The David Sedaris Box Set [AUDIOBOOK] (Audio CD)

~ David Sedaris (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Star radio storyteller David Sedaris presents his collected works in one audio box set. The longest (at five hours) is his latest, Me Talk Pretty One Day, which contains two live performances from San Francisco. Welcome to a world where dogs outrank children, guitars have breasts, and Sedaris's fellow language-class students try to convey the concept of Easter to a Moroccan Muslim in their fledgling French (translated into English): "It is a party for the little boy of God," says one. "Then he be die one day on two ... morsels of ... lumber," says another. Sedaris is hilarious, and his Billie Holiday impression is amazing.

The three-hour, Christmas-themed Holidays on Ice is the gem of the collection. It has his greatest hit, "SantaLand Diaries," a chronicle of his stint as an elf at Macy's, covering everything from the preliminary group lectures ("You are not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn't be here. You're an elf and you're going to wear panties like an elf.") to the perils of inter-elf flirtation. Other hits feature the crazed newsletter "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" and the prostitute coworker his sister brought home one Yuletide, giving "the phrase 'ho, ho, ho' whole different meaning." Barrel Fever contains the fulminatingly funny "Glen's Homophobia Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 2" and "Parade," discussing the narrator's perhaps not fully plausible gay relationships with Bruce Springsteen, Mike Tyson, and Peter Jennings. Naked describes his adventures in a nudist colony, but his family tales are, as ever, nonpareil. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Description

All of David Sedaris' best in one box set, now on CD and at 20% off the combined CD prices of individual titles! The set includes ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY with a full hour of bonus tracks not available on cassette; NAKED; HOLIDAYS ON ICE; and BARREL FEVER AND OTHER STORIES. This timeless collection combines poignancy, humor, and the sparkling imagination of one of America's best-loved humorists.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Time Warner Audio Books; Abridged edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586214349
• ISBN-13: 978-1586214340
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.3 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #141,338 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

122 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PURE JOY, February 11, 2001

By	MOVIE MAVEN (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The David Sedaris Box Set (Audio Cassette)

There is only one thing better, funnier, laff-out-loud more hilarious than reading David Sedaris' short stories: hearing them read to you by Sedaris, himself. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed all of Sedaris' published work, but I first came across him driving to work and hearing Sedaris on the radio read about his Christmas experience at Macy's Department Store in his "Santaland Diaries." I was laughing so loud and so hard that I, literally, had to pull my car off of the highway. Almost every story on these tapes is that funny and that insightful. Are they all top notch? Probably not. But there is so much pure joy on these tapes (on which Sedaris is aided and abetted by his sister, actress/writer, Amy Sedaris)that I'm willing to give 5 stars to comic writing that sometimes falls from brilliance to mere hilarity.

120 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You MUST buy this!, November 30, 2000

By	Andrew Knight "cappomutato" (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The David Sedaris Box Set (Audio Cassette)

I first heard of Sedaris through This American Life (An amazing Public Radio show) and immediately bought and read his books. David's writing is beyond belief, but hearing David read them (along with his sister Amy and one story read by Ann Magnuson) brings everything to a new level. While the tapes are abridged, the stories he reads, he reads in full. There are different versions than what is read on This American Life, and he sings some different songs than on TAL (in the style of Billie Holiday). Santaland Diaries are even longer than the TAL uncut version. I did prefer Julia Sweeney's rendetion of Merry Christmas(Seasons Greetings) to Our Friends and Family over Ann Magnuson's. This set is 14 hours long (10 Tapes). At the end of most of the books, there is an additional track of David singing or talking/laughing.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Can't Kill the Rooster, November 30, 2004

By	Jeremy W. Forstadt (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fourteen hours of David Sedaris! Are you kidding me? The DAVID SEDARIS BOX SET is almost too much of a good thing. As I have no doubt stated elsewhere, the best way to experience David Sedaris apart from going to a live reading is to hear his work on the radio or through his audio recordings. The DAVID SEDARIS BOX SET offers the most substantial collection of his audio recordings to date.

Those parts of his live performance which do not translate as well to written text include his Billie Holiday style of singing, the rendition of The Rooster (from "You Can't Kill the Rooster:" Amy does it here, though I've heard David do it to perfection live), and his attempts at speaking French (translated into broken English in "Me Talk Pretty This Day," "Jesus Shaves," and others). All are well represented in this comprehensive collection. This box set includes his work from "Santaland Diaries," "Barrel Fever," "Naked," "Me Talk Pretty One Day," as well as some bonus tracks.

At the current price, this collection is an incomparable value and I highly recommend it for anyone's audio collection.

Jeremy W. Forstadt