Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
I've heard several pieces by David Sedaris on NPR before, but this is the first book of his that I've read. It's a collection of short autobiographical stories that are uncomfortably funny, by which I mean they're often the sort of thing that makes you wince and laugh at the same time.
The stories cover a broad range of topics, from speech therapy for his lisp to his foul-mouthed North Carolina-raised brother (who calls himself "Rooster") to a number of anecdotes about living in France and learning French (including the title story). One of my favorites is "The Late Show," a series of movie plots (starring himself) which he fantasizes about while lying awake in bed. He also has a wonderful commentary ("Today's Special) about the difficulty of getting normal food in New York restaurants:
The current food is always arranged into a senseless, vertical tower. No longer content to recline, it now reaches for the sky, much like the high-rise buildings lining our city streets. It's as if the plates were valuable parcels of land and the chef had purchased one small lot and unlimited air rights... It stands there in the center while the rest of the vast, empty plate looks though it's been leased out as a possible parking lot.In short, a great collection of very funny stories that make you glad you're not him.
Fed to jonathan's brain | January 31, 2005
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