Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris
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Book Reviews of Me Talk Pretty One Day
Book Review: Hysterical AND My First Experience with an Audiobook!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a review of the CD audio book version of ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY. I want to say from the start that if you have the choice of reading the printed book or listening to a recording of it, I would strongly recommend the audio book version. I know hundreds of thousands of people have listened to books on tape or CD, but this was a first for me. And I can't imagine a better book to start off with. While I enjoy reading Sedaris on page, he is the perfect reader of his own stories. I wouldn't want to listen to him read Jane Austen or Tolstoy, but I also wouldn't want to hear anyone else read these stories.Sound wise, the recordings are overall good. Several of the recordings are of live performances in front of crowds, and in many ways, these are the more enjoyable. I found myself getting more involved in the stories as the crowds did. However, in reading live, Sedaris sometimes sounds a bit strained and thin in his voice. Several of the stories were recorded in studios, and while his voice is much lower and less strained, the performances don't have quite the same degree of vitality as the live performances. I also found the music that accompanied some of the studio recordings to be a bit distracting.
As far as the stories themselves go, while a few of the stories come from the periods of his life that his readers have come to know from previous books, most of them come from adulthood, and even from his period of success as an author. Probably half of the stories come from the time he has spent living in France, apparently struggling against the limits of his own French (the title comes from a literal English translation of a statement he makes in a French class about his goals with that language). Whether one prefers this book to NAKED hangs upon nothing but one's own personality. I prefer NAKED, but prefer hearing Sedaris reading his work to reading it myself. I think the main thing is that the work is consistently good through all the books.
So, whether you read this yourself or listen to David read it to you, I heartily recommend this book.
Book Review: Pretty but Much More
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember first seeing the book Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris resting on a coffee table in my old residence at the Tung Fa Noodle Factory in Brooklyn. If I remember correctly, my roommate Felicia was reading it and suggested I do the same. This was in 2001; five years later I finally read it. As the saying goes, better late then never.
Me Talk Pretty One Day was one of the few books that have made me laugh out loud. Whether taking guitar lessons with a midget, creating performance art while high on drugs, or coping with his odd family life, the main character's reflections on his childhood in North Carolina are brilliantly written and visually captivating. As the character floats through life without much ambition or self-direction, the reader is often left wondering what weird situation he is going to stumble upon next.
In the second half of the book, the character and his boyfriend move to France where his struggle to identify with being American turns out to be as difficult a challenge in a foreign land as back in his own country. Sedaris' talents as a writer shine as he cleverly demonstrates the absurdity of a language lost in translation. His word play, best exemplified in a chapter in which the main character is taking French lessons, adds poetry to humor.
I think the unique craft of the book stems from Sedaris' witty use of language in combination with his ability to take a familiar experience and turn it into something extraordinary. Like Sedaris, when growing up in the suburbs, I would go to the shopping mall to take guitar lessons from some slightly "outlandish" music teacher. While I could have tried to write about my experiences taking guitar lessons, it takes someone like Sedaris to able to observe, remember, and articulate life's little absurdities into one tale. Although in his childhood Sedaris might not have dreamed of talking pretty, this book certainly does that and much more.
Book Review: Writing from a Reader's Viewpoint
Summary: 4 Stars
David Sedaris writes satirically about his life, all stories are true and unexaggerated. He uses many different aspects of sarcasm in order to get the reader to laugh. Also he will use techniques that get the reader to think the same way he is thinking. Sedaris is very good at making his view or take on situations is the right one, and makes an extremely great argument for himself, whether or not he is actually right. Irony is also used to make the story funnier. He says he was offered the position as a teacher, when the preceding professor found a better job delivering pizza. A pizza delivery boy is certainly not what would be considered a high-paying job, and therefore it is ironically funny that Sedaris is getting paid less than he would be for delivering pizzas.
Sedaris will also describe many times the way he planned, or saw himself completing a task: always in a very distinguished manner. But, then when he describes the way he actually accomplished the task, he is able to make fun of his awkward and uneasy ways of doing things. People are able to easily relate themselves to the same types of awkward situations Sedaris describes. As you read the book you might say, "I have totally felt that way before," or "I never thought anyone would actually ever admit that." By stating the obvious, untold truth, David Sedaris is able to have a very unique humorous effect on his audience.
Many of the things Sedaris has done are almost entirely unbelievable to people, which adds to the comedic style. Another aspect of Sedaris' writing that makes it so funny is that at the time he did all of these strange things, he was being totally serious, and now, as he looks back to write, it is entirely funny and he can make fun of himself. Many people are able to relate this same type of thing to them. Most times, people do something stupid, and in the long run can look back and see the laughter in it. That is exactly what Sedaris does.
Book Review: A dark, sardonic, distinctive, and pleasantly warped
Summary: 4 Stars
David Sedaris's humor clearly appeals to a distinctive taste. Some times it is warped bordering on creepy (particularly in "Holidays on Ice"), but often his wry observations are very poignant. What I particularly appreciate is his ability to laugh at himself. He may poke fun at any and all, but he also doesn't take himself seriously.Having really enjoyed "Naked" I was very disappointed by the critical reviews in the press for "Me Talk Pretty One Day". Generally, reviewers flayed him for being too caustic and harshly criticizing Americans abroad now that he is an ex-pat.
I am glad that I finally overcame my reluctance and read this book. I did not find "Me Talk Pretty" at all divergent from his other works; in fact it is equally satisfyiing. His wit here is consistently savage about the ignorant and rude, with an endearing appreciation of the quotidian and absurd. He continues to pugnaciously defend his right to an unhealthy habits, including tobacco and alcohol, and foods of dubious nutrition. Of course, appreciating Sedaris the reader has to recognize that he recognizes what is wrong and self destructive about these things and that he is mocking himself.
Contrary to the prevailing opinion of the reviews (did they read the book or each other?) I didn't detect any sense that he has become a Francophile. In fact, his French hiatus has served as a foil that has enhanced his perspective on the United States, and has made his observations more insightful and he seems, in his own twisted way, to be more appreciative of many things here.
I didn't enjoy every one of the essays; however, I didn't expect to either. Overall I did enjoy the collection, and while occasionally a bit too odd, I do find Sedaris's distinctive, absurd, and mostly sage humor quite refreshing.
Book Review: Milk-through-the-nose funny, and yet often poignant
Summary: 5 Stars
Sedaris has a real gift for language. Although according to the book, that langauge is decidedly not french.The tales that comprise the first half of the book relate his childhood and family - they're the sort of absurd family everyone has but never really talks about. They're an odd bunch, and Sedaris truly manages to make them seem larger-than-life even though you know deep-down they're no stranger than anyone else's clan. Particularly howl-inducing is the story of his youngest brother, who has mystifyingly deisgnated himself "the Rooster" and is about as far at-odds with the rest of the family as could possibly be. And yet, between the Rooster's foul language and rough manners, the sense of kinship between him and the clan's detatched patriarch si definitley conveyed in a heartfelt and stupifyingly funny manner.
Also notable is the vignette "12 Moments in the Life of the Artist" which self-deprecatingly plays on Sedaris's own artistic pretension and relates his daliances with art school, sculpting, methamphetamines and most terrifyingly conceptual and performance art. An absolutely brilliant piece, he manages to skewer the whole performance art movement as well as his own silly notions of the artist lifestyle in one fell swoop.
The second half of the book details his life in France and his struggles with the language. While slightly less emotionally attached than the first half of the book, it is often even funnier, with the ridiculous mangling of the french langauge, the odd things he learns to say (he studies medical french for fun), the aggressive and verbally abusive french teacher, and the difficulties with noun gender.
I've read this book a dozen times already and never does it fail to send me into fits. Definitely one of my all-time favorites.