I picked up this book to save me from the traumatic reading of A Little Life... I needed something to pick me up, make me smile and it has been on my TBR list for ever.

All I can say is thank goodness for David Sedaris!

The book is comprised of short essays, about different parts or aspects of his life, some funnier than others. I especially loved the chapter "Jesus Shaves" in which he is taking a French class in Paris, and he and his classmates are discussing Easter, while butchering the French language. HILARIOUS. Or the chapter "Big Boy" where he goes to the bathroom in someone's house during a party, and finds an enormous #2 in the toilet 'as thick as a burrito' that he has to dispose of. OMG! I also enjoyed hearing how he hates computers and technology and prefers to use a typewriter... that many people have complained about the noise and he says 'you would think I had been playing the kettle drums'.

I never read this type of book. I'm not an essay reader, and I don't tend to read humour. So, it wasn't a book that I couldn't put down. That's why it took a while to finish. But I think it was theraputic after reading such a dismal book, and for that I will always be grateful to David Sedaris.

Not as good as I would have hoped. . .

Review to Come!

Audiobook Comments
Read by the author and he definitely rocked it!

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"من اینجام که بهت حالی کنم همه چی درست میشه عوضی. همه این کثافت کاریا بالاخره درست میشه. فقط باس صبر داشته باشی"

Witty, wry, bitter, delightful.

My mom gave me the book. I was living in France at the time, so she thought David Sedaris and I would have a ton in common. She went to a Sedaris booksigning to get a personalized message to her gay son in France. After he was done reading, she jumped up to get him to write a note to me, "David! My son is gay! He's living in France right now, please sign this copy for him!" He had already started an orderly signing process, going down the rows. He looked at her disgustedly and intoned, "I'll get to you." He then skipped her row and did all the others first, making everyone in her row hate her (imagine the wrath of a row of David Sedaris fans - ouch). When he finally got to her - last - he said, "name?" and she started her story about me: "Tim. He's 17 and he's gay and he's been living in France this year, so if you could put something about France -" He handed her book back, not having heard anything past my name, instead writing some witty thing with bad grammar that played off the book's title. When I returned from France, my mother gave me the book but had lost all respect for the author. "It's a good book but he was a complete asshole," she said.

My mother's experience aside, I'm sure Sedaris is not actually a soulless, cruel person. If you want a light read by a smart, gay cynic, this is a great book.

ترجمه ی
Me Talk Pretty One Day
معمولاً طنزهای ترجمه شده آدم را نمی خندانند امّا این یکی استثنا بود!
اوّلین بار همین قصّه ی «من را یک روزی دلبر حرف زدن»!!!اش را خواندم (که با عنوان «زیر آسمان پاریس» توسّط احسان لطفی ترجمه و در همشهری داستان آذر 1389 منتشر شده بود) و چه بسیار خنده شد! بعد گذاشتمش در کیفم و با خودم بردمش خانه ی سمیرا. کِی؟ شب امتحان تعلیم و تربیت اسلامی پیشرفته به استادی روان شاد دکتر محمّدرضا شرفی
چهل سؤال داشتیم و می دانستیم که پنج سؤالِ امتحان به احتمال 99درصد، همه از همین چهل سؤال خواهند بود. مدام به سمیرا وعده می دادم که هر وقت چهل سؤال (یا دست کم بیست تایش را!) خواندیم، یک قصّه ی خوب برایش می خوانم
پیش رفتیم و خواندم و چه بسیار خنده شد!
سرشار از عبارات و جملاتی بود که می توانند تکیه کلامت شوند و معلوم نیست تا چه وقت از عمرت هم چنان می خندانندت
(اگر تلاش کردن، بالاخره یک روز حرف خوشگل می زنی!)
بعدتر قصّه ی «کارگاه نویسندگی» اش را -باز هم در همشهری داستان- خواندم و با سمیرا دوباره خوانی اش کردم و خنده های از ته دل و ...
بعدترش دیدم پیمان خاکسار زحمت کشیده و کلّ این مجموعه داستان را ترجمه کرده
صدایش را پیش سمیرا درنیاوردم چون می خواستم به عنوان کادوی تولّد برایش بخرمش.
خودم نخوانده بودمش هنوز که 11 دی فرا رسید و چه بسیار موجب خوش-حالی شد داشتنش برای سمیرا و دیدن خوش-حالی سمیرا برای من...
امّا در باب خود کتاب: شنیده ام (از خود سمیرا که گویا در وبلاگی خوانده) که ترجمه ی احسان لطفی دقیق نیست
نمی دانم چه قدر این حرف صحیح است
وقتی خودم متن اصلی اش را خواندم دیدم که شاید راست باشد این حرف
یکی دو جایش مختصر تفاوتی داشت با متن اصلی که می شد آن را به حساب محدودیت های انتشار قصّه ی ترجمه در یک مجلّه ی کمابیش دولتی گذاشت
امّا چنین به نظرم نیامد که ترجمه ی پیمان خاکسار خیلی دقیق تر است یا آن طور که برخی معتقدند شاهکاری است.
اتّفاقاً من با ترجمه ی لطفی خیلی بیشتر خندیدم
شاید چون اوّلین بار قصّه را با ترجمه ی او خواندم
و شاید به خاطر لحنی که او در ترجمه اش اختیار کرده (با این نظر خودم بعد از خواندن متن اصلی موافق تر شدم!) لحن سداریس شبیه آدم هایی است که تلاش خاصّی برای خنداندن آدم ها نمی کنند و بدون این که بخواهند یا دست خودشان باشد، بامزه اند. از آن ها که یک جمله ی خیلی خنده دار را با قیافه ای خیلی جدّی می گویند و بعد وقتی تو داری روی زمین غلت می زنی، پشتشان را به تو می کنند و می روند
و اگر این دریافت من از لحن او درست باشد، آن گاه «زیر آسمان پاریس» در بازآفرینی این لحن موفّق تر از «بالاخره یه روزی قشنگ حرف می زنم» بوده است. لحن خاکسار سرخوشی ای با خود دارد که با آن قیافه ی جدّی که از سداریس در ذهن دارم نمی خواند.
به هر روی، خواندنش خیلی لذّت بخش بود. خیلی خوب پیش می رفت و خیلی جاهایش خنده ی من را در می آورد
دلم می خواهد بعداً در فرصتی فراخ تر، به سبک آرمینا و نرگس و رعنا به قصّه هایش جداگانه امتیاز بدهم و شاید از بعضی هایشان جملاتی را این جا برای خودم یاداشت کنم
ان شاء الله
پ.ن. 1
توصیح غیرضروری که احتمالاً در هر ریویوی دیگری از این کتاب یافت می شود:
کتاب دو قسمت دارد:
در بخش اوّل، سداریس خاطرات کودکی، نوجوانی و جوانی خود را که در آمریکا سپری کرده، مرور می کند و بخش دوم به شرح ماجراهایی که پس از اقامت در فرانسه بر سرش آمده اختصاص دارد.
پ.ن. 2
بهترین قصّه اش هنوز و هم چنان «بالاخره یه روزی قشنگ حرف می زنم» است. لایق 5 ستاره و حتّی بیش تر! و بعد از آن «دوباره دیروز می بینمت» که چیزی است در همان ردیف و تقریباً همان قدر خنده آور.

All I knew of David Sedaris was from watching him and his sister Amy once or twice on The Late Show. The two of them have a pretty unique sense of humor and I think Amy is just weird. Anyway, a Goodreads review of another Sedaris book led me here for my first foray into his self-deprecating, rather raunchy humor, and the audio book read by him was hysterical --enhanced by recordings of David reading many of these essays to a live audience. For two days on my commute I did nothing but laugh out loud at the antics described. He has a slight lisp, as do some gay men, so his parents sent him to a speech therapist where he pretended to be cured by never using any words that contained an S. He moved to France and tried in vain to learn French and form sentences that made sense. He read some original poems about dogs, which were insanely funny. Descriptions of his eccentric, penny pinching father were as well.

It appears my Hoopla audio version was abridged even though it claims to be unabridged. Looking up a list of the chapters, I see several that I am missing, including the one about something large he once found in a toilet. I guess I missed out, but what I did hear was very good.

I read Me Talk Pretty One Day on the recommendation of my roommate, the fabulous WER. She gave me her copy of the book, so with a strong recommendation and a free read, I couldn’t possibly refuse.

Me Talk Pretty One Day is a rough autobiography of writer and humorist David Sedaris. I say a “rough” autobiography because it is not told in chronological order, nor is it a straightforward chronological account of the events of his life. Instead, he presents life as a series of vignettes, some of which are from when he was a small child (such as his struggles with his speech therapist), from his college years (and his dabbling in drugs and performance art), with the last 1/3 chronicling his experiences as an American in France.

Me Talk Pretty One Day is extremely funny in parts. As a New Yorker, I especially liked his observations working for a moving company in New York City. (As anyone who has lived in New York long enough can tell you, conversations inevitably always turn to real estate if you get m ore than two of us in a room together). For example:



It was generally agreed that a coffin-size studio on Avenue D was preferable to living in one of the boroughs. Moving from one Brooklyn or Staten Island neighborhood to another was fine, but unless you had children to think about, even the homeless saw it as a step down to leave Manhattan. Customers quitting the island for Astoria or Cobble Hill would claim to welcome the change of pace, saying it would be nice to finally have a garden or live a little closer to the airport. They’d put a good face one it, but one could always detect an underlying sense of defeat. The apartments might bigger and cheaper in other places, but one could never count on their old circle of friend making the long trip to attend a birthday party. Even Washington Heights was considered a stretch. People referred to it as Upstate New York, though it was right there in Manhattan.


However, I found that autobiographies (no matter how good they are) often become relentlessly self-indulgent in parts, and this book is no exception to the rule. For instance, in one vignette Sedaris describes a series of dreams that he often has. This particular section doesn’t fit as well with his other stories about living in France and seemed to drag on and on.

All in all, not great literature, but a fun read nevertheless. I read it on the plane ride from New York to Amsterdam, and it was perfect for that kind of trip. Mindless and entertaining, to pass the time.

بخاطر اختلاف فرهنگی و البته ترجمه شاید یه سری از آثار طنزخارجی که به فارسی برگردانده میشن اون جذابیت متن اصلی رو نداشته باشن و احساس میکنم که برای این کتاب این اتفاق افتاده بود.
گرچه قسمتی از کتاب که شرح احوالات نویسنده در کلاس آموزش زبان فرانسوی بود واقعا منو خندوند.
کتاب رو به صورت صوتی و با اجرای هوتن شکیبا گوش کردم که از حق نگذریم واقعا این کتاب رو به زیبایی اجرا کرده

Me Talk Pretty One Day is an older volume of David Sedaris’ comic pieces. But just like his more recent work, I found it to be inconsistent. I got a special kick out of The Youth Is Asia, which discusses his parents’ different pets. As an empty nester with my own spoiled four legged child, I totally got it. In fact, the segments about his parents were some of the funniest ones. I also loved the sections on his attempts to learn the French language. But other sections, such as the one on his time as a creative writing instructor, I thought fell totally flat. I would have been like the older student who felt the class was a total waste.
And a little of him goes a long way. Not just sarcastic, he frequently veers into bitter and nasty. The book works best when you listen to just an essay or two and then take a break.
I listened to this and David narrates his own book. It worked especially well on the first essay about his lisp and the speech therapist trying to eliminate it. In short, she failed.

با ترجمه پيمان خاكسار.


هرگز به عمرم نديدم پدرم جز از قفسه‌هايي كه بالايشان نوشته: حراج به دليل نزديكي تاريخ انقضا، چيزي بردارد. تمام اقلام قفسه‌هاي ديگر براي او نامرئي بودند.
به خاطر چيزي كه مادرم «يه جو شخصيت» مي‌ناميد، من و خواهرانم به ندرت وارد اتاق پشتي مي‌شديم. بهتر بود فاصله‌مان را حفظ كنيم و خودمان را بچه‌هاي آدم ديگري جا بزنيم.
بالاخره پدرمان برمي‌گشت با دستهايي پر از ميوه‌هاي متلاشي كه هيچ شباهتي به ميوه نداشتند...
پيام عملش اين بود: اگر چيزي مجاني است، بهترينش را سوا كن! و...
سداريس، كتاب را به پدرش «لو سداريس» تقديم كرده. كسي كه در سراسر كتابهايش، از او با جزئيات تمام حرف مي‌زند و تو را به خنده مي‌اندازد..
سداريس در طنزش، شديدا صادق است و همين باعث مي‌شود طنزش، تصنعي نباشد..
درمجموع، بين كتابهايي كه اين مدت ازش خوندم، اين به نظرم بهتر از همه بود. البته، «مادربزرگتو از اين جا ببر» هم خوب بود.

David Sedaris is another one of those authors, like Margaret Atwood (for Canadian reason) or Jenny Lawson (for chronic illness reasons), that people assume I’ve read. Invariably, when I reveal I haven’t read any of their work, people get upset. They both pressure me and try to figure out why I haven’t been Team Sedaris from day one (or Team Fey or Team Insert Comedy Writer with Chicago Connections Here). The red-faced consternation is only made worse when it’s mentioned that I used it to work in a bookstore in the early 2000’s, when Sedaris’ books were not only widely available/praised, but also came with a deep discount.

But fuck it—I just don’t like being told what I should like, or what I should read, particularly by the numerous white dudes who have insisted that if I call myself a comedian, a writer, or a well-rounded reader then WTF?? So, basically, I never read David Sedaris out of spite, which is a good enough reason not to, as any.

But, as I mentioned during my review of The Handmaid’s Tale, this year I decided to throw a lot of my previous assumptions about certain authors, genres, etc, out while trying to reach the goal of 100 books. I figured I was going to have to since I’ve only previously managed 25 to 30 books on average most years.

So, David Sedaris:

I decided to go the audio route with this one. I know that Sedaris has a Twain-like reputation for actually enhancing the writing by its telling. Unlike most authors, who painfully perform readings of their own work like they’re simultaneously having gum reduction surgery, this was likely the exception. And, his performance did not disappoint.

Since Me Talk Pretty One Day is essentially about speech, language, and the status and cultural judgements people make based on the subtle missteps (and accidental revelations) he (and others) have made—listening to it, I’d say, is preferable to reading it. Plus, you’ll get to hear his Billie Holiday-sings-local-commercial-jingles impression. It’s quite unique.

I did relate to a lot of it, even though it was dated (as it was written 22 years ago). I very much felt his Twelve Moments in the Life of an Artist and his experiences as an American living abroad (although Canada is less a “broad” and more a lady that lives down the hall from America).

I didn’t care for the quick base coat of ableism and his repeated use of the m-word to refer to little people. I know this thing was written before the towers fell, but still.People knew better, even then.

I wasn’t crazy about the inclusion of live readings into certain parts of the book. It was off-putting, jarring at times, and messed with the overall pace and tone of the recording.

I generally don’t like listening to laughter from an audience when it comes to books/essays. It messes with the timing of the joke on the page, and forces the listener to make judgments about the inherent funniness of the line just read. Completely fine when listening to stand-up, but it takes the reader out of the piece and almost cheapens the private laughter one gets from reading something. Laughter is an expectation, instead of a lovely intimate surprise shared between writer and reader. I wish I had an audio edition that was completely read through, with no live inserts. But, hey, almost everything I’ve read this year, including MTPOD, was free/from my library app. So, no looking a gift vachette in the mouth on this one.

Overall, I’d say more than half of the book has aged well. That’s not bad for an old girl like MTPOD.

I’m glad I listened to it, but I’m not sure I’m exactly what you’d call Team Sedaris from day one off the strength of this one book. I don’t know, maybe you had to be there from the start to feel like painting your bare chest and attending every Sedaris away game.

خیلی خندیدم ، زیادی خندیدم .

هر جایی که این کتاب رو مطالعه می کردم ، توی اتوبوس یا مترو ، مطب پزشک یا خونه ، اونقدر خنده م می گرفت که باید جلوی خودم رو می گرفتم که گاف ندم ! نمی دونم چطور میشه این نوشته ها رو شخصیت های داستان رو دوست نداشت و همگام باهاشون نشد و نخندید .

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