Me Talk Pretty One Day

I chose Me Talk Pretty One Day when challenged to read a short story or essay collection. This humorous book had always been on my to-read list, partly because I knew people who loved David Sedaris and partly because the title intrigued me. I am a speech-language pathologist, and friends told me the book did not paint a pretty picture of us. One theme throughout the memoir is communication. Yes, the story of attending speech therapy as a kid presented a negative experience. But one thing I found intriguing was that, since he resisted perfecting his lisp, he learned the art of “circumlocution,” avoiding all words with the /s/ sound. He increased his vocabulary dramatically. I’m sure that helped him later in his writing. On the surface, Sedaris’ writing is entertaining. But it also addresses social issues gently, with humor. First, he makes us laugh, and then he makes us think. Social class differences are another theme. He travels back in time and writes about his experience of living in North Carolina as a transplanted kid from New York. His parents wanted him to blend in, but not to the point of saying “y’all” or chewing tobacco. Back in NYC as a young adult, he earned money as a mover and has a lot to say about that experience, during which he saw all walks of life and described the city as much more hopeful from afar. Finally, the social differences he writes humorously about include sexual preference and gender inequities. One of the funniest (and then poignant) stories is about his sister Amy, who donned a “fat suit” to visit the family after a long absence, just to get a reaction from their father, who thought her appearance was her most valuable trait. All being told, Sedaris uses his memories to make us laugh… and then think.

David Sedaris’s “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is a collection of humorous essays published in 2000. Did I say humorous? I meant laugh-out-loud hilarious, in many instances. Several of the essays first appeared in the New Yorker, so Sedaris follows a time-honored path tread by E.B. White, James Thurber and other fine American essayists who graced the magazine’s pages. The similarities don’t end there. Like Thurber and other humorists, Sedaris writes of his family’s pets during the years of his youth. When in “The Youth of Asia” essay the author talks about his Great Dane, I’m reminded of my own deep affection for our family’s cat. And like other American humorists, Sedaris writes about his family. Encouraged by his father who loved jazz, Sedaris took voice lessons. However, he aspired to sing not jazz standards but commercial jingles – in the voice of Billie Holiday. I giggled as I read in “Great Dreams, Midget Abilities” of Sedaris crooning Sara Lee and Oscar Mayer jingles in Lady Day’s inimitable voice. Sedaris’s father saved lots of things, including food. He’d squirrel away even ripening produce in unlikely places to eat at a later time. “I used to think of this as standard Greek behavior until I realized that ours was the only car in the church parking lot consistently swarmed by bees,” explains Sedaris in “I’ll Eat What He’s Wearing.” But family and pets aren’t his only foils. And this is where Sedaris departs from iconic American humorists. He’s downright edgy, and candid, writing of his meth habit in “Twelve Moments in the Life of an Artist.” “I took an apartment near the state university, where I discovered both crystal methamphetamine and conceptual art. Either one of these things is dangerous, but in combination they have the potential to destroy entire civilizations. … Speed eliminates all doubt. … Do I really look all right in this plastic jumpsuit? A speed enthusiast knows that everything he says or does is brilliant.” Sedaris is at his best, perhaps, sharing his struggle to learn French. His husband has a second home in Normandy, and the couple spends time both there and in Paris, so the author attends French immersion classes. In “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” Sedaris and his fellow pupils, gathered outside the classroom, console one another in their challenge to master the language: “Sometime me cry alone at night.” “That be common for I, also, but be more strong, you. Much work and someday you talk pretty.” Sedaris’s sister tries to help, mailing him a copy of Pocket Medical French. “I was quickly able to learn such sparkling conversational icebreakers as ‘Remove your dentures and all your jewelry’ and ‘You now need to deliver the afterbirth.’ … That’s me at the glittering party, refilling my champagne glass and turning to ask my host if he’s noticed any unusual discharge,” writes Sedaris in “The Tapeworm Is In.” These pages of Sedaris’s collection of essays make me laugh out loud. Not in the privacy of my home, mind you, but publicly at a coffee shop. That’s how funny, and good, “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is.

CAUTION: "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is one of the FUNNIEST books you'll EVER read. You'll laugh out loud until you're embarrassed. You'll roar at wisecracks so biting and mean that you'll feel guilty. And if you read a certain (in)famous chapter you'll howl with laughter, pretend you shouldn't have read it -- and read it again...and howl.. again. The acid-pen Sedaris shot to fame reading his humorous stories over National Public Radio (and he still insisted on cleaning houses for money). The book's first half has stories on various subjects (family, art class, teaching writing, working for tough bosses etc.). The second deals with his experiences in moving to France with his lover. Sedaris spares no one -- not his father, sister, teachers, artists or himself -- from his scapel-sharp, insight-filled humor. Some wisecracks are instant classics. When he tries to become an artist, dabbling in questionable performance art, he writes of artists: "Their artworks were known as `pieces,' a phrase I enthusiastically embraced. `Nice piece,' I'd say. In my eagerness to please, I accidentally complimented chipped baseboards and sacks of laundry waiting to be taken to the cleaners. Anything might be a piece if you looked at it hard enough." When a museum wants him to do some performance art it seemed "as though I should play hard to get, but after a moment or two of awkward silence, I agreed to do it for what I called `political reasons.' I needed the money for drugs." In a chapter detailing the lives and deaths of his various pets: "When my mother died and was cremated herself we worried that, acting on instinct, our father might run out and immediately replace her." When he's invited to teach: "I was clearly unqualified yet I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name Mr. Sedaris." And what a sadistic French teach told him:"Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section." In his most innovative "piece," a chapter called Big Boy, he describes his battle with (ahem) something he sees in a toilet. You'll roar while you read this short three page story and hate yourself for reading it...and read it again. The book contains some adult language and adult situations. DESERVES MORE THAN FIVE STARS!!

The first half of the book contain personal stories of David from his time in the US ever since he was a child. Some of the stories were compelling and interesting while others seemed to fall flat and I questioned what was the point of these stories. Even when trying to find the humor that everyone claims that is in this book, I have had laughed seriously for only one part in this book. Maybe it's because I am out of touch since this book was written in 2001 and I am reading this in early 2023, but I did not find any of his humor to be as compelling as I thought. The second half of the book is where the book definitely seems to shine, since this is supposed to be about his time France and his struggles with the French language. I loved all of those essays with the exception of two. I feel like my biggest issue with this book is that even though David is supposed to be the main center of attention with his personal narratives, I tend to feel no sympathy for the guy and he seems rather arrogant to me in his story telling. Maybe that is his personal way of telling funny jokes, but he does seem to be quite self-centered and arrogant in the way these stories are written. I tend to feel more for all of the other members that are involved such as his family members and others. I think I say this mainly because the first half of the book didn't hit hard in terms of comedy or seeing David as a funny man. Most of the stories that were wrapped around him in the first half seemed rather dull and dumb to me. I get some of the jokes that he tries to make, but a lot of the stories seem more bizarre to me. Probably it's better to hear those stories in an audio book, but even then I don't think I found him as interesting as his family members like his father and the one called "The Rooster" David does shine better in the second half of the book and his stories are a lot more interesting. Some of his ways of telling his story in a comedic fashion didn't seem as childish to me, but rather clever and witty compared to the first half. This is with the expectation of the two stories. Overall I had mixed feelings of this book as the whole, but the stories I did enjoy were definitely some of the most interesting stories I read in non-fiction literature. I would only go back again to read a few essays, but not all of them. I would only read 5 out of 12 stories from the first half, while almost all of them in the second. If you were gonna buy this book, I suggest only reading the second half rather than the first, but as I stubborn reader I am, I need to read everything.

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’d heard enough about the author’s wit and humor to finally purchase one of his books. I didn’t realize it was a compilation of his short stories which was initially confusing but I found a number of them hilarious. Although he’s no Mark Twain, I found his insights and cultural euphemisms and political correctness helped lighten up my day. I can’t imagine him trying to convince family members to share some of the more outrageous stories about them. He’s teamed up with his sister Amy on several projects. She was brilliant when in one of his stories, she imitated a family friend and propositioned their father—making Sedaris one of the kings of parental grief giving. On the whole, the author’s childhood memories were quite entertaining although I bought the book for his cross cultural witticism and stories of how language—or a lack of understanding it can have dire and very humorous consequences. His insights into the French was entertaining and insightful although not as well developed as Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Bartow. But I enjoyed his quips about French language: Nothing in France is free from sexual assignment. I was leafing through the dictionary, trying to complete a home-work assignment, when I noticed the French had prescribed genders for the various land masses and natural wonders we Americans had always thought of as sexless, Niagara Falls is feminine and, against all reason, the Grand Canyon is masculine….I wonder whose job it was to assign these sexes in the first place…. The author has become incredibly popular with seven million copies of his books in print after being translated into 25 languages. He’s been on several late night comedy shows lately and he does stand-up comedy. He’s the author of an anthology of stories, “Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories” and his essays appear regularly in Esquire and the New Yorker. He’s been at it for a while—he became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American humor in 2001. Sadaris and his sister Amy, have collaborated under the name “The Talent Family” and have written several plays which have been produced at Lincoln Center. He’s also been nominated for two Grammys for Best Spoken Word Album ("Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim") and Best Comedy Album ("David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall"). The author is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and BBC Radio4 and he lives in England. He’s become a humorist icon in our country and this book was well worth the read.

RuPaul declared David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day" the book of the month, honey, and let me tell you, this ain't your mama's self-help manual. Think more "Sister Act" meets "Everything I Know About I Learned in Kindergarten" with a healthy dose of dysfunction. Sedaris takes us on a wild ride through his family life, his struggles with French class (spoiler alert: it doesn't go well), and various other adventures that are equal parts horrifying and hilarious. Imagine your most flamboyant aunt with a bottomless mimosa glass narrating her life story, and you've got the gist. You'll snort-laugh at his deadpan delivery and wince at some of the family jewels he unashamedly throws on the table. Is it heartwarming? Not exactly. Is it entertaining as heck? Absolutely! Just don't blame me if you start saying "Bonjour" in a sassy French accent after this wild ride. Sashay away, and get this book, girl!

What is there to say? If you like David Sedaris, you'll like this book. I first discovered him many moons ago, the first time he read "Santa Land Diaries" on public radio's "This American Life". When it was re-broadcast I recorded it, and I still have that cassette tape. Played that for my daughter, who then read the story. She knows it by heart. I even photocopied that story from the book "Barrel Fever" and used it in a high school English class I was teaching. When I recently noticed that "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is the only Sedaris book we do not own, so I got a paperback on Amazon, then noticed a hard cover 1st edition that had been in my "save for later" basket and immediately got that as well at its original, much lower price, which had been saved in my basket. (Discovered on arrival that the book itself is 1st edition, but the dust cover is new -- but it doesn't matter, as I'm not a "collector". Both are in mint condition. This was in great condition too.) This is not the only Sedaris book of which we have two copies, either on purpose or by accident. They're worth having, giving, lending. Then, after buying this one and looking it over briefly, I realized I had read it before. Must have taken it out of the library many years ago. But it's just as good now as before. Maybe better. Hey, what else is there to say? If you like David Sedaris' stories and essays you will enjoy this book. 20 years ago, listening to audio tapes of a different one in the car (Sedaris reading, of course), during one story we had to pull over to the side of the road because I was laughing so hard. Seriously. I encourage all who read this review (what a ridiculous thing to write -- a REVIEW!) to buy this and his other books as well. You will love them. And I hope his father, Lou, is reading this, as he calculates the grains of sand on the beach with a stick and many equations. (Inside joke -- you have to read the book.)

I heard David Sedaris read from selections of his work on radio 4 and he made me laugh out loud. So I ordered this book and it has had me in stitches, he is just so funny! I have enjoyed reading it so much. I read the book in one weekend, snatching every spare moment to join Mr Sedaris in his hilarious and very dry world. If you're a fan of witty writing, clever one liners and a rye look at the world you'll love it. If you're a pious patronising dullard, it's not for you! I can't believe I haven't heard of him til now. I have told all of my friends who already know just what a gift this man has for writing. If you don't love this book, you are everything that is wrong with the world. Buy it if you're modern, liberal, or just like fun....don't buy it if you're dull, conservative and stupid!

Quelle découverte, quel humour décapant, je sais David S très connu et c'est justifié.C'est drôle très drôle, l'auteur est unique et j'adore!

Como sempre

A entrega do Sebo Mosaico foi rápida e o vendedor atencioso. O livro é incrível, uma leitura muito divertida e que com certeza vale a pena.

Enjoyed this. Great writer. It gets funnier as you work your may to the end.