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The item came in the exact description as was given to me at time of sale. The book wasn't as funny as the author's other published works but that is okay.
This time, he is trying to learn French. Sedaris' recent and not-so-recent past.In the first story, a young David hilariously attempts to outwit the Agent--actually a young female speech therapist assigned to rid him of his lisp. I thought the depictions of his French class and village life were the highlight of this collection, especially "Jesus Shaves" and it's discussion of Easter. You just think.thank God that's not my family. Sedaris.laugh-out-loud funny in a macabre sort of way. About halfway through the book, after self-depracating discussions of his failures as guitar student, performance artist, and creative writing teacher who pulls his lesson plans from daytime Soaps, Sedaris again broaches the topic of "talking pretty".
When Sedaris makes the faux pas of mentioning the American tradition of the Easter Bunny, his (decidedly masochistic) French instructor corrects him: "here in France, a giant bell flies in from Rome bringing chocolate for all the boys and girls." David observes that "a bell has all the personality of a cast-iron skillet." And when a Moroccan muslim student asks about the point of Easter the other students, in their limited vocabulary, provide comic, wholly inadequate explanations.Bottom line: extremely addicting fare from Mr. .reading his stories is like watching your crazy neighbors scrapping next door through a hole in the wall, and it's hard not to look away. Like his other books, Me Talk Pretty is made up of numerous humorous (and hopefully exaggerated) anecdotes from Mr. He wants to live with his boyfriend in a tiny Normandy village, which is difficult if the only French word you know is "ashtray".
It is the story of a mostly dysfunctional person and his family: his overbearing father, cigarette smoking and alcoholic mother, and talented but uninterested siblings. It is funny in places but mostly sad. My suggestion is to read a library copy first and then buy his books if you find them worth the money. I bought this book because of the many rave reviews even on the book cover itself. I was greatly disappointed. Some parts are just pathetic as when Sedaris uses drugs.
Laughing out loud like mad. Great, funny & entertaining stories. If you get embarrassed easily, definitely do not read in public :) Can't wait to read the rest of his work.
If you like dry funny conversational essays, you will enjoy this. I loved hearing about his dad and all of his wierd packrat habits and his clark griswold like optimism His little sister Amy who lives with her imaginary boyfriend and likes to play mean, bizarre pranks on people.fav essays were Youth in Asia , Go Carolina and the last one where his dad only most eats his hat. Priceless Advice to you all : get it on tape, he has the cute little boy voice and he does various impressions of whomever he is telling the story about. Some are better than others but there are several that made roll with laughter. the one about his drug use was devastating and bothered me alot because everything was so funny and then he starts on such a serious topic.But I think it was brave that he put it his novel.
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