Book Review: Me Talk Pretty One Day (Sedaris)

A few weeks ago I saw an episode of The Daily Show, and David Sedaris was the guest. He was promoting his new book, and during the interview he seemed a little wacky, but in a funny way. I knew that Laurie liked his material, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I didn't realize that David Sedaris's shtick is short stories. It obviously didn't take long to figure this out, and in a way I found I liked the format. It was easy to listen to on my way to work because each story would generally last from 10-20 minutes, which worked real well for my 45 minute commute. So this was the first audiobook I've listened to in this format. Also, its the first audiobook I've listened to that was narrated by the author. Given the subject matter and style of writing, I think it benefitted from this touch of personalization - as his stories were mostly about events in his life, and someone else as narrator just wouldn't have worked quite so well.

The style of humor is a mix of dead-pan, observations of obsurdity in people, and self-deprecation. There were a few moments that I found to be laugh-out-loud funny, but on the whole it was perfectly entertaining. It was certainly not heavy material, so it didn't require a large amount of mental attention - another reason why it works well as a commuting audio-book. So while it was entertaining, I can only handle so much, so it'll probably be a while before I get an urge to try another book of his. I can see it being like reading a Chicken Soup for the Soul book - while the stories may be uplifting, one can only take so much before needing a break from the style of writing, story telling, and editing.