Some of you may be familiar with David Sedaris. He's frequently heard on NPR's This American Life and he's written quite a few books of essays on life and culture. This is the second book of his that I've read (for the Seconds challenge nonetheless!) and I loved it!
Sedaris' writing can be enjoyed by just about anyone. His stories are personal and are reflective on his life, but in talking about his own life and his own experiences he reflects on the world and society as a whole. And he writes in a way that you'll find yourself literally laughing out loud in embarassing places. I finished this book at the car dealership today while I was getting my oil changed and couldn't help but laugh as David talked about his father hoarding food until it was rotten and not buying meat unless it was priced so low that it had a sticker on it that said "to be consumed immediately" which he would justify by saying that meat was supposed to be gray, the stores just dyed it red to make it look pretty.
Me Talk Pretty One Day is divided into two parts. The first half of the book focuses on David's life in the U.S., stories from his childhood and stories from his experiences living in New York. The second half of the book focuses on his life in France as an American. Trust me, there's lots of great commentary here, and while you'll find yourself laughing out loud, there's a bit of sad truth to so much of what he talks about. Some of my favorite parts of the book are his experiences with the French language which include a French language class taught by a French woman who's goal it was to belittle all of her students and his chapter on trying to figure out the gender of french words.
I highly recommend that if you have never read any of Sedaris' books, you pick one of them up. I'm sure that they're all equally as good. I've read Dress Your Family Up In Corduroy and Denim as well and that one was great too. I'm not usually a fan of non-fiction or of essays in general, but these do the trick!
