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Kevin reviews Me Talk Pretty One Day

3 out of 5

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I first heard the author and comedian David Sedaris from the radio show This American Life. He spoke of an incident during his regular visits to France where two American tourists, assuming he spoke no English, loudly proclaimed in their native tongue how David was a stinky French thief. For ten minutes he described the scene as it played out, the two tourists reciting the rudest remarks, somehow forgetting that English is a language even most native-born Frenchmen know.

The story was a delight to listen to, one that makes you want to retell it to everyone, even though there's no possible way you could recreate it. You finally end up telling people, "Just download episode 173 of This American Life and it's the final act, around the 40 minute mark" but that does even less for the person you're trying to convince.

When I heard David again on TALand spent the 10 minutes in the same grinning stupor as before, I knew I had to get more. While I was hoping for the title Dress your Family... they were sold out and I in turn chose Me Talk Pretty One Day. He had other books at the store, but I went with this one because it was the most recent.

Me Talk Pretty One Day spans the entire life time of David Sedaris, starting with speech therapy as a kid for his lisp and ending with his pack-rat father visiting him overseas in France. He never talks about how he came to be a writer, but it's an adventure learning his previous occupations. One chapter recalls his work as a English Professor, despite his absolute lack of experience in both teaching and writing. The funniest line of the chapter recalls the reason the job opened up, "when the scheduled professor found a better-paying job delivering pizza."

The book does have it's funny moments, but I couldn't help thinking, 'This would be funnier if I were someone else'. It's not that he isn't a good comedian, I just don't think I'm the right audience. I didn't do enough drugs, which he has several chapters on and I just don't have enough experience with the subject matter he recalls.

All in all, Me Talk Pretty One Day will get some laughs out of you, but it didn't crack me up the way his audio biographies did. I recommend listening to some of his live performances over this book, but if you can't, Me Talk Pretty One Day is a nice backup.