Me Talk Pretty One Day, Reviewed

Welp, I just finished reading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris...

Source

It was...ok.

If you're at all familiar with Sedaris' other works then you'll recognize and be familiar with the short essay format that is often autobiographical. The book has two parts, the first being centered on his early life, while the second part was about his time in Paris. Most (but not all) of the stories were loosely related to language and speaking. Sedaris is known for being extremely funny, but I found his humor to get a little old in this book.

But I'll start with what I liked. I liked that it was a collection of short essays. Don't get me wrong, I love novels, but it was nice to open the book and close it 10 minutes later with a feeling of accomplishment and finality. Also, many of his stories are really funny. I can honestly say I laughed aloud a few times.

However, the majority of his work is extremely self-deprecating. And I found that it got old. While some of it is funny, other parts went on and on about his drug abuse or his inability to learn French. I felt bad for him, especially if I read more than one story in a row. It's not that his life is a bad one (especially now), it just became painfully obvious that he was picking out these tiny weird parts and expanding on them...and it was kind of hard to read after a while. At least for me. If something is going to be funny, I just want it to be funny. Maybe at the expense of someone else, but not all the time. I really don't need to hear about you dropping out of four art programs because you sucked so bad and didn't realize it. It got to the point where multiple people saw I was reading it and raved about it... and I couldn't understand why...

And now I kind of feel like a bitch for the above paragraph, but honestly, it left a bad taste in mouth after a while.

So in the end, I would recommend this book if you're just looking for something light and easy to read every once in a while. If you're going to be sitting on a beach next weekend and want to plop down with some reading material that will hold you over for a few hours, then find something different.