|
Loading... Me Talk Pretty One Dayby David Sedaris
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
Loading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I laughed out loud more than I have at any book in a very long time. These autobiographical essays are hilarious. They cover a lot of ground, from wacky family quirks to Sedaris's difficulties with the French language, but every one is told in the same dry tone where the absurdities almost sneak up on you. I'll definitely have to pick up some more Sedaris sometime. (  ) melydia | Oct 28, 2009 |  Another great collection of drop-dead acidly funny stories from the life of the author, a gay American male of Greek extraction who spends part of his time living in France with his boyfriend Hugh. Sedaris is so pointedly self-deprecating it almost constitutes self-abuse. He writes in an elegantly humorous style that is frequently punctuated with nuggets of pure hilarity that had me unexpectedly snorting. There is even a semi-profound passage, at the end of "I Almost Saw This Girl Get Killed". Also, after reading about her in her brother's book, I have to track down what Amy Sedaris has written. (  ) burnit99 | Oct 8, 2009 | Fun read! There are some of the stories that are definitely laugh-out-loud funny! ( ) ahooper04 | Oct 6, 2009 | I love stories about Hugh. ( ) pilarflores | Sep 29, 2009 | Sedaris constantly makes me laugh--even when I don't mean to. Because of all the times I've listened to him on TAL, I can constantly hear his voice narrating the stories in my head as I read. So funny. I love the France stories in this collection! ( ) elissajanine | Sep 24, 2009 | 
 Whereas ''Naked'' reads like a series of overlapping autobiographical essays, this volume feels more like a collection of magazine pieces or columns on pressing matters like the care and feeding of family pets and the travails of dining in Manhattan. But if Mr. Sedaris sometimes sounds as though he were making do with leftover material, ''Talk Pretty'' still makes for diverting reading.  The gifted Sedaris has not been hard enough on himself. At the risk of sounding patronizing, I suspect there is a better writer in there than he is as yet willing to let out. This collection is, in its way, damned by its own ambitious embrace of variety; with so many pieces assembled, the stronger ones always punish the weaker... But reading or listening to David Sedaris is well worth the lulls for the thrills.
Amazon.com Amazon.com Audiobook Review (ISBN 0316776963, Paperback)"It's a pretty grim world when I can't even feel superior to a toddler." Welcome to the curious mind of David Sedaris, where dogs outrank children, guitars have breasts, and French toddlers unmask the inadequacies of the American male. Sedaris inhabits this world as a misanthrope chronicling all things petty and small. In Me Talk Pretty One Day Sedaris is as determined as ever to be nobody's hero--he never triumphs, he never conquers--and somehow, with each failure, he inadvertently becomes everybody's favorite underdog. The world's most eloquent malcontent, Sedaris has turned self-deprecation into a celebrated art form--one that is perhaps best experienced in audio. "Go Carolina," his account of "the first battle of my war against the letter s" is particularly poignant. Unable to disguise the lisp that has become his trademark, Sedaris highlights (to hilarious extent) the frustration of reading "childish s-laden texts recounting the adventures of seals or settlers named Sassy or Samuel." Including 23 of the book version's 28 stories, two live performances complete with involuntary laughter, and an uncannily accurate Billie Holiday impersonation, the audio is more than a companion to the text; it stands alone as a performance piece--only without the sock monkeys. (Running time: 5 hours, 4 cassettes) --Daphne Durham(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:52 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
Abebooks |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
