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Title: Me Talk Pretty One Day
Author: David Sedaris
Genre: Humor/memoir/essays
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: A collection of self-effacing essays about why Sedaris and his family are so gosh-darn weird.
Thoughts: If you're a regular listener of This American Life, at least some of these stories are going to be familiar. Sedaris tends to routinely strike that tone of poignant ruefulness at the way life tends to betray us that TAL embraces; as a result, they've used a number of his essays over the years.
Like many of the best essayists, Sedaris strikes me as the kind of person who would probably be delightful at someone else's party and probably a miserable inclusion in your own life. He plays up the persona, of course--it's hard to tell how much of a loser he really is and how much is just framed for effect. His parents and siblings get perhaps slightly kinder treatment, but still a humorously brutal rake over the coals.
There's a certain middlebrow profundity, encircled by a desperate awareness of both the profoundness and middlebrowness. Sedaris is nothing if not self-aware. He rolls his eyes with us at his own pretentious youth, while dragging out a self-realization or a crystallized statement which has something meaningful to say and placing it in front of us for praise, all while waving his hands, no no, this old thing? don't be silly. His cleverness, his desperation to be thought clever, and his embarrassment at said desperation is somehow endearing. (I would know nothing of such impulses.) While making me rather glad not to have to deal with him in person.
Oh yeah, and it's funny.
Author: David Sedaris
Genre: Humor/memoir/essays
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: A collection of self-effacing essays about why Sedaris and his family are so gosh-darn weird.
Thoughts: If you're a regular listener of This American Life, at least some of these stories are going to be familiar. Sedaris tends to routinely strike that tone of poignant ruefulness at the way life tends to betray us that TAL embraces; as a result, they've used a number of his essays over the years.
Like many of the best essayists, Sedaris strikes me as the kind of person who would probably be delightful at someone else's party and probably a miserable inclusion in your own life. He plays up the persona, of course--it's hard to tell how much of a loser he really is and how much is just framed for effect. His parents and siblings get perhaps slightly kinder treatment, but still a humorously brutal rake over the coals.
There's a certain middlebrow profundity, encircled by a desperate awareness of both the profoundness and middlebrowness. Sedaris is nothing if not self-aware. He rolls his eyes with us at his own pretentious youth, while dragging out a self-realization or a crystallized statement which has something meaningful to say and placing it in front of us for praise, all while waving his hands, no no, this old thing? don't be silly. His cleverness, his desperation to be thought clever, and his embarrassment at said desperation is somehow endearing. (I would know nothing of such impulses.) While making me rather glad not to have to deal with him in person.
Oh yeah, and it's funny.
