Me Talk Pretty One Day

I usually don't really read humorous books but this one was really good. The quality of the book was also great!

Easy read, funny stories.

Without reading far into this book, it's easy to see that it is the French language edition of "Me Talk Pretty One Day". A few things get lost in the translation, but if you speak French, it's a great read.

There aren't many writers who can force me to laugh out loud, but David Sedaris can--and did. Before reading Me Talk Pretty One Day, I knew Sedaris only through his semiregular commentaries on NPR's This American Life. Now I can't wait to read the rest of his books.Sedaris's writing style is utterly unique, and his ability to summon thoughts and feelings from days long gone make him a wonderfully vivid storyteller. I don't know a single person like him--let's just say his background is not that of the "typical" American--which is one of the reasons why I found his essays such a pleasure to read.The first half of the book was great, but the second half, chronicling Sedaris's experiences living in France, was my favorite--especially a brilliant essay on how an American abroad views other Americans.I'd say more, but I went to the library yesterday and have two other Sedaris books waiting for my attention.

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.)

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.