Me Talk Pretty One Day

David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day is a great book. It is a compilation of essays about his life and the everyday things that happen to and around him. His essay topics range from learning French with an evil anti-America teacher to his foul-mouthed brother’s escapades that include fistfights and a “Fuck It Bucket” filled with candy. Sedaris’ style and choice of topics made this book impossible to put down. His witty and sarcastic writing make the book flow even though the essays are unrelated.
After having read this book several times over I have become very fond of several of the essays. My favorite essay is “You Can’t Kill the Rooster.” This essay is about his younger brother who somehow fell very, very far away from the tree. He curses, has a southern accent, and gets in fights regularly. Sedaris writes with quick witted sarcasm that makes his writing real. His brother has given himself the nickname ‘The Rooster.’ No one knows why but it is hi nickname. The Rooster “politely ma’ams and sirs all strangers but refers to friends and family, including his father, as ‘bitch’ or ‘motherfucker.’” Sedaris was not allowed to smoke weed but The Rooster could not smoke it in the living room. Sedaris creates a visual picture of his brother so clearly that I can envision a five-foot-six jeans clad man with a six pack always on hand. Sedaris creates a character that I can see but also one that you can feel and even relate to.
My second favorite essay is “The Youth in Asia.” Sedaris talks about euthanizing his cat but the fact that he could not stop thinking of a cartoon called ‘The Youth in Asia’ where the fat friend could not climb the rope in gym class and it was very sad indeed. Sedaris uses real life situations and pokes fun at them. Euthanasia is not a funny topic but Sedaris actually had me laughing out loud. He makes things real and tangible.
I find myself trying to sound like Sedaris quite often. I want to be witty and biting; I want to write about my feelings and the absurdities that happen in my head but I cannot. I like reading his essays because he takes the everyday and makes it absurd. He does it with his words and sentence structure.