Me Talk Pretty One Day - a Book Review

Until recently, I'd never read any of David Sedaris' work. I was familiar with his name, and I had noticed the striking book covers of his essay compilations, white boxer shorts, a smoking skull, and a stark blackboard, but I didn't have the foggiest notion of what lay behind them. I thought he was just another tall-tale male memoir-writer.

It turns out the old adage, don't judge a book by its cover, holds true. I had been ignoring one of the best humor writers I've ever read.

After picking up Me Talk Pretty One Day, I spent nights laughing out loud and repeating many outrageous passages to anyone who would listen. Sedaris' brutally honest voice spares no one: from the speech therapist in his elementary school to whom all the effeminate boys were sent, to the loud American tourists in Paris who assumes no one speaks English. Each chapter stands alone, touching on incidents from different parts of his life. He depicts scenes from his childhood and describes his father and siblings, making them all come to life with amusing anecdotes.

I happened to be reading the sections about his time in France while we were in France and I particularly enjoyed his chapter about his struggles with the French language. I loved the powerful image of Sedaris holding in his hands the notebook of all the words he had acquired in a year. "It was an odd sensation to hold my entire vocabulary in my hands, to look back through the stack and recall the afternoon I learned to effectively describe my hangovers." I also found the dialogue of his fellow French students particularly hilarious. "Sometime me cry alone at night." "That be common for I, also, but be more strong, you. Much work and someday you talk pretty. People start love you soon. Maybe tomorrow, okay."

You can read Sedaris' writing as I did, in one big gulp punctuated with loud guffaws, or in small doses, with little silent chuckles. Just don't make my mistake and ignore him.