Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim

Sedaris, David

4.11

278,151 ratings by Goodreads

9781586215026: Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim

ISBN 10: 1586215027 ISBN 13: 9781586215026

Publisher: Hachette Audio, 2004

No one renders the pathos, chaos, and impossible variety of daily encounters like David Sedaris. On every subject, he is bruisingly painful and tenderly affectionate. Sedaris is unique in American writing, and these readings of his own work are highly skilled performances. This new collection will be eagerly anticipated by his ever-growing crowd of devoted fans.

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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, and he proves this on the audio version of the book. In his essay The Change in Me, Sedaris remembers that his mother was good at imitating people, and it's clear that he takes after her. Whether he's doing impressions of 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 nuanced performance hits the right note in both the opening, comedic stories, and the more poignant essays that tend to come later in the reading.

Sedaris's career is closely linked with two things: audio (he was discovered by NPR's Ira Glass), and the personal lives of himself and his family. In Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, he 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 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.’)

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