| Author |
Message |
|
| Marj |
 Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:51 pm |
 |
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
|
"With Dress Your Family in Courduroy and Denim, David Sedaris returns to his deliriously twisted domain, hilarious childhood dramas infused with melancholy; the gulf of misunderstanding that exists betwen people of different nations or members of the same family; and the poignant divide between one's best hopes and most common deeds."
Let's all talk about David Sedaris and his newest collection of essays. Wade who brought this wonderful book to our attention will be our leader and moderator.
Wade, the floor is yours ... |
|
|
| Back to top |
   
|
| ehle64 |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:58 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
|
Thanks, marj.
I think the best place to start with these insightful and often wicked essays is the beginning. I know that I was a TV-addicted child. Was probably more than a hog with my Halloween Treats. But I can honestly say that there were no People like the Tomkeys that I was aware of. How sad for them, LOL!
Has anyone else had their Mother lose her shoe in the snow comin' after ya? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marj |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:32 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
|
Wade,
The only time my mother lost a shoe was when our first puppy ate it. We were in rapture. That is until she made us get rid of him!
I don't know why I laughed so hard when he stuffed the candy in his mouth. Certainly we've seen this done in countless movies, but I guess it was something in his writing? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Melody |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:51 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2242
Location: TX
|
I think we laugh at him stuffing his mouth with candy because he's so unabashedly out there with his childhood greed. We've all felt that way at one time or another, but how many of us would describe our situations with such humor/pathos?
Plus, the no-TV family went trick-or-treating on the wrong night! I totally get his anger! He earned his candy! That family is pathetic!
I had a childhood friend whose family had no TV. They were fucking weird. They also had hardwood floors, so walking through their house -- with no TV background noise -- was downright creepy. And loud. |
_________________
My heart told my head: This time, no. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| pedersencr |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:57 pm |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 921
Location: New Orleans
|
Marj, Wade,
I think it is definitely in his writing. I laughed out loud in the coffee shop when I came to just this pair of sentences:
"Gretchen, go lie in the street."
"Make Amy do it."
The first is pure zany gifted Sedaris.
The second is a child's perfect response.
When he is on, he is on!
Still smiling 
Charles |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| ehle64 |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:05 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
|
Melody wrote: Plus, the no-TV family went trick-or-treating on the wrong night! I totally get his anger! He earned his candy! That family is pathetic!
LOL! Glad to know I wasn't the only one finding the Tomkey's behaviour atrocious! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| ehle64 |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:07 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
|
pedersencr wrote: "Gretchen, go lie in the street."
"Make Amy do it."
And of course Amy made poor Tiff do it! *LOL!*
Do you guys know about Amy Sedaris, David's sister? She's highsterical! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| pedersencr |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:12 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 921
Location: New Orleans
|
Actually, I was of two minds about Sedaris's attitude in those first two stories. But I'm a little rain cloud here, so I'll go rain on the plain in Spain for a while instead of on the parade here. I ended up liking stories later in the book much much more. 
Charles |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| sioux |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:16 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 802
Location: philly burbs
|
Charles - I agree that the stories later are better. This is one of the few to focus on his wacky childhood, maybe that's the difference.
ehle - my dad's family still talks about my mother's tendency to go outside in the snow with no shoes on (they divorced 36 years ago). I have been known myself to venture out in the snow without shoes, so in this rare case, I'm kinda with my mom.
AND, I was the only kid on the block with no tv for two whole years when I was 7-8 - it was a financial decision more than a philosophical one. Which is why I never trick or treated on the wrong night. That was just wrong.....
I love the whole backstory David builds for his neighbors. He lives unashamedly in his own little world. I think we all do, but he's the one who revels in his universe. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| ehle64 |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:19 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
|
Too true!
No television for 2 very formative years? I'm shocked that you turned out so pop-culture savvy! Or maybe that's one of the reasons why you are? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:04 pm |
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
Melody wrote: ....Plus, the no-TV family went trick-or-treating on the wrong night! I totally get his anger! He earned his candy! That family is pathetic!.....
|
_________________
That was great for you. How was it for me? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| sioux |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:15 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 802
Location: philly burbs
|
| yambu - I'm sure mel was kidding. Though the story was told from his adult perspective, he does have the ability to evoke the actual juvenile feeling. It does lend me to tap into my inner childishness and say - hey that family was freakish! While fully understanding the irony of his own family's freakishness. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| ehle64 |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 8:27 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
|
| Agreed, sioux. It's kinda like, look how dysfunctional all these other families are. I must be normal! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:43 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
sioux wrote: ..... Though the story was told from his adult perspective, he does have the ability to evoke the actual juvenile feeling....... |
_________________
That was great for you. How was it for me? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marj |
| Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:36 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
|
Sioux wrote:
Quote: I love the whole backstory David builds for his neighbors. He lives unashamedly in his own little world. I think we all do, but he's the one who revels in his universe.
As we do reading it. And there is something about his writing I find wonderfully accessible. I ask myself when I read him, why can't I do that? Invariably this tends to happen at the dentist, because she has a wonderful stash of New Yorkers.
Once when I was there she had to pull a tooth and I can't use novacaine so she put on the gas full blast. In my happy haze all I could think of was writing a story, an essay or a memoir ala David Sedaris.
Then I came out of it. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
