PWP Member Book Reviews

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Review by Mary E. Young

If you don't listen to NPR then you may not know who David Sedaris is. This book, a collection of essays about his family and growing up, will introduce him. Not another one of those! I hear you cry. But this isn't just another coming of age memoir. Sedaris is as funny as they come and has plenty of material about his wacky family and their eccentricities.

The title of the book comes from an incident where Sedaris is living in Paris and trying to learn French. The teacher says "Happy Easter" but one student is Moslem and doesn't know what Easter is. The students try to explain it to her but their French vocabulary hasn't included "crucifixion" and "my only begotten son." If you are a lover of words or have ever struggled with a foreign language, this will have you on the floor.

I read this book first, then immediately ordered all his others. You will find yourself reading Sedaris's passages aloud just because they are so funny.
 

Mary E. Young began her writing career as editor of Ballooning Journal, a national magazine published by the Balloon Federation of America. She has been a staff and freelance writer and editor for magazines and newspapers for nearly 25 years. She is the author of a novel, Desperate Measures, a winner of iUniverse Editor's Choice and Readers' Choice awards, Cheap and Easy Gardening, Arizona Waterways, and How to Make Your Airplane Last Forever.

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