Me Talk Pretty One Day
2000
- david sedaris
- teens
- teenagers
- ya
- young adult
- juvenile
- nonfiction
- biography
- bio
- humor
The story
A recent transplant to Paris, humorist David Sedaris, bestselling author of “Naked”, presents a collection of his strongest work yet, including the title story about his hilarious attempt to learn French. David Sedaris' move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious pieces, including the title essay, about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section. His family is another inspiration. **You Can't Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang** to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails.
What it’s like
Sharp, conversational sentences that read like a friend talking across a kitchen table, with the prose kept brisk and unfussy from start to finish. The mood is wry and warm, dry as a martini, the kind of book that makes you laugh out loud on a crowded train and then feel a little tender about the odd people in your own family. It suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a long-haul flight where you want to be cheered without thinking hard, or a bedside read that ends each chapter at a natural stopping point. The essays move quickly, one small domestic or social irritation after another, with the pleasure lying in the timing of the punchline and the flat deadpan that follows it. Emotional register stays light and observational, with moments of softness about a father, a brother, and the strangeness of living abroad without quite knowing the language. Language is frank and profane in places, with sexual and bodily humour, cruel remarks about strangers and teachers, and some crude scenes that are comic rather than harrowing; there is no real violence or gore. It is for readers who want honest, self-deprecating humour about being an outsider and a little mean in a funny way.
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