me talk pretty one day an essay by david sedaris

Me Talk Pretty One Day

At the age of forty-one, I am returning to school and having to think of myself as what my French textbook calls "a true debutant." After paying my tuition, I was issued a student ID, which allows me a discounted entry fee at movie theaters, puppet shows, and Festyland, a far-flung amusement park that advertises with billboards picturing a cartoon stegosaurus sitting in a canoe and eating what appears to be a ham sandwich.

I've moved to Paris in order to learn the language. My school is the Alliance Française, and on the first day of class, I arrived early, watching as the returning students greeted one another in the school lobby. Vacations were recounted, and questions were raised concerning mutual friends with names like Kang and Vlatnya. Regardless of their nationalities, everyone spoke what sounded to me like excellent French. Some accents were better than others, but the students exhibited an ease and confidence I found intimidating. As an added discomfort, they were all young, attractive, and well dressed, causing me to feel not unlike Pa Kettle trapped backstage after a fashion show.

I remind myself that I am now a full-grown man. No one will ever again card me for a drink or demand that I weave a floor mat out of newspapers. At my age, a reasonable person should have completed his sentence in the prison of the nervous and the insecure--isn't that the great promise of adulthood? I can't help but think that, somewhere along the way, I made a wrong turn. My fears have not vanished. Rather, they have seasoned and multiplied with age. I am now twice as frightened as I was when, at the age of twenty, I allowed a failed nursing student to inject me with a horse tranquilizer, and eight times more anxious than I was the day my kindergarten teacher pried my fingers off my mother's ankle and led me screaming toward my desk. "You'll get used to it," the woman had said.

I'm still waiting.

The first day of class was nerve-racking, because I knew I'd be expected to perform. That's the way they do it here--everyone into the language pool, sink or swim. The teacher marched in, deeply tanned from a recent vacation, and rattled off a series of administrative announcements. I've spent some time in Normandy, and I took a monthlong French class last summer in New York. I'm not completely in the dark, yet I understood only half of what this teacher was saying.

"If you have not meismslsxp by this time, you should not be in this room. Has everybody apzkiubjxow ? Everyone? Good, we shall proceed." She spread out her lesson plan and sighed, saying, "All right, then, who knows the alphabet?"

It was startling, because a) I hadn't been asked that question in a while, and b) I realized, while laughing, that I myself did not know the alphabet. They're the same letters, but they're pronounced differently.

"Ahh." The teacher went to the board and sketched the letter a. "Do we have anyone in the room whose first name commences with an ahh?"

Two Polish Annas raised their hands, and the teacher instructed them to present themselves, giving their names, nationalities, occupations, and a list of things they liked and disliked in this world. The first Anna hailed from an industrial town outside of Warsaw and had front teeth the size of tombstones. She worked as a seamstress, enjoyed quiet times with friends, and hated the mosquito.

"Oh, really," the teacher said. "How very interesting. I thought that everyone loved the mosquito, but here, in front of all the world, you claim to detest him. How is it that we've been blessed with someone as unique and original as you? Tell us, please."

The seamstress did not understand what was being said, but she knew that this was an occasion for shame. Her rabbity mouth huffed for breath, and she stared down at her lap as though the appropriate comeback were stitched somewhere alongside the zipper of her slacks.

The second Anna learned from the first and claimed to love sunshine and detest lies. It sounded like a translation of one of those Playmate of the Month data sheets, the answers always written in the same loopy handwriting: "Turn-ons: Mom's famous five-alarm chili! Turnoffs: Insincerity and guys who come on too strong!!!"

The two Polish women surely had clear notions of what they liked and disliked, but, like the rest of us, they were limited in terms of vocabulary, and this made them appear less than sophisticated. The teacher forged on, and we learned that Carlos, the Argentine bandonion player, loved wine, music, and, in his words, "Making sex with the women of the world." Next came a beautiful young Yugoslavian who identified herself as an optimist, saying that she loved everything life had to offer.

The teacher licked her lips, revealing a hint of the sadist we would later come to know. She crouched low for her attack, placed her hands on the young woman's desk, and said, "Oh, yeah? And do you love your little war?"

While the optimist struggled to defend herself, I scrambled to think of an answer to what had obviously become a trick question. How often are you asked what you love in this world? More important, how often are you asked and then publicly ridiculed for your answer? I recalled my mother, flushed with wine, pounding the table late one night, saying, "Love? I love a good steak cooked rare. I love my cat, and I love . . ." My sisters and I leaned forward, waiting to hear our names. "Tums," our mother said. "I love Tums."

The teacher killed some time accusing the Yugoslavian girl of masterminding a program of genocide, and I jotted frantic notes in the margins of my pad. While I can honestly say that I love leafing through medical textbooks devoted to severe dermatological conditions, it is beyond the reach of my French vocabulary, and acting it out would only have invited unwanted attention.

When called upon, I delivered an effortless list of things I detest: blood sausage, intestinal pâté, brain pudding. I'd learned these words the hard way. Having given it some thought, I then declared my love for IBM typewriters, the French word for "bruise," and my electric floor waxer. It was a short list, but still I managed to mispronounce IBM and afford the wrong gender to both the floor waxer and the typewriter. Her reaction led me to believe that these mistakes were capital crimes in the country of France.

"Were you always this palicmkrexjs ?" she asked. "Even a fiuscrzsws tociwegixp knows that a typewriter is feminine."

I absorbed as much of her abuse as I could understand, thinking, but not saying, that I find it ridiculous to assign a gender to an inanimate object incapable of disrobing and making an occasional fool of itself. Why refer to Lady Flesh Wound or Good Sir Dishrag when these things could never deliver in the sack?

The teacher proceeded to belittle everyone from German Eva, who hated laziness, to Japanese Yukari, who loved paintbrushes and soap. Italian, Thai, Dutch, Korean, Chinese--we all left class foolishly believing that the worst was over. We didn't know it then, but the coming months would teach us what it is like to spend time in the presence of a wild animal. We soon learned to dodge chalk and to cover our heads and stomachs whenever she approached us with a question. She hadn't yet punched anyone, but it seemed wise to prepare ourselves against the inevitable.

Though we were forbidden to speak anything but French, the teacher would occasionally use us to practice any of her five fluent languages.

"I hate you," she said to me one afternoon. Her English was flawless. "I really, really hate you." Call me sensitive, but I couldn't help taking it personally.

Learning French is a lot like joining a gang in that it involves a long and intensive period of hazing. And it wasn't just my teacher; the entire population seemed to be in on it. Following brutal encounters with my local butcher and the concierge of my building, I'd head off to class, where the teacher would hold my corrected paperwork high above her head, shouting, "Here's proof that David is an ignorant and uninspired ensigiejsokhjx ."

Refusing to stand convicted on the teacher's charges of laziness, I'd spend four hours a night on my homework, working even longer whenever we were assigned an essay. I suppose I could have gotten by with less, but I was determined to create some sort of an identity for myself. We'd have one of those "complete the sentence" exercises, and I'd fool with the thing for hours, invariably settling on something like, "A quick run around the lake? I'd love to. Just give me a minute to strap on my wooden leg." The teacher, through word and action, conveyed the message that, if this was my idea of an identity, she wanted nothing to do with it.

My fear and discomfort crept beyond the borders of my classroom and accompanied me out onto the wide boulevards, where, no matter how hard I tried, there was no escaping the feeling of terror I felt whenever anyone asked me a question. I was safe in any kind of a store, as, at least in my neighborhood, one can stand beside the cash register for hours on end without being asked something so trivial as, "May I help you?" or "How would you like to pay for that?"

My only comfort was the knowledge that I was not alone. Huddled in the smoky hallways and making the most of our pathetic French, my fellow students and I engaged in the sort of conversation commonly overheard in refugee camps.

"Sometimes me cry alone at night."

"That is common for me also, but be more strong, you. Much work, and someday you talk pretty. People stop hate you soon. Maybe tomorrow, okay?"

Unlike other classes I have taken, here there was no sense of competition. When the teacher poked a shy Korean woman in the eyelid with a freshly sharpened pencil, we took no comfort in the fact that, unlike Hyeyoon Cho, we all knew the irregular past tense of the verb "to defeat." In all fairness, the teacher hadn't meant to hurt the woman, but neither did she spend much time apologizing, saying only, "Well, you should have been paying more attention."

Over time, it became impossible to believe that any of us would ever improve. Fall arrived, and it rained every day. It was mid-October when the teacher singled me out, saying, "Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section." And it struck me that, for the first time since arriving in France, I could understand every word that someone was saying.

Understanding doesn't mean that you can suddenly speak the language. Far from it. It's a small step, nothing more, yet its rewards are intoxicating and deceptive. The teacher continued her diatribe, and I settled back, bathing in the subtle beauty of each new curse and insult.

"You exhaust me with your foolishness and reward my efforts with nothing but pain, do you understand me?"

The world opened up, and it was with great joy that I responded, "I know the thing what you speak exact now. Talk me more, plus, please, plus."

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Me Talk Pretty One Day

74 pages • 2 hours read

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Summary and Study Guide

David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day is a collection of twenty-seven essays exploring the author’s childhood in North Carolina, his relationship with his family, his time living in France, and observations about American social life. The book is comprised of two sections, Part One and Part Deux in which the latter half focuses primarily on Sedaris’s time in Normandy, France. Told with sardonic humor, each chapter deploys various levels of fantasy, irony , and other narrative comedic techniques to highlight the mundanity of Sedaris’s everyday experiences while also adding relief to more grave subjects.

The first three chapters of the book take place at different points in Sedaris’s childhood. They explore the early beginnings of his fantasy life, which allows him to make sense of other people’s responses to his speech impediment and sexuality. In response to a persistent speech therapist, Sedaris concocts a spy fantasy to situate his struggles in overcoming his speech impediment. This sets the stage for future challenges to authority, especially as his sexuality eventually becomes an issue for those around him such as his homophobic music teacher. These chapters also contrast Sedaris’s creative imagination with his father’s more scientific approach to life.

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Later in Part One, the author reveals some of the struggles in his early artistic career, including his drug addiction alongside the ups and downs of his visual arts practice. With humor, Sedaris discusses his errors as a young artist as well as his encounters with grief. He also reveals the loss of his mother and several beloved pets in the family. The introduction of a foul-mouthed brother and other unconventional family responses to mourning mitigates with humor some of the solemnness of the author’s subjects of death and grief.

In the last chapters of Part One, Sedaris explores some of his job struggles as an underpaid writing instructor, an underappreciated personal assistant to an eccentric heiress, and a mover. The author offers commentary about social and economic disparity, particularly in New York City where wealth distribution is prevalent. While Sedaris achieves a greater level of financial stability as an adult, these chapters articulate his preference for things that are simple and non-pretentious over something with more glamorous appeal. He much prefers hot dogs to the elaborate and expensive entrées in SoHo, and supports his sister Amy’s antics that defy conventional standards of beauty in favor of unconventional displays of humor.

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Part Deux takes place primarily in France, a country that Sedaris begins exploring after meeting his partner, Hugh , who owns a second home in Normandy. The author shares his struggles with learning French, negotiating American and French customs, and finding ways of expressing his unique sense of humor in a French setting . Sedaris’s gradual acquisition of the French language and time spent in France leads him to question American sensibilities, something which he has never thought about until he has spent considerable time outside of the U.S. From his many language blunders to his awkward efforts at translation, he learns humility and gains appreciation for the ways in which new language and cultural acquisition can pleasantly surprise.

In the final two chapters of Part Deux, the author reflects on how the past converges with the present. In considering his trouble with sleeping, he reveals how alcoholism had served as an unhealthy sleep-aid for some time before his fantasies took their place as a slightly healthier way of occupying time at night. This practice, coupled with Sedaris’s father’s odd behavior of keeping and consuming food past its prime, is a comment on compulsive behaviors that one brings from the past into the present. The author suggests that his fantasies are a way of coping in his sobriety, as his father’s eating habits are creative compulsions. While these compulsions may lead to trouble at times, he gestures to how they are, in some ways, an opening to see reality and its objects in a different light.

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Critical Analysis of Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

• Categories: American Literature Literary Devices Me Talk Pretty One Day

About this sample

Words: 870 |

Published: May 14, 2021

Words: 870 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

• Sedaris, D. (2010). Me talk pretty one day. Paris: Hachette.

Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Provides a foundational overview, outlining the historical context and introducing key information that will be further explored in the essay, setting the stage for the argument to follow.

Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

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Me Talk Pretty One Day

By: David Sedaris

• Narrated by: David Sedaris
• Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 (12,010 ratings)

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In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives, a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is another unforgettable collection from one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today.

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Sedaris is the gay Mark Twain.

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Excellent, as always

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Not the whole book

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Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes. But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most.

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Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

By: Sarah Vowell

• Narrated by: Sarah Vowell, John Slattery, Nick Offerman, and others
• Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,618
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,258
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,239

From the best-selling author of Assassination Vacation and Unfamiliar Fishes , a humorous account of the Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette - the one Frenchman we could all agree on - and an insightful portrait of a nation's idealism and its reality. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States is a humorous and insightful portrait of the famed Frenchman, the impact he had on our young country, and his ongoing relationship with instrumental Americans of the time.

You likely haven't heard it this way...

• By William L. Scott III on 06-04-16

I Can't Make This Up

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• By: Neil Strauss - contributor, Kevin Hart
• Narrated by: Kevin Hart
• Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 55,690
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 50,174
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 49,918

Superstar comedian and Hollywood box-office star Kevin Hart turns his immense talent to the written word by writing some words. Some of those words include: the , a , for , above , and even even . Put them together and you have the funniest, most heartfelt, and most inspirational memoir on survival, success, and the importance of believing in yourself since Old Yeller .

Best Audiobook I Ever Listened To

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By: Neil Strauss - contributor , and others

Publisher's summary

• Abridged Audiobook
• Categories: Biographies & Memoirs

Critic reviews

"At his best, he makes you laugh out loud, which indeed may be worth the price of admission." ( The New York Times )

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What listeners say about Me Talk Pretty One Day

• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 out of 5.0
• 5 Stars 8,073
• 4 Stars 2,372
• 3 Stars 907
• 2 Stars 341
• 1 Stars 317
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.7 out of 5.0
• 5 Stars 6,911
• 4 Stars 1,057
• 3 Stars 394
• 2 Stars 134
• 1 Stars 146
• 5 Stars 5,893
• 4 Stars 1,653
• 3 Stars 616
• 2 Stars 255
• 1 Stars 196

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.com reviews, amazon reviews.

• Overall 5 out of 5 stars
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars
• Story 5 out of 5 stars

Subtly Funny Musings on Life Experiences

This is my first Sedaris book and chuckled throughout. The book isn't a straightforward novel, but a compilation of different events/periods in his life coupled with live performances. It's deeply reflective and humorous in a subtle manner. Highly recommend and can't wait to download his other titles.

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61 people found this helpful

Pure Genius

I've listened to David Sedaris on the radio on This American Life. When I found that he had a book out, I jumped at the chance to get it on audio. Usually I find that I am disappointed when I expect so much from an author. I was not disappointed this time. I did alot of walking while I listened to this, and people gave me a wide berth because I was laughing all the time! I looked like a crazy person. Do yourself a favor and get this book. The man is a genius. Honestly the funniest thing I've ever read.

60 people found this helpful

• tasha-kitty

CAUTION -- DO NOT LISTEN WHILE DRIVING!

My husband and I listened to this in the car on a long road trip. We were both laughing so hard we thought we were going to have to pull off the road or have an accident. David Sedaris is hilarious in general, but listening to him read his own material takes it to an all new level. His ability to take mundane life and twist it around is part of it, but his voice and expression make it a side splitting experience. This is one of the few authors where hearing the material is better than just reading it out of a book.

46 people found this helpful

• Overall 4 out of 5 stars

• Edmund W. Cheung

Cynical but Cute - Better than reading the book.

A friend recommended this book to read. It is even better on audiobook read by the author. I would not say that it made me laugh but there are some really well written and cute stories that will keep you interested.

44 people found this helpful

• T. Chambless

Sedaris is great!

I was not familiar with David Sedaris before I bought this book, and I absolutely loved it. The stories are heartfelt and funny. The audio delivery is superb. I now keep an eye out for anything Sedaris has written knowing I will enjoy it. Keep the books coming! I can't wait to hear more.

43 people found this helpful

A constant set of chuckles and a few gotchas!

I really like this Sedaris book. True to his other novels, this is a compendium of stories. The title is taken from the first story where David, as a 3rd grader, goes to a speech therapist. You cannot help but laugh as the story unwinds and young David gets the best of the teacher in the end. And so the stories continue one by one making you laugh and every now and again he slips in a potent serious message. Sedaris narrates his own work, so the stories comes off more powerful than a classic text might; especially in the first story where he talks about a lisping problem he had as a child. This is a relatively short listen and it should appeal to anyone who like satirical humor drawn from personal introspection. Although many of the stories involve family members, they are not mean spirited. You feel like you are at a dinner table and just reliving the 'best of' stories with family members. I highly recommend this series of stories -- they are all winners.

39 people found this helpful

• Overall 1 out of 5 stars

Not Worth the Price of Admission

Disregard the 4 rating and make sure you listen to the sample before buying. If you can take 4 hours of 4:30, listening to exactly the same thing, buy it. I made a mistake and took the 4 rating on faith. I wanted to, because I had so thoroughly enjoyed David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall. Even after I listened to the download sample and finding the author's in-studio reading style to be as mediocre as the subject matter, I still bought the book. I did so because the reviews said otherwise. I reasoned that I was listening to the beginning and it would soon change. Boy was I mistaken. The drone of his recounting his HS speech problems, went on and on and on. It finally did change, but that was at the 4-hour mark. For the remaining 30 minute, the listener is once again treated to a live performance, as funny, as full of wit and as crisply delivered, as is his Carnegie Hall performance. However, 30 minutes out of 4:30, is hardly worth the price of admission. The only saving grace was I used a 20% discount instead of a book credit to buy the book.

25 people found this helpful

• Sher from Provo

You will ROFL

In spite of being leery about books read by their authors, I listened to this book read by Sedaris himself. My concerns were ungrounded as I quickly realized he was as good a narrator, or maybe I should say performer, as he was an author: he kept me in stitches throughout this whole book. It is a collection of memoirs based on Sedaris' life, but told through exceptionally good writing and with insightful humor, making his drug addiction and other excesses seem forgivable. Throughout the book, I had no doubt that Sedaris accepts responsibility for his mistakes, and that somewhere along the way he decided to get clean, or at least cleaner, and make something of his life. His ability to poke fun at himself and his slightly strange family is evident as he turns event after average event into reasons to laugh out loud. Decidedly gay, he is nevertheless entertaining to all kinds of audiences. On a personal note, although clever, the only part of the book I did not enjoy were the dog poems. Others will say that is the best part, and I understand. They just came across as smutty to me. My favorite parts were "learning to speak French," and "disdain of computers." So funny!

20 people found this helpful

• Story 4 out of 5 stars

Great Sedaris - Not for everyone

I am making my way through all the Sedaris which make excellent lockdown reading. This one made me laugh out loud dozens of times, and I had to share many of the snippets with my family. I am a lover of short stories, good writing, and very very offbeat humor. Check, check, and check. Only downsides are it is short and is just a collection without the strong theme found in Sedaris. If you have enjoyed other Sedaris, you will likely enjoy this as well. Some readers will be offended by the (often crude and dark) observations of this book. If stories involving drugs, sex, excrement, or homosexuality bother you at all, this is not for you. The humor is sometimes so rude, raw, and/or mean as to be shocking to the uninitiated. I really appreciate the author's narration. He adds a subtle spin to many lines that make one truly appreciate Audible format.

19 people found this helpful

A dry sense of humor is required to really enjoy David Sedaris' self-deprecating stories. The sections of tape he recorded in front of a crowd were probably some of my favorites. I'll definately listen to it again to catch what i may have missed. And I'll recommend it to others.

18 people found this helpful

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Me Talk Pretty One Day

David sedaris, everything you need for every book you read..

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Me Talk Pretty One Day: Introduction

Me talk pretty one day: plot summary, me talk pretty one day: detailed summary & analysis, me talk pretty one day: themes, me talk pretty one day: quotes, me talk pretty one day: characters, me talk pretty one day: symbols, me talk pretty one day: theme wheel, brief biography of david sedaris.

Historical Context of Me Talk Pretty One Day

Other books related to me talk pretty one day.

• Full Title: Me Talk Pretty One Day
• When Published: May 2, 2000
• Literary Period: Contemporary
• Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
• Setting: Raleigh, North Carolina, New York City, and France
• Climax: Because Me Talk Pretty One Day is a collection of essays and vignettes, there isn’t just one climax.

Extra Credit for Me Talk Pretty One Day

The Talent Family. David Sedaris and his sister Amy—a famous comedian herself—have worked together to write several plays, including Stump the Host , Stitches , and The Little Frieda Mysteries .  Whenever they collaborate, they write under the penname “The Talent Family.”

Family Drama. Sedaris sold the film rights for Me Talk Pretty One Day in 2001 to the filmmaker and director Wayne Wang. However, he later put an end to the project because he was worried the film would present his family in an unflattering light.

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Me Talk Pretty One Day

by David Sedaris

Regular Price $10.99

Regular Price $13.99 CAD

Also Available From:

May 4, 2009

9780316073653

Nonfiction / Humor / Form / Essays

Description

A new collection from David Sedaris is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris has inspired hilarious pieces, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, about his attempts to learn French. His family is another inspiration. You Cant 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 and cashiers with 6-inch fingernails. Compared by The New Yorker to Twain and Hawthorne, Sedaris has become one of our best-loved authors. Sedaris is an amazing reader whose appearances draw hundreds, and his performancesincluding a jaw-dropping impression of Billie Holiday singing I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weinerare unforgettable. Sedariss essays on living in Paris are some of the funniest hes ever written. At last, someone even meaner than the French! The sort of blithely sophisticated, loopy humour that might have resulted if Dorothy Parker and James Thurber had had a love child. Entertainment Weekly on Barrel Fever Sidesplitting Not one of the essays in this new collection failed to crack me up; frequently I was helpless. The New York Times Book Review on Naked

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David Sedaris

Presented by wabe.

WABE Presents An Evening with David Sedaris, author of the previous bestsellers Calypso, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and regular National Public Radio contributor will be appearing for one night only at the Fox Theatre on April 9 at 7:30 pm, following the release of his newest books Happy-Go-Lucky and A Carnival of Snackery. 

This is a unique opportunity to see the best-selling humorist in an intimate setting. As always, Sedaris will be offering a selection of all-new readings and recollections, as well as a Q&A session and book signing. Books will be available for sale at the event, courtesy of A Cappella Books. 

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Me Talk Pretty One Day Hardcover – Bargain Price, May 2, 2000

Purchase options and add-ons

• Part of series Me Talk Pretty One Day
• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date May 2, 2000
• Dimensions 5.88 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 0316777722
• ISBN-13 978-0316777728
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review.

It all adds up to the most distinctively skewed autobiography since Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia . The only possible reason not to read this book is if you'd rather hear the author's intrinsically funny speaking voice narrating his story. In that case, get Me Talk Pretty One Day on audio. --Tim Appelo

From Publishers Weekly

From library journal, about the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; First Edition (May 2, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316777722
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316777728
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.88 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• #268 in Deals in Books
• #382 in Humor Essays (Books)
• #418 in Essays (Books)

About the author

David sedaris.

David Sedaris lives in Paris. Raised in North Carolina, he has worked as a housecleaner and most famously, as a part-time elf for Macy's. Several of his plays have been produced, and he is a regular contributor to ESQUIRE and Public Radio International's 'This American Life'.

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