 "Meh..." | 2009-09-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2MHK2WJZ7HJ5N |
| I was enjoying the book in the beginning, when David was dealing with his lisp and all. Sedaris is a very witty writer and I appreciate that. However, by the middle of the book I was losing interest. The character became less witty and more irritating as he progressed through adulthood in Paris. He led a life so sad, even Sedaris failed at putting an interesting spin on it. |
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 "Not so much" | 2009-08-30 |
| - Reviewed By tbtswb123 |
| Dont see what the big deal is. This guy is only moderately funny at best. There were two chapters that even elicited a chuckle. His sister Amy is much funnier. Dont waste your time with David. |
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 "Very funny, but don't read it all at once" | 2009-08-26 |
| - Reviewed By claffeyh |
David Sedaris writes humour of the New Yorker, and does so very successfully. I read one of his articles about a fellow airline passenger who was weeping due to a recent bereavement. Sederis, initially sympathetic, reminisced about his own past bereavements - mainly broken hearts - and how he had used them to assume a sympathetic persona. He concluded the article by thinking how his fellow passenger was just a tad overdoing the tears. It was quite a complex piece, done with pace and humour. I like it so much I bought this book.
It's a collection of pieces which I presume were articles published separately before. I committed my usual mistake, and read the book from cover to cover, so that by the end there was a certain staleness and sameness to the articles. However, in general, I think the first section - dealing with Sedaris' family and youth were very funny. His family is of Greek origin, his father, sister and brother seem odd enough to provide even a less gifted humourist with material Sederis himself in gay, and grew up with a lisp for which he went to speech therapy - the first story, about the Speech Therapist, is for me, the best in the book. He manages to poke fun at himself, at his parents for sending him, and he exacts revenge (after all these years) on the speech therapist herself; all while keeping the reader interested and on his side. Remarkable.
The second section of the book is a lot less interesting. He goes to France with his boyfriend, and has funny things to say about the French, about American's in France and about French language and culture. Even though the humourous tone is maintained, and he tries to be ironic about the `gee-whiz' nature of American's observing the French, I think he falls into his own trap here. A much better book on this is Adam Gopnick's (another New Yorker writer) `Paris to the Moon'.
Nonetheless, the book is well worth a read. The humour is sustained and there were several times I laughed out loud. If you can dip into and out of this book over time, I think it's very rewarding .
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| "What a boring disappointment!" | 2009-07-28 |
| - Reviewed By User: A37KH5O29CTT2P |
| I was looking for a good laugh, and many reviews led me to believe that Sedaris would come through, but this book is a disaster. I got a minor chuckle at best, and a great put-me-to-sleep at worst. If you're hoping for humor, go elsewhere. |
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 "Me talk" | 2009-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A14M9F0NMDTMSL |
| The item came in the exact description as was given to me at time of sale. The book wasn't as funny as the author's other published works but that is okay. |
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| "Ah...good old David Sedaris..." | 2009-06-24 |
| - Reviewed By wendy05 |
...reading his stories is like watching your crazy neighbors scrapping next door through a hole in the wall, and it's hard not to look away. You just think...thank God that's not my family! Like his other books, Me Talk Pretty is made up of numerous humorous (and hopefully exaggerated) anecdotes from Mr. Sedaris' recent and not-so-recent past.
In the first story, a young David hilariously attempts to outwit the Agent--actually a young female speech therapist assigned to rid him of his lisp. About halfway through the book, after self-depracating discussions of his failures as guitar student, performance artist, and creative writing teacher who pulls his lesson plans from daytime Soaps, Sedaris again broaches the topic of "talking pretty". This time, he is trying to learn French. He wants to live with his boyfriend in a tiny Normandy village, which is difficult if the only French word you know is "ashtray".
I thought the depictions of his French class and village life were the highlight of this collection, especially "Jesus Shaves" and it's discussion of Easter. When Sedaris makes the faux pas of mentioning the American tradition of the Easter Bunny, his (decidedly masochistic) French instructor corrects him: "here in France, a giant bell flies in from Rome bringing chocolate for all the boys and girls." David observes that "a bell has all the personality of a cast-iron skillet." And when a Moroccan muslim student asks about the point of Easter the other students, in their limited vocabulary, provide comic, wholly inadequate explanations.
Bottom line: extremely addicting fare from Mr. Sedaris...laugh-out-loud funny in a macabre sort of way. |
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