Me Talk Pretty One Day

Foreign Tongue

The humorist David Sedaris, with famously sly and hilarious National Public Radio commentaries and three previous books of essays and stories to his name, has, for quite a while, been a darling of that portion of the literati that actually possesses a sense of fun and mischief (it is smaller than you might think). His first book, Barrel Fever, which included what is now perhaps his best-known piece, "The SantaLand Diaries," was heralded as the work of shining new voice in humor writing; his second, the bestselling Naked, grabbed the attention of the reading masses and won him national acclaim. Holidays on Ice, his third book, also universally adored, was short and only contained three new stories�no less funny than the previous two, it was nonetheless a pretty slim package. In a way it was inevitable, then, that his new book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, would be received not only with the by now customary roar of approval but with a certain amount of negative backlash as well, as some critics periodically feel the need to prove that they are as capable of hopping off the bandwagon as they are of jumping on it, and the time is right to hit Sedaris with a bit of revenge for his continued success. And so it is not entirely unexpected that we are beginning to see reviews stating that although he is unquestionably an extraordinarily talented writer, Mr. Sedaris lacks the desire to produce anything of real significance. His salty, barbed observations, while endlessly amusing and insightful, never make it beyond the level of light entertainment.

What a load of crapola.

The essential fallacy in this thinking, of course, lies in the fact that it is precisely Sedaris' aversion to making too much of the little scenes and scenarios that he captures that makes the writing so enjoyable. He is a master of ferreting out the silly and the poignant from where it lies hidden in the seemingly mundane, and that's one of the reasons that reading him is such a pleasure: He reminds us that things that seem boring never really are if you just give them a little thought.

Me Talk Pretty One Day contains 28 personal essays, many of which have previously appeared in The New Yorker and Esquire. They touch on moments and themes from throughout his life, beginning with his youth in western New York State and North Carolina and moving right on up to his present incarnation as a semi-reluctant expatriate (a term he loathes) in Paris. What was funny, touching, and insightful in his earlier books is again in evidence here, only a bit more so; Sedaris hasn't changed his tune, but he has enhanced it, and the laughs in this collection come at a furious pace.

His profoundly bizarre family, whom he clearly loves and whose remarkable weirdness he clearly revels in, figures prominently. Sedaris' father, a character of sublimely comic eccentricity, gets the most attention, but there is also much about his sister, Amy, star of the Comedy Central sitcom "Strangers with Candy," and one story entirely devoted to his younger brother, a gangsta-talking vulgarian who calls himself "The Rooster" and who is responsible for some of the book's choicest moments of hilarity. Pieces written from Paris make up the latter half or so of the collection. They are refreshingly free of loving descriptions of darling little bakeries just down the block from his apartment, sprawling caf� scenes, and how the reflected lights of the great city glitter on the Seine at midnight. His observations of French life, filtered through the inimitable Sedaris lens of ecstatic narcissism and brutal self-deprecation, come across as unconventional because he just doesn't seem too terribly thrilled by the place in either a good or bad way; he slaughters Americans in Paris for misinterpreting and failing to appreciate all they come in contact with and does equal damage to the French themselves for a huge catalogue of offenses, but it all feels like part of a day's work. It's just more foil for his scathing wit, which even in Paris has happily remained as formidable as ever. P

Littered throughout these missives from France are episodes documenting his struggles with the language that, to anyone who has ever been abroad and attempted to communicate, will ring true. These are some of the most enjoyable moments in the book. In the titular essay, Sedaris writes about the pitiful progress he is making in his French class, and about his terror of going through the day unable to properly express himself: blockquote

My only comfort was the knowledge that I was not alone. Huddled in the hallways and making the most of our pathetic French, my fellow students and I engaged in the sort of conversation commonly overheard in refugee camps. P

"Sometimes me cry alone at night." P

"That be common for I, also, but be more strong, you. Much work and someday you talk pretty. People stop hate you soon. Maybe tomorrow, okay."/blockquote

There are reasons why David Sedaris has achieved such notoriety as an author and radio commentator, and they include neither an irrepressible drive to reveal the human condition in all its guises nor a willingness to experiment with exciting new forms of literary confessional. Rather, by combining impeccable comic timing, a gift for revealing and expounding on other people's idiocy and weakness, and a defiant proclivity for wallowing in his own soul-blackening depravity, he has developed a style of writing that sets him above every other humorist writing today. IMe Talk Pretty One Day/I is the work of an exceptional writer working at the top of his game, a sassy and silly tour de force. It is brilliantly funny and should, under no circumstances, be read while attempting to eat or drink anything that might leave a stain. If you have read Sedaris before, you'll know what you're in for. If not, this is as good a place to start as any. And start you most certainly should. P

151;IOlli Chanoff/IP