Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris is his account of his life from the time when he was a child with a lisp (which apparently in some way pre-destined his homosexuality) up to his life as an adult. He mostly chronicles his relationship with his parents, siblings, and lovers.
Mr. Sedaris is hilarious in what feels like a "caffeinated" string of jokes he delivers throughout the book that had me laughing out loud nearly every third or fourth page. In the early part of the book, he fights his need to deal with his lisp head on while working with a speech therapist by avoiding the letter "s" when speaking. So, for example, when his speech therapist asks what he plans to do on New Year's Eve, the character responds "On the final day of the year we take down the pine tree in our living room and eat marine life."
That's pretty clever and funny stuff. The book really hits it stride, for my money, when he gets older and goes through a series of odd jobs and even odder relationships (in and out of the workplace). At one point he is working for a moving company in New York. He goes into a hilarious riff discussing how rent determines break-ups in some way and that often times during break-ups folks are itching to tell all the details.
When describing one interaction where a man found out that his significant other was having sex with her ex-boyfriend on their couch, they would ask how many times. The broken man responded (yelling because they were in a truck):
"Just once that I know of, but isn't that enough?"
"It depends, how much was your rent?"
It's silly and the humor is a bit obvious at times but that's what made the book so enjoyable. Whether it was his much younger brother who, like Denis Farina in Get Shorty, carpet f-bombed like it was going out of style or his hilarious interactions with French people as he was learning French, he always has a silly slant on already funny situations.
He was insightful at times, including lamenting the lost distinction between a phobia and a loathing. But he's at his best when he is honest and biting in his writing. The high point of the novel was when he writes about the experience of taking French from a very angry woman who taught a group of frightened non-French speakers.
Article comments
1 - Mistress La Spliffe
Yah, this book was hilarious. Some of it was really touching, too, in a hilarious way - all the bits about his Dad. I've never seen the touching and the hilarious combined so well.
2 - Tim Taylor
He does have the ability to be touching and poignant now and again. Rarely, however does he do so and not follow it right up with an ironic or biting quip that is very humorous. I really dig the way he writes.
3 - Marcie
Do yourself another favor and don't read it in public, unless of course you don't mind people staring as you laugh. I listened to it on audio, and I got lots of funny looks when I'd burst out laughing.
I like Sedaris's real life stories better than his fiction, which, like his sister Amy's humor, gets a bit raw for me. Me Talk Pretty is probably my favorite of his books, unless you count the story of the Macy's Elves in Holiday on Ice.
4 - Tim Taylor
I actually did read it in public and laughed out loud seemingly every few pages (on the bus, in cafes, on the street as I was walking). I actually wondered at one point what people thought about me. For me, I totally wrap myself into a book so if it's funny, I don't half laugh, I laugh.
A friend of mine listened to the audio tape and also liked it.
Actually, as i typed this review out and I typed the section about their discussion on Easter, I couldn't stop laughing.
Thank you, Marcie, for pointing out that Amy is Amy Sedaris (which may seem like a silly statement but I read the whole book and didn't realize that it was THAT Amy Sedaris, he just says Amy). It definitely puts one scene in perspective wherein the two of them are on a metro train and as Amy is leaving, the doors are closing and she yelled out "Good luck on that rape charge!".
Raw and harsh but a funny concept.
I have not read the Macy's Elves in Holiday on Ice but will look for it. I'm glad I started with a good one apparently. A friend of mine lent it to me because she thought I'd like it.
She was delighted that I did so much.
5 - gama
i think this is a peculiar book, so brave and funy and wild, all qualities I want is in this book.
6 - unknown
i don't know if it was me ... but i didn't really like it :-S