I enjoyed this book more in the beginning than I did toward the end. At first it was entertaining to read about all of Sedaris's mishaps and "woe is me" type of moments, but that theme got too repetitive (for me) and eventually I just wasn't impressed anymore. It seemed like he was looking for sympathy while trying to put a humorous spin on pretty humbling and shitty moments in his life. There were parts that were truly funny, but I think it would have worked out better if every story (almost) hadn't had an underlying "poor me" type of theme to it. The title 'Naked' is pretty honest. He wrote about a lot of different experiences in his life, and didn't seem to attempt to gloss them over or bend the truth in order to make himself look better. It seemed he went out of his way to portray himself as a self-preserving, self-centered type of person who has constantly been dealt a bad hand (and doesn't handle most situations well, crazy as some of them are). I give him credit for his honesty, but at the same time, this book didn't help me to like Sedaris as a person. His writing style has an easy flow, but the subject matter of this book came across to me as semi-depressing.

قرار بود داستانهای طنزآمیز باشند اما من وجه طنزی ندیدم!
شاید هم باید شش داستان حذف شده با تیغ سانسور را خواند و بعد نظر داد،

دو و نیم ستاره برای این مجموعه مناسب بود-

Maybe part of my problem with the book is that I first read the back cover, which told me two things that I didn't find to be true:

1. This book is side-splittingly hilarious
2. It turns the "mania for memoir on its proverbial ear."

Sure, maybe it's not fair to judge the book based on my preconceptions, but there's some merit to this I think.

First, my sides are completely unsplit. I laughed a few times, found some things whimsical, and did find a few lines to be very funny. But a lot of the jokes fell flat to me and sounded like watered-down Rick Reilly goofiness, and I don't get into Rick Reilly so much. It's pretty obvious even without the hype that one of the book's main goals is to make the reader laugh, but I guess I found the humor limited. There's a lot of one-note humor (maybe a little too smirky sometimes?), and, more importantly, there's a lot of retreating behind witty wordplay or Tonight Show one-liners during moments of great tension. Sometimes the humor undermined the interesting action of the essays/stories, rather than allowing the author to explore some issues more deeply and/or to offer some more insight.

Second, I don't see how this turns anything on its ear. I mean, the actual details of the plot are different from some memoir, but it covers some pretty well-traveled ground (homosexual awakening at summer camp, dealing with mom's cancer, etc.). And that's fine too. But I felt like a) there's an unfulfilled promise (which probably isn't Sedaris' fault, but still) and b) he could have wrung more out of the material than he did.

All that said, I liked the book. 3 stars isn't a bad rating, I think. It's just that there's not a lot of stuff here I think I'm going to remember for very long. I read it, I enjoyed it, and now it's done.

David Sedaris is an adorable little sassmouth. His idiosyncratic brand of humor possesses many fine, laudable traits; it is by turns indecently irreverent, snotty, crude, painfully neurotic, silly, self-deprecating, and even downright morbid. Unfortunately, this collection of autobiographical essays just wasn’t as consistently funny and entertaining as his other books. The first half was genuinely hilarious, and reading it frequently led to uncontrollable giggling and explosions of loud, rambunctious laughter. The second part, however, had so many strained, awkward jokes that I spent most of the time cringing with embarrassment on their behalf; the poor things were trying way too hard.

If you want top-shelf Sedaris, I’d recommend starting with either Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim or perhaps Me Talk Pretty One Day, both of which provide much stronger examples of his distinctively snarky, sardonic wit.

I’ll leave you with this excerpt, which duly notes the intrinsic futility of attempting to read a book on a crowded cross-country bus, surrounded by aggressively opinionated hillbillies with no real conception of boundaries or personal space:

n  “Books offered no relief. Failing to act even as a shield, their presence attracted everything from mild curiosity to open hostility.

‘You think you’re going to learn something from a book?’ said the man sitting next to me. ‘Let me tell you a little something, bookworm, you’ll learn more on this goddamned bus than you would in a whole…’ He paused, attempting to recall the name given to such a place. ‘You’ll learn more here than in a whole pyramid full of books. You could fill a racetrack with every piece of shit ever written, but you’ll learn more right here.’

Having never seen a racetrack full of books, I thought it premature to contradict him.”n

"مهم این بود که بی ترس از هر پیشامدی با زندگی شاخ به شاخ شده بودم"

In my Sedaris marathon this book was my least favorite. Perhaps it was because it was the earliest of the 5 books that I read. It's interesting to see how a writer develops. Many of the elements that he would develop further and into longer and funnier works were all there, but in embryo. I like the poignance of his family stories as well as learning about his earlier life and his college years (though his rocking had me worried for a while, though) but I didn't really find anything particularly hilarious. Odd and zany, yes (as Jill H wrote); but I appreciated the way he was able to mix in humorous with the poignant and the bizarre in Me Talk Pretty One Day and Calypso.

باید از اینجا شروع کنم که اسم اصلی کتاب «Naked» هست که به لطف نشر چشمه شده «مادربزرگت را از اینجا ببر»!!!
نکته ی بعدی اینکه اصل کتاب ۳۰۰ صفحست در حالی که ترجمه ۱۵۰ صفحه!!! و از اونجایی که ناشر و مترجم و دیگر دوستان صلاح دونستند ۶داستان در ترجمه حذف شده!
یعنی نه تنها کتاب ها بدون حق کپی رایت چاپ میشن بلکه هر بلایی خواستن سر متن و اسم اصلی کتاب میارن!
این چهار ستاره ای هم که دادم به باقی داستان های جان به در برده بود.
در وصف داستان های باقی مانده میتونم بگم که نثر خوب و داستان های جذابی داشت اما حیف!

Ji apibūdinta kaip labai juokinga knyga, bet šiaip tai yra gana liūdna knyga.

Autorius rašo apie savo šeimos gyvenimą, kur, na, problemų netrūksta - ne (tik) linksmų problemų, bet ir rimtų problemų (pvz mamos alkoholizmas, pagrindinio veikėjo fobijos, prostitutė, kurią muša sugyventinis), kurios atrodo dar rimčiau dėl to, kad papasakotos taip lengvai. Turiu omeny, jei ta pati situacija būtų pasakojama verksmingai ar tiesiog rimtai, turbūt jau seniai būčiau padėjus tą knygą.

Pagrindinis veikėjas / autorius auga, bręsta, pakliūna į vis kitokias situacijas su skirtingais žmonėmis, ir tai nėra blogi žmonės, bet tai yra siaubingi žmonės (t.y. siaubingi, nebūdami blogi), iš kai kurių lyg ir norėtum juoktis, bet labai greitai viskas išauga į groteskiškas proporcijas, ir tuo pat metu lieka pernelyg gyvenimiška. Šiaip skaitydama šią knygą aš nedaug juokiausi.

Juokiausi ten, kur pasakotojas ironiškai pažvelgdavo į save, kas apskritai yra malonu pamatyti, ypač - vėl - jei tai nėra kažkoks verkšlenimas, o priešingai - savo įsivaizduotos viršenybės prieš kitus žmones pajuokimas.

Pvz:

"Tačiau dažniausiai svajodavau apie karjerą televizijoje. Troškau sukurti laidą "Sokratas ir draugai". Pats būčiau jos vedėjas, keliaučiau po šalį, lydimas nuostabaus ir ištikimo draugo - didnosės beždžionės. Mudu su Sokratu bandytume išvengti bėdų, tačiau jos vis tiek užkluptų.
- Į akis, Sokratai! Durk į akis! - šaukčiau kurių nors muštynių metu.
Galbūt Santa Fė kas nors trenks man per galvą ąsočiu. Prarasiu atmintį. Galbūt kur nors Jutoje Sokratas ras kapšą vertingų monetų. <...> Kiekvienos laidos pabaigoje paaiškės, jog tikroji laimė glūdi ten, kur mažiausiai tikiesi ją rasti. Gal toji laimė bus tik švelnus vėjelis ar sauja riešutų. Tačiau vos ji ateis, mes tą suvoksime pasitelkę liaudies išmintį."

"Atvykau čia iš Niujorko ir man tikrai skauda širdį, jog nebuvau sutiktas pagal rengimosi stilių. Nors rengiuosi ne itin skoningai, tai vis geriau, nei būti sutiktam pagal charakterį."

Labiausiai patiko du paskutiniai skyreliai. Apie tai, kaip mama susirgo vėžiu - ir juokingas, ir (šįkart nesislapstant) rimtas. Ir apie nudistų bendruomenę - tam tikras reportažas, kiek primenantis David Foster Wallace stilių.

3.5⭐️
This was a lighthearted and fun book to read; A compilation of the most memorable and funny moments of Sedaris' life.
I enjoyed his thought processes and his interesting life experiences. My favourite part was when he and his friend go to work in an orchard inspired by Steinbeck's book, Grapes of Wrath which I happen to be reading now.

I can't get enough of this guy; his books are what I would imagine crack would be like, had I ever tried crack. Which I haven't.
Seriously -- I just sit and read and laugh, read and laugh. He's just so damned candid about things. For example, the story of how he was sent to Greece for Greek-American summer camp as a teenager:

"If my sister was anxious about our trip, she certainly didn't show it. Prying my fingers off her wrist, she crossed the room and introduced herself to a girl who stood picking salvageable butts out of the standing ashtray. This was a tough-looking Queens native named Stefani Heartattackus or Testicockules. I recall only that her last name had granted her a lifelong supply of resentment.
...
"Camp lasted a month, during which time I never once had a bowel movement. I was used to having a semiprivate bathroom and could not bring myself to occupy one of the men's room stalls, fearful that someone might recognize my shoes or, even worse, not see my shoes at all and walk in on me. Sitting down three times a day for a heavy Greek meal became an exercise akin to packing a musket." (87-88)

I'm allergic to most of Sedaris's stuff. But this one was particularly bad, I thought. No clue why I picked it up. Teaser title, maybe?

This was a good chuckle. The beginning with his neuroses was not all that funny, but then once he starts talking about his family - cracks me up. David took a trip to Greece with some good material. But the best part of the story is the nudist colony he goes too. I lost my mind laughing. That tickled me.

I do enjoy reading David and I need to read more of his books. He is such a joy to see how he sees the world. The world through his eyes is so interesting and he never seems to run out of material.