Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim - Softcover

Sedaris; David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349116709 ISBN 13: 9780349116709

Publisher: Abacus, 2004

Synopsis

David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters.
He goes on vacation with his family.
He gets a job selling drinks.
He attends his brother's wedding.
He mops his sister's floor.
He gives directions to a lost traveller.
He eats a hamburger.
He has his blood sugar tested.
It all sounds so normal, doesn't it?
In his new book 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 finds one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today at the peak of his form.

About this title

Review:

Most of us would be lucky to be able to express ourselves in writing half as well as David Sedaris does in Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. But on top of his skills with the written word, the author also has substantial gifts as a performer, as he proves on the audio version of the book. But while the CD or cassette version of this collection is possibly the best bet for furthering your appreciation of the material, the book itself still showcases Sedaris's ability to capture the essence of his characters. Whether he's relating a tale involving his high-voiced brother Paul, or recalling times when he and his sisters tried to win good karma by speaking and acting like well-behaved, fairytale children, Sedaris's prose hits the right note in both the opening, comedic stories, and in the more poignant essays that tend to come later in the book.

In Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Sedaris describes fights with his boyfriend, and of his sister-in-law's difficult pregnancy. When sister Lisa complains about the stories involving the family, he writes about that, too. Sedaris's latest book provides more evidence that he is a great humorist, memoirist and raconteur, and readers are lucky to have the opportunity to know him so well. Perhaps they are luckier still not to know him personally. --Leah Weathersby, Amazon.com

Review:

So often Sedaris's phrasing is beautiful in its piquancy and minimalism...His life is extraordinary in so many ways - the drug addiction, the eccentric family, the crazy jobs, the fame, the globetrotting - but one of the more unlikely achievements here is in making it all seem quite ordinary. Ultimately, his masterstroke is in acting as a bystander in his own story (Guardian)

He makes me laugh so much. In an era when US satire is outpacing our own he's a sharp, humane and hilarious voice that never fails to make you smile - and sometimes weep. Apparently effortless humour is difficult, and precious. He's the real thing (James Naughtie Radio Times)

A deadpan, darkly comical portrait of the American underbelly . . . Sedaris shares something of [Alan] Bennett's detached curiosity, and they both have a thirst for amusement (Craig Brown Mail on Sunday)

These are scenes of family life at its best, written with clarity but also with great affection, through which the character of the author emerges, watchful, self-mocking and full of understanding. (TLS)

This is a man who could capture your heart and lift your spirits while reading out the ingredients of a rice cake. OBSERVER ('Mr Sedaris's humour is dry, witty and consistently successful.’)

ECONOMIST ('Sedaris is like an updated Thurber: domestic, laconic, slightly warped but never bitter, and extremely funny.’)

CULTURE, SUNDAY TIMES ('His best, funniest, most satisfying book.’)

About this edition

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0349116709
• ISBN 13: 9780349116709
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272