she'll finally get it.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely True Sedaris
Review: Once again David Sedaris makes a Memoir-memorable. With insight and laughter he once again tells us more of the life that revolves around him. I thought "Me Talk Pretty One Day was excellent,This one However, Is even better!! It ranks up there with all of his Books, And along with others in the same category: Running With Scissors,Dry and Nightmares Echo.
Rating:
Summary: In the same vein as "Naked."
Review: This book is true David Sedaris, funny, a little somber at times, but always thought-provoking. While none of his other works will compare to the outstanding "Me Talk Pretty One Day," this book is a good, entertaining summer read. Rarely do I see the world the way I do than after a David Sedaris book, and it's a happy experience when I can look at my surroundings in the seemingly normal, yet insanely comical way that he does. "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Demin" made me want to go back and re-read the full Sedaris collection, and I will, with great pleasure.
| 
