Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris

[goodreads]

Title: Me Talk Pretty One Day
Author: David Sedaris
Genre: Non-fiction, memoir, essays
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 272 pages
Date read: April, 2010

"It's a pretty grim world when I can't even feel superior to a toddler." Welcome to the curious mind of David Sedaris, where dogs outrank children, guitars have breasts, and French toddlers unmask the inadequacies of the American male. Sedaris inhabits this world as a misanthrope chronicling all things petty and small. In Me Talk Pretty One Day Sedaris is as determined as ever to be nobody's hero--he never triumphs, he never conquers--and somehow, with each failure, he inadvertently becomes everybody's favorite underdog.

irinaauthor "forced" me to buy this when I met her in NYC last year. I'd heard David Sedaris mentioned in passing before, but never read anything by him, and as I trust Irina's judgement I went for it :)

I'm not quite sure I get the point of books like this (or "Travelling Mercies" or "Pitching My Tent" which are the same style). I don't mean that negatively, because as the rating indicates I clearly liked it, but it's not quite a memoir, not quite an autobiography... so what is it? What made the author choose to write this book of seemingly unconnected anecdotes, and what is it that made it so interesting for people to read? (And if he can't, why can't I? ;) )

I still don't have a good answer to those questions, but have simply come to the conclusion that whether or not I understand the purpose of them, I do enjoy books like this, and that may be purpose enough. I especially enjoyed reading about David Sedaris' troubles with learning the French language. I never felt that way about learning English (fortunately), but it reminded me very vividly of my experience with learning German... a language that I never took to, and have now mostly forgotten, but where I found myself grasping for words and coming up with exceedingly more convulted sentences as I tried to find the words I needed, and avoid any use of gender-based grammar!

A well-written and very funny book.

Comments

[mattiescottage.livejournal.com]

. . . and avoid any use of gender-based grammar!

Ha-ha! Don't I know that feeling! It's infuriating (and embarrassing) when you know the grammar but have long forgotten the genders of the nouns necessary to execute the grammar properly.