Five

Me Talk Pretty One Day- David Sedaris

I will admit that the first thing that drew me to this book was the cover, and after reading the first few pages, it became quite possibly THE most hilarious piece of literature I had ever picked up in my entire life.

In this novel made up of essays, Sedaris chronicles his peculiar childhood growing up in North Carolina, his various odd career paths, the crazy members of his family, and how it all shaped him to become his present self.

Sedaris' delightful autobiography contains both climactic events in his life and seemingly petty situations, and his ability to communicate humor in every day occurrences is better than any other author I've read. From his "tanorexic" sister, to his white trash brother, to his other sister who wears fat suits and cosmetic bruises (Amy Sedaris-- you should check her out, she's an actress who's been in Strangers With Candy, School of Rock, and also provides the voice of Cinderella for the third Shrek movie), to his fruit-hoarding father, and a mother who fills easter baskets with packs of cigarettes, the entertainment that I got out of reading about his dysfunctional family makes me want to pack up and live with all of them.

Suffice to say that my favorite excerpts were about his sister, Amy, who failed first grade, "pretended" to steal from the grocery store as a child, and who had her own club when she was little called "The Funny Face Club" where she would go door-to-door after halloween and offer to take neighbor's pumpkins away for 25 cents, and then just throw them in the street. Amy Sedaris has also made contributions to her brother's other books.

The only other thing that I can say about this book is that it is a straight trip of "LOL" throughout the entire thing, and there's no more that I could possibly say to talk it up as much as I already have.

It has remained one of my favorite books, one of the best I have ever read, and more people should read it so that we could all be really avant-garde and fresh and quote lines from it every day that no one else will understand.