Me Talk Pretty One Day

Every glimpse we get of Sedaris's family and acquaintances delivers laughs and insights. He thwarts his North Carolina speech therapist ("for whom the word pen had two syllables") by cleverly avoiding all words with s sounds, which reveal the lisp she sought to correct. His midget guitar teacher, Mister Mancini, is unaware that Sedaris doesn't share his obsession with breasts, and sings "Light My Fire" all wrong--"as if he were a Webelo scout demanding a match." As a remarkably unqualified teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sedaris had his class watch soap operas and assign "guessays" on what would happen in the next day's episode.

It all adds up to the most distinctively skewed autobiography since Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia. The only possible reason not to read this book is if you'd rather hear the author's intrinsically funny speaking voice narrating his story. In that case, get Me Talk Pretty One Day on audio. --Tim Appelo

Product Description
A new collection from David Sedaris is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris has inspired hilarious pieces, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, about his attempts to learn French. His family is another inspiration. You Cant Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers and cashiers with 6-inch fingernails. Compared by The New Yorker to Twain and Hawthorne, Sedaris has become one of our best-loved authors.

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.


Weep with laughter - it's good for your health!   August 5, 2000
R. Peterson (Leverett, MA)
46 out of 50 found this review helpful

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.


Because My Mom Won't Write It   October 14, 2000
29 out of 31 found this review helpful

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.


David Sedaris has figured it out   August 10, 2000
Ivy (Los Angeles, CA)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

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.)


A wonderful, biting collection of offbeat essays   August 30, 2000
Lee Kessler (Schaumburg, IL USA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

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.