I laughed til hiccups. Twice. Possibly the last person alive to read this but I'm caught up now. I'm so glad I listened to the AB for this one — that definitely took it to the next level.

What to make of David Sedaris, this is my first venture into this territory. Quite simply this is a collection of essays about Sedaris’s life and times and could be termed observational comedy. The essays are split into two parts, the second focussing on his time living in France with his partner Hugh. The move to France provoked a number of these essays, especially attempts to learn the language.
There is a good deal of focus on Sedaris’s family, especially his father. Sedaris is also adept at employing an outsider perspective as he expresses his bafflement at aspects of life. A good deal of vitriol is reserved for Americans abroad and in general:
“Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos are born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!”
Sedaris’s humour and wit is often directed at individuals he knows and sometimes groups. He is equally able though to turn it against himself and his own frailties:
“For the first twenty years of my life, I rocked myself to sleep. It was a harmless enough hobby, but eventually, I had to give it up. Throughout the next twenty-two years I lay still and discovered that after a few minutes I could drop off with no problem. Follow seven beers with a couple of scotches and a thimble of good marijuana, and it’s funny how sleep just sort of comes on its own. Often I never even made it to the bed. I’d squat down to pet the cat and wake up on the floor eight hours later, having lost a perfectly good excuse to change my clothes. I’m now told that this is not called “going to sleep” but rather “passing out,” a phrase that carries a distinct hint of judgment”
Sedaris is so quotable that it would be very easy to fill the rest of this with witty one liners. I suspect this is not Sedaris’s best work and there have been recent debates about whether what Sedaris writes is fiction or non-fiction. Sedaris argues they are both true and exaggerated. It is easy to read, but I still find myself not entirely convinced and I’m not sure why, but it is funny

I came into this book expecting the voice of a pretentious, self-indulgent white male, and I finished this book smirking along with this funny, pretentious, and self-indulgent white male. I cannot judge David Sedaris as I do not know his true personality, but he portrays a quirky character in these essays. He reflects on concepts such as speech and family, and several of his pieces draw inspiration from his experience as an American living in France. While some of Sedaris's creative nonfiction - emphasis on the "fiction," according to several sources - veers into hollow and pompous territories, I still found myself chuckling as he detailed his struggle with his speech therapist and his thoughts on crossword puzzles.

My favorite essays include "Go Carolina," "21 Down," and "Picka Pocketoni," entertaining anecdotes in which Sedaris takes himself down a peg or two. I would recommend this collection if you enjoy snark and can stomach some pretentiousness along with your rants and your humor.

Sedaris is a quirky kind of writer. I needed a palate cleanser after the last few heavy reads and this one delivered. From a betrayal of the tongue (which required speech therapy), to a midget music teacher and some various comical moments in his life, his memoir had me chuckling out loud and talking about it to whomever was in the room.
But alas, a third of the way in, it read like a rant and I quickly became bored. What began as a breath of fresh air became stale but did give a final gasp at the end.
First two thirds razor sharp; last 3rd, kind of dull. For that I'm rating this 3.5***

طنز جالبی که بی مزه نباشه ژانریه که تو محصولات فرهنگی داخلی کمتر بهش برخورد کردم و کمبودش رو همیشه حس میکنم و به ناچار برای تجربه ش سراغ سریالها و فیلم ها و کتابهای عمدتا امریکایی رفتم..ژانری که بخش زیادیش با مسائل فرهنگی همون جا آمیخته شده

شاید برای من قسمت زیادی از لذت کتاب،ناشی از خوندن متن اصلی بود ولی باز هم میخوام اینجا از آقای خاکسار بابت ترجمه ی کارهای سداریس تشکر کنم.فکر میکنم به قسمت عظیمی از اهدافشون که اشنا کردن مخاطب ایرانی با نویسندگان کمتر شناخته شده ولی خوب بود،رسیدند
متن اصلی شامل 28 داستان بود ولی اینطور که شنیدم نسخه ی فارسی 26 تا داستان داره

کتاب حاضر به دو بخش تقسیم شده
بخش اول خاطرات شخصی و خانوادگی نویسنده بود که احساس میکنم علاوه بر طنز با چاشنی خیال هم مخلوط شدند.ایده و فکر پشت داستان ها رو دوست داشتم و حتی صرفنظر از تفاوت های فرهنگی با بعضی هاشون خیلی احساس نزدیکی کردم:این که چه طور والدین برای اینده ی بچه هاشون نقشه میکشند،چه طور با گذر زمان روش تربیتی اعمالیشون روی بچه هاتا به بچه اخر برسه ملایم و لطیف و منعطف میشه،توصیف روند سریع ولی غیرقابل پیش بینی پیشرفت استفاده از کامپیوتر و اینترنت تو همه کارهای روزمره

داستان تجربه ی تدریس تو کارگاه داستان نویسی،انتقاد از رستورانهای شیک و باکلاس، نگهداری از حیوانات اهلی و قضیه معتاد و هنرمند شدنش هم فوق العاده خنده دار بود

بخش دوم هم اختصاص داره به سفر نویسنده به فرانسه برای اقامت همراه دوست پسرش و سختی هایی که در مسیر یادگیری زبان سخت و پیچیده ای مثل فرانسوی متحمل میشه
تو این فصل به شدت با مرارت های یادگیری این زبان با سداریس همدردی میکردم...توصیف دو توریست امریکایی تو مترو که دیوید رو با یه جیب بر فرانسوی اشتباه گرفته بودند هم به عنوان مثالی از حماقت امریکایی شاهکار در اومده بود

کتاب برخلاف اسمش که داستان زندگی غمناک پسربچه ای لال رو به ذهن میاره نیست و ساعاتی سراسرلبخند،خنده و گاها قهقهه رو براتون به دنبال داره

سداریس،نویسنده ی عزیزی که بی زحمت شما رو می خندونه
:-)

David Sedaris and friend

This loosely autobiographical memoir from humorist David Sedaris is divided into essays, many of which are laugh out loud funny. The topics include Sedaris's childhood rebellion against speech therapy, unwanted guitar lessons taught by a midget, drug fueled (and extended) college years, weird presentations as an untalented performance artist, amusing interactions with his family and friends, living in France with his boyfriend Hugh, and more. I listened to the audio version of the book, narrated by the author, and enjoyed it immensely.


Little David Sedaris with his sister Lisa and mother Sharon


School age David Sedaris with his sister Amy


College age David Sedaris

Sedaris's stories may stretch the truth on occasion, but they're very entertaining. For example:

As an art major in college, Sedaris took a pottery class: "With their thick clumsy bases my mugs weighed in at close to five pounds each. The color was muddy and the lips rough and uninviting." Sedaris's mother used these 'gifts' as pet bowls until "a cat chipped a tooth and went on a hunger strike."

**********

After Sedaris graduated from The Art Instutute of Chicago in 1987 he was offered a job teaching a writing workshop. Having no idea how to prepare lesson plans, Sedaris divided the twice weekly, two-hour class into a series of discussion periods including: Celebrity Corner - during which pupils presented gossip about rock bands and movie stars; Feed Bag Forum - where students brought in one-pot recipes (Sedaris had a new crock pot); Pillow Talk - during which students could discuss their private sex lives - or failing that - watch the soap opera 'One Life to Live.'



The latter activity was turned into a real writing exercise when the pupils were asked to prepare a 'guessay' about what would happen on the TV show next day. To Sedaris's dismay the attendees came up with things like 'the long lost daughter turns out to be a vampire' or 'Vicky chokes to death on a submarine sandwich.'

Later on, when the students were required to submit their own stories Sedaris would type up evaluations like "punctuation never hurt anyone" or "think verbs".....so for the most part he and the students got along.

(I can relate to the bad teaching. I had a professor for a class in 'Insect Physiology' that only talked about baseball teams and deparmental gossip. He got canned pretty quickly.

A reviewer was correct when he said: "Sedaris can turn a rant into a thing of beauty." (Michael Upchurch-Seattle Times) But only correct about the noun/verb "rant." That he does in profusion; all these "essays" are rants about his life & times. But "Thing of beauty?" Absolutely not.

For a popular writer, Mr. Sedaris maintains that he is more important than anything else, anybody else, any other subject. He only looks at himself in situations and tells us his witty reactions/musings. Funny, a little, but it's actually like talking to someone adamant about taking nothing too seriously while displaying extreme sarcasm. I could not relate to a single thing this dude wrote about!

About his trips to France (just check this out): "There are plenty of places on Earth where Americans are greeted with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, these places tend to lack anything you'd really want to buy. & that, to me, is the only reason to leave home in the first place--to buy things."

Aggh! This All-American mentality: GROSS.

I've said it a hundred times: I simply love humor. Life is hard enough to be reading only serious and deep classics and not being able to have a good sense of humor at the same time. And... I've said it a million times: not everybody can be funny. It's not that easy. So, when I find a writer that can be entertaining and smart at the same time, I start this weird and awkward fangirling like I'm a teenager at a (boy band name here) concert. AND when I find a writer that can be funny at describing the human nature, with all its virtues and miseries, and has that twisted, ironic, witty (awful word) writing style that I like, well, I become the biggest and most annoying fan EVER.

Having said that, I must admit I'm not a Sedaris fan. Not after reading this book, anyway. Maybe there's another one much better out there (if that exists, please, let me know).

I have to be honest, there were several problems. I couldn't connect with this book that much because there were many references I didn't get. I had to search for a lot of them in order to get the joke. And that makes the reading experience too slow and dull. Not to mention it makes me feel plain stupid. I couldn't help feeling like an outsider. Not all the time, of course. Just during some passages, I felt like I was reading private jokes. And it's okay. It's normal. It happens with that kind of books in here, too. Still, I laughed hysterically with other American writers so I thought this guy wasn't going to be an exception. (It was.)

But that wasn't the main problem. Besides the outsider kind of feeling, some of his stuff just wasn't funny. For example, there are a lot of amusing ways to say you're stupid. There's ALOT of material to work with! Well, I don't think he found the material. Not even a tool. This book had a promising start, I even said "Ha! Funny", and then it kind of went downhill for me. There are funny-ish lines all over the book, but it wasn't a hilarious read, at all. I smiled, yet I couldn't laugh. I don't care if he exaggerated/invented most of his stories; I want to laugh, damn it! And if you can't make me laugh, not even with your made up anecdotes, then, what's the point?

It was okay. I liked it... I think. I don't know what else to say.
2.5 stars.



Note: You're on my "I must have it" shelf. I really wanted this to work.

Feb 07, 14
* Also on my blog.

تو‌ مقدمه ،مترجم نوشته که هیچ‌ مترجمی سراغ این نویسنده و‌کارهای پرفروشش نمیره،خوب جناب خاکسار شاید بقیه یه چیزی می‌دونستند .

اول فکر کردم شاید چون کتاب ترجمه و مطمئنا سانسور شده به نظرم لوس و بی‌نمکه ولی بعد دیدم که نه ،کسایی هم که به زبان اصلی کتاب رو خوندن هم دل خوشی ازش ندارند.

شبیه این استند‌آپ کمدین‌هایی بود که به زور داد زدن تو میکروفن میخوان آدم رو بخندونن اما اینقدر شوخی های خنکی میکنن که تو رو دچار شرم‌ نیابتی میکنن و مجبور میشی ‌لبخند فیک بزنی تا طرف بیشتر از این خراب نشه.حتی تیکه هایی که کمی خنده دار‌ بودن و تو یه کتاب دیگه شاید بانمک میشدن اینقدر توسط شر و ور احاطه شده بودن که نمکش رو از بین برده بود.

تنها نکته مثبت کتاب راحت خوان بودن و زود تموم شدنشه پس اگه ریویو‌ منو قبول ندارین خیلی راحت میتونین خودتون امتحان کنید و مثل من وقت و پولتونو هدر بدین

Before I picked up this book I knew nothing about David Sedaris. If someone said to me now, "so why should I give a damn about David Sedaris" I probably still wouldn't be able to offer an adequate defence. What does David Sedaris do? Ummmm, I think he writes books about being David Sedaris.

But, to be fair and accurate he writes pretty funny books about being David Sedaris so if you think that comedy trumps vanity then come on in and join the David Sedaris club. On the whole I suspect that David Sedaris spends a lot of time wandering around inside his own skull. Think of it like a quite roomy house with lots of nooks and crannies containing artefacts which can be poked at and moved around. However, years of imbibing Crystal Meth, paint thinner, white-out, Speed and alcohol have left behind a thick veneer which is sealing the main points of entry and exit into Mr Sedaris' skull and this means that the poor man is effectively trapped in there. Anyway since I am still unable to offer any further salient points on the life of David Sedaris, I'll leave him to explain a few things in his own words:

David Sedaris on Oceanography:
"We enjoyed swimming until the mystery of tides was explained in such a way that the ocean seemed to be nothing more than an enormous salt-water toilet, flushing itself on a sad and predictable basis".

David Sedaris on conceptual art and crystal meth:
"Either one of these things is dangerous but in combination they have the power to destroy entire civilisations".

David Sedaris on performance art:
"I just heated up a skillet of plastic soldiers, poured a milkshake over my head and called it a night."

David Sedaris on relations with the french:
"I horrify the French every time I open my mouth."

David Sedaris on home remedies:
"I thought I could cure diabetes by spreading suntan lotion on sticks of chewing gum".

David Sedaris on his IQ:
"By the time I reached my thirties, my brain had been strip mined by a combination of drugs, alcohol and the chemical solvents used at the refinishing company where I worked."

David Sedaris on interior design:
"I'm thinking of making a little jacket for my clock radio."

If you agree with any of the above statements by David Sedaris or have ever contemplated creating clothing for time pieces then you will probably enjoy this book.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic was declared, I started to watch more stand-up comedy and follow The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (from his home). I felt like I needed a laugh between my constant watching of the Coronavirus cases count and the news reports about the same enemy. I wanted to read David Sedaris for the same reason, to lighten my days a bit. I enjoyed listening to his narration of this essay collection but I can't say I was entertained. I laughed maybe once or twice and for the rest I was either sorry for him, or partially indifferent to the story. The first essay about his Speech Therapy was the best and after that I began to lose interest. I have to admit that I did not sympathise with his need to get high in order to achieve his artistic goals, I was thinking "you're shit at art, just get over it and find a job that suits you." Some essays resuscitated my interest but then I was bored again while listening to others.

Another collection of Sedaris tales as we have come to know and love. His cynical banter and humorous anecdotes shine again. While some might say the same old formula gets old, with Sedaris it is expected and greatly appreciated. (I even heard he changed the formula in a recent book and it was not well received)

I listened to the audio and love hearing the words from the mouth of the author. His delivery and timing are perfect - which I suppose is to be expected as they are his words, but not every author can read their words as well as they write. It is great how he can make every mundane activity an entertaining anecdote.

If you like a little humorous getaway, check out this and other Sedaris books.