Customer Reviews

Me Talk Pretty One Day

5 star:		(481)
4 star:		(169)
3 star:		(73)
2 star:		(54)
1 star:		(58)

 

 

I have to admit I was a bit hesitant to read this book. My feeling was that this was just a cheap attempt to capitalize on the success of "Naked", and to write a book that was essentially exactly the same. I'm happy to report that my fears were unfounded.

Sedaris again proves he is perhaps the funniest writer in America. The best pieces in here are funny to the point that I almost needed an oxygen tank to restore normal breathing after laughing so hard for so long. In fact, the funniest pieces are so good that when you get to a story that merely makes you chuckle softly to yourself, it seems like a let-down.

The most consistently hilarious stories in "Me Talk Pretty One Day" are the ones dealing with the odd idiosyncrosies of Sedaris' father. However, by far the funniest story of the bunch had to be "You Can't Kill the Rooster", about Sedaris' foul-mouthed, white trash younger brother.

Admittedly, I started to get somewhat disappointed about halfway through the book, as that is where a few stories that can be best described as "filler" seemed to seep in. But I am happy to report that at that point the book quickly moves to the stories detailing Sedaris' experience of living in France, and the hilarity starts all over again. Recommending this is simple...if you like to laugh, read it, if you hate laughing, don't read it.

In "Barrel Fever" and "Naked," David Sedaris let his imagination run wild in fictional stories. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" differs from his previous collections in that he confined these writings to autobiography. Fortunately, his essays based on truth are as hilarious (though perhaps not as wildly farfetched) as those he makes up entirely. Coming from a family that includes a "tanorexic," the Rooster (the name that DS's brother calls himself), a sister that wears fat suits and cosmetic bruises, a father that hordes spoiled fruit, and a mother who fills Easter baskets with cartons of cigarettes, he has an unusually rich background to draw from. The second half of the book deals with his life as an American living in Paris. In addition to the charming misanthropy that is his trademark, these essays provide some dead-on observations of Americans by an American.

One warning: avoid reading this collection in public if laughing so hard you soak yourself is something you might find at all embarrassing. David Sedaris is simply the funniest person writing today.

Ok. If an author can make you laugh about a drug addicted infant being murdered in a washing machine (check out **Barrel Fever**), he's either the funniest thing going...or you're just a sick so and so...

Hmmmm. kinda makes you wonder....

Anyway, This is another hell-larious collection of stories by one of the funniest authors to grip a pen. The first half of this great book kinda extends on the Sedaris family lore that was touched upon in Barrel Fever and Naked. We learn about David's mom who perks up the Easter baskets with tobacco products, his dad who has an unusual warmth for rotting fruit, his brother The Rooster (not to be confused with the family pet) and his wickedly funny sister (amy sedaris from the comedy central show 'strangers with candy').

The second half of this riotously funny book is a string of tales of Davids (mis)adventures as a misanthropic American in Paris. Gene Kelly he is not...but that's what makes it so smashingly silly...

I really dig this book because it has that rare abiltiy to make you laugh out loud. And that's priceless in itself. I also really dig this book because while reading this, part of you will be thinking 'this boy really has problems...what a screwy family...' and the other part of you will be thinking 'Oh, my gosh...that reminds me of my sister...that reminds me of my crazy father...'. Which ever camp you're sitting in, this book will charm you right out of your seat... David Sedaris may talk pretty someday, but he writes amazingly right now.... xo

My cousin, Lisa, and I share many satisfying and hilarous experiences (college roommates being just one), and for whatever reason, we are David Sedaris soulmates. After she read my review of "Naked" [...] she has been a fan. This year for my birthday, she paid me back ten-fold with "Me Talk Pretty One Day," the best Sedaris yet. Most of Sedaris' work is what you might call "sort of" autobiographical. I say, "sort of" because it is a little hard for me to believe all of what he writes is true - embellished truths? Absolutely. From his childhood in North Carolina (filled with wise-cracking, drinking, smoking mother, psycho younger brother (The "Rooster") and odd-ball father (to whom he dedicates the book), we read these funny short pieces about his speech therapist (a speech 'nazi'), his midget guitar teacher (his father had dreams of the kids being a famous musical group), his drug abuse experiences, and finally, a number of pieces about learning French and living in France, where he finds himself having followed his partner. I ended up reading pieces of this book (while on vacation) to whichever member of my family I could capture, and the two of us were generally reduced to tears. Believe it or not, the drug use pieces were a scream - incredibly pathetic but hysterical. The best was toward the end when Sedaris describes being in a French subway (obviously looking very French) and listening to a loud American man warn his wife that she should watch her pocketbook because this shifty-looking French guy (Sedaris!) behind her was likely to snatch her purse. All in all, like much of what I've read of Sedaris, any author who can reduce me to tears is a god-send. The best physical therapy in the world is to weep with laughter.

Don't ask me why, but I read a few of the stories from this book in the bathroom at work. Which wouldn't have been a problem had I not had to worry about others who were also using the bathroom at the same time. I know that had it been me that walked into a bathroom and heard muffled laughing coming from a closed stall, I'd have been pretty concerned for its occupant. To which I say to anyone who might have been there, or could imagine being there, I dare you to read any three of Sedaris' latest stories and not laugh outloud. Embarrasingly loud. Let he who is without a sense of humor cast the first stone.

Like Naked, Holidays on Ice and Barrel Fever, MTPOD is riotous fun with a good bit of scathing social commentary thrown in for good measure. Almost every story is a classic in its own way, from the bathroom humor of Big Boy, to the foul-mouthed sentimentality of You Can't Kill the Rooster. The second half of the book, mostly stories of Sedaris' move to France, is a change of pace from the remembrances of his North Carolina upbringing which make up most of the first half, but doesn't disappoint at all. Picka-Pocketoni, Jesus Shaves and the title story are wonderfully drawn and Sedaris writes comically without being a comedian.

I read this book to my in-laws on vacation recently. Every night, before we'd go to bed, I'd read a couple stories to put a humorous ending on another day at the beach. I like to think that they just like to hear me read, but I know the real reason everyone gathered every night was the feeling a Sedaris story leaves you with. Is there a more sure way to go to bed with a smile on your face. I'm not sure there is. I can't give a book of humor five stars, but I can highly recommend this offering by David Sedaris. Just don't read it in the bathroom at work.

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.

My mom bought this book for me, and after I told her it was one of the funniest things I've ever read, she decided she'd better read it, too. I'm writing this because, while she was reading the chapter on Easter, I could hear strange hiccuping giggles comming from her room, and I decided I'd better investigate. I looked in, and my mom was beet-red from laughing too hard and mopping at her eyes with tissues. Apparently, she laughed so hard that her eye cream melted into her eyes, and although it hurt, she just couldn't stop laughing. Eventually, my whole family came in and just gathered around watching her laugh herself stupid.

So yes, it's very very funny, but make sure you have an open mind towards drugs and sexuality before you read it. He never comes right out and says that he's gay or anything like that, but if you're gonna have a problem with gay relationships, don't buy this book. Because then you'd come onto Amazon and give it a bad review, and none of us want that for this extremely funny and well written book.

In his previous collections, Barrel Fever, Holidays on Ice, and Naked, Sedaris' works have been sometimes hilarious, sometimes disturbing and grim, and sometimes all three. His best works, though, were always the funny essays based on his own life. (Fortunately, he's weird enough that this works.) And in Me Talk Pretty One Day, he shows that he's realized where his strength lies.

The first portion of Me Talk Pretty, prosaically named One, contains more of his reminisces about his family. These stories are often funny, usually with an underlying tension, and their conclusions are usually wry or bittersweet. "Go Carolina" is a perfect example of these, talking about Sedaris' years in speech therapy as a child, and suggesting that perhaps his parents, teachers, and therapists were trying to fix something other than just a speech impediment.

Deux, the other half of the book, concerns Sedaris' life in France, especially his attempts to learn French. Most of the essays in Deux are truly hysterical. They're the kind of thing where, after a few minutes of reading, your eyes are tearing up from lack of oxygen and your loved one has awoken from a sound sleep (probably because the bed was vibrating with your laughter) and is threatening to call an ambulance or suffocate you with a pillow.

Deux has attractions in addition to the humor in the stories. It's nice to see that Sedaris can write - and write well - about something other than his screwy childhood and screwed-up history. Sooner or later Sedaris is bound to run out of humorous anecdotes about his past, and Me Talk Pretty is an indication that when he does, he'll still have good stuff to write about - his present. In fact, if this book is anything to go by, Sedaris' works will only improve on that day - in the distant future, of course - when he puts the past in, well, the past.

(Caveat: do not read this book in public places unless you enjoy looking like someone with a major nervous system disorder and a bronchial problem. Books like this are best enjoyed either by yourself or in the company of people who have to love you, no matter how strange you look.)

I agree with most of the enthusiastic comments below -- the pieces, especially the ones on living in France, are hilarious. I found myself guffawing loudly, despite my best efforts, while reading this book in a "quiet" academic study space. The glares were worth it. Still, it seems here that Sedaris is repeating himself. The material on his father is more than reminiscent of the stuff in _Naked_ (a wonderful boook), and, more seriously, it seems at times that Sedaris is looking for quirky situations to write about, and stretching them out to make an interesting tale. The stretchmarks are evident, and the result is an unfortunate sense of contrivance. This peeks in at the ends of several stories (his wrap-ups here are substandard), and it is most clear in the piece about the woman trapped in the amusement park ride. This problem emerged only briefly at the end of _Naked_, in the nudist camp sequence, which felt to me like a mission in search of weirdness without enough self-reflection about Sedaris's own position. I'd like to see Sedaris break out into a longer form, either in fiction or non-fiction, something more sustained and requiring a more concentrated effort of his brilliant comedic talent. This is, overall, deeply pleasureful to read: it would make a fine Father's Day gift for an open-minded dad.

This is how funny this book is. I had read it 2, maybe 3 times before I ever attempted to read any part of it out loud to anyone. It's so funny I still couldn't make it past about the third paragraph without having to stop reading because I was laughing so hard. I stopped every other paragraph throughout, choking and snorting and gasping with laughter. Really it was a shameful performance on my part. But this isn't the best indicator of how funny the book is. What should really tell you how funny the book is is that even though mine was not exactly a smooth or even fully comprehensible reading, my listener still laughed. A lot.

These essays are amazing. At times I thought that Sedaris has just had an unusually funny life filled with strange characters, that he has better material than the rest of us. But then I thought, shoot, I've taken language classes and spent time in a country where I didn't speak the language, and I didn't get even one really good story out of it. It takes talent to have seen the humor in many of these experiences, and talent to have preserved that humor on the page. Throughout the book Sedaris makes much of his drug-addled brain and mediocre intelligence, but he's clearly a genius.

I'm reading it for about the fifth time now, and I'm still laughing too loud.