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Me Talk Pretty One Day

david sedaris

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Anyone that has read NAKED and BARREL FEVER, or heard David Sedaris speaking live or on the radio will tell you that a new collection from him is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious new pieces, including 'Me Talk Pretty One Day', about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that 'every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section'. His family is another inspiration. 'You Can't Kill the Rooster' is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails.

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2000
Literary awards
lambda literary award, puddly award, thurber prize, 
Places
paris, raleigh north carolina, new york city new york, 

This edition

Format
272 pages, Paperback
Published
January 1, 2001 by Little, Brown and Company
ISBN
9780349113913
ASIN
0349113912
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • David Sedaris

    David Sedaris

    David Raymond Sedaris (born December 26, 1956) is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor who was nominated for a Grammy Award....

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About the author

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david sedaris

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David Raymond Sedaris is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "Santaland Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next book, Naked (1997), became his first of a series of New York Times Bestsellers, and his 2000 collection Me Talk Pretty One Day won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
Much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, his Greek heritage, homosexuality, jobs, education, drug use, and obsessive behaviors, as well as his life in France, London, New York, and the South Downs in England. He is the brother and writing collaborator of actress Amy Sedaris.
In 2019, Sedaris was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
37(37%)
4 stars
31(31%)
3 stars
31(31%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
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99 reviews All reviews
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MayorHunter2
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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با یکم رحم 5
عالی بود . مدتهاست دارم کتاب دن آرارم از شلوخف را میخونم . کتاب عالی و سنگینیه .برای متعادل شدن اون کتاب سنگین در طول روز واقعا به این کتاب شاد و خوب نیاز داشتم.
کتاب طنز گیرا و خوبی داشت.من کنسخه صوتی کتاب را داشتم . بعضی جاها توی اتوبوس اینقدر میخندیدم که همه برمیگشتن نگاهم میکردن. من که خیلی لذت بردم. بازم از سداریس خواهم خوند.
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Grey_Anime
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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جزو اولین کتاب هایی بود که
دوستم بعد از سال های متوالی کنکورم بهم داد.
منم با خوندنش و البته چندتا کتاب قرضی دیگ
دوباره برگشتم به دنیای کتاب ها
(و البته این دفعه برگشت ام پرقدرت تر بودم (به نظر خودم البته :دی
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Dakuren
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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بالاخره یه روزی قشنگ حرف می‌زنم مجموعه خاطرات زندگی دیوید سداریس نویسنده‌ی کتاب هست که با طنزی موقعیتی نوشته شده. کتاب به دو فصل تقسیم شده که دقیقا ضرورت تقسیم‌بندی کتاب به این دو فصل رو درک نکردم اما به طور کلی ماجرای داستان‌های فصل اول که بیشتر خاطرات مرتبط با خانواده را نوشته بود را بیشتر دوست داشتم. جسارت نویسنده قابل تحسین هست و خیلی نقص‌ها رو به زبان کاملا طنز بیان می‌کند.
این کتاب من را به یاد خاطرات کتاب عطر سنبل عطر کاج انداخت و خب آن یکی را خیلی بیشتر دوست داشتم که احتمالا بعد فرهنگی در این نکته نقش زیادی دارد.
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جملات ماندگار کتاب:
رویاپردازی‌ها دقیقا برای همین هستند: اجازه می‌دهند از بخش خفت‌بار قضیه صرف‌نظر کنی و یک‌راست بروی آن بالا.
...
بعد از این همه سال پدرم هنوز نفهمیده که ما، بچه‌هایش، جذب آدم‌هایی می‌شویم که او یک عمر ما را ازشان ترسانده.
...
وقتی که یه چیزی زد حالتو گرفت فقط بگو گور باباش و از شکلاتای نکبت بنداز بالا.
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MadDanchi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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از چندسال پیش که کار دانشجوییم تدریس زبان شد، این عادت رو پیدا کردم که در ذهنم کتابای ترجمه شده رو به انگلیسی برمی گردونم و سعی می کنم سردربیارم جملات اصلی نویسنده چی بودن. درمورد این کتاب، طنز آمریکایی به حدی مختص فرهنگ آمریکایی بود که ناچار شدم حقیقتا بعضی فصل ها رو به زبان اصلی بخونم تا درست و حسابی شوخی ها رو بفهمم.
با این که درک تمام شوخی های استندآپی نویسنده برام ساده نبود، از خوندنش لذت بردم
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Sylynoria
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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My, my, how far Mr. Sedaris has come. From raging about the rise of computers in this collection, to raving about his Fitbit in his latest collection. This essay, Nutcracker.com, now seems sadly outdated, along with those tape players and walkmans so frequently mentioned (not his fault, surely). Too many essays about learning French, and being a stupid américain, but given that it gives the collection its title, what did I expect?

There were a handful of excellent essays, and a few that were rather grating. Perhaps I've just had my fill of Sedaris? Based on the essays I enjoyed, I'm starting to think that I like reading about his quirky family more than I enjoy reading about him (with one or two exceptions).
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Gearfire
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A brief perusal of this book’s reviews is enough to demonstrate that people hold strong opinions on David Sedaris. Though five star reviews dominate, four of the top ten reviews give him only one or two stars, and all of these have triple digit votes (one has nearly one thousand). They accuse him of being mean and bitchy. They complain that his subject matter is boring and that he isn’t funny. Sedaris seems to have in common with Hilary Clinton that those who don’t like him really, really don’t like him.

Now sure, Sedaris can be mean and bitchy, but that’s honestly more of a feature than a glitch. It’s the spice that seasons his snarky humor. And yeah, if you don’t care for snark, you probably won’t find him funny: feel free to move along. As for his material being boring? Well, think of Sedaris as a far less verbose American Proust (the smell of his mother’s ever present cigarette taking the place of madeleines dipped in tea). He’s taken the minutia of his life — his odd family, growing up gay and neurotic in the South, his disastrous college art career — he has obsessed on them, has reshaped them, and has meticulously recreated these mundanities into something meaningful. Snarky as he is, his stories speak to us about the importance and the pain of family, about taking ourselves too seriously, about repurposing pain into humor. If you listen closely, these stories aren’t just about Sedaris — they touch things we all feel. And we laugh, because laughter is so much easier than tears.

As for this particular collection, I think it is one of his strongest. Whether he’s talking about speech therapy in school for his sissy lisp, (Go Carolina), pets, parents and death (The Youth in Asia), or his difficulty learning French after moving to France (Me Talk Pretty One Day) many of these pieces are outstanding and all of them are solid. I particularly laughed my way through his recounting of his failed college attempt at becoming an artist (Twelve Moments in the Life of an Artist):

”After a few months in my parents’ basement I took an apartment near the state university where I discovered both crystal methamphetamine and conceptual art. Either one of these things is dangerous, but in combination they have the potential to destroy entire civilizations.”

And as I say in all of my Sedaris reviews, listen to the audiobook. His pieces are written to be performed, and he always narrates his own books. (A couple of these pieces are performed with a live audience.) Sedaris singing TV jingles in a pitch perfect Billie Holiday voice alone is worth the price of the audiobook!
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DeidaraSanji
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Me No Think This Book is Very Funny


I have several audio books by Sedaris on my kindle. I can say that I didn’t like the one about the squirrel and chipmunk and deleted it after listening to it briefly. I just don’t like talking animals, which is why I disliked Animal Farm even though there was a message in it. You can imagine how I disliked cartoons at the movies when I was a child. When they were on it was time for me to go to the lobby and buy popcorn, Milk Duds, Flicks, and a cola that kept my mother broke because I had to go to the dentist often.Inow have what I will call Mercury Mouth.

At least this this book had no talking animals in it, just animals that I wished I could have saved from being in Sedaris’ parent’s household.

And then there was his father. I wish I could have saved Sedaris from him too. His father adds nothing to this book, because his stories about him are JUST not funny. One story that is about his father that stuck in my mind was when he talked about how his dad, upon seeing someone walking their dog, would yell out, “Are you walking him or is he walking you? Ha. Ha. Ha.” I have had men say this to me when they saw me walking my own dog, and I always hated it, but I learned to train my dogs to not pull on the leash, eventually. My thought now is that I should have released my dog and said, “Sic ‘em.” Or to be more kind, “Go say hello to the man,” as my dog runs up and jumped on him.

So now, if you choose to like my review, I will imagine that it is because I am giving you a link to to a much better review of this book that was written by a man who can tell a good story:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
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