Me Talk Pretty One Day
Written and Narrated By: David Sedaris
Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
Sedaris takes on language, France, America, and drugs. Oh and art! Oh and the Ugly American! Oh and fat! Oh and…!
I have to admit that I don’t have too much David Sedaris in my Library. It’s not that I dislike the man, on the contrary: I think he’s hilarious! Mostly, I s’pose it’s that I really don’t see the point of owning essays and thoughts as opposed to full-blown stories with plots, characters, and maaaaaybe even some weird interstitial theme music thrown in to give the audio production some zest.
I needn’t have worried about the latter part. Me Talk Pretty One Day sizzles and hums with smooth jazz and jaunty tunes to lead into stories and then to walk ya outta them. I dunno if it’s because Sedaris is into music or if it’s because he was swayed and scarred by his father, a Jazz Aficionado who dragged young David and his siblings almost kicking and screaming to Performances To Die For. Not that they don’t like it, but it sounds like dear old dad was a biiiiiiiit much, a biiiiiiiit embarrassing.
Get ready for stories about his whacked out and utterly brilliant family (And NATURALLY Amy comes up with ways to give Dad heart attacks, ways to give David coronaries—”Good luck with beating that rape charge today!” she shouts as she saunters off a crowded subway car). And be prepared to learn a whooooole lot about Americans, from the Ugly American in France who thinks David is a Smelly Unwashed “Frog” to the Ugly American in New York who can’t stand anything NOT Daytona Beach or down-home South Carolina.
The most harrowing stories center on David’s drug addictions as a young man, but even those are funny in a nightmarish way. Ya gotta admit, there are VERY few people who think like Sedaris does. Who else’ll wish HIS birthday took place in a slaughterhouse with the killing of a piglet to top off the day’s festivities?
Nothing negative to say about the narration either. Obviously Sedaris is a seasoned performer, well-used to delivering a funny scenario, a funny line, good with the pregnant pauses used to give that funny, twisted bit the OOMPH it requires to crack up an audience. Plus, there are a few live bits where we get to hear people enjoying the essays as they’re spoken.
Maybe not my faaaaaaavorite Sedaris, BUT! Really! Where on earth would we be without the man?!?
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