21
Apr
2009
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
The nice thing about listening to David Sedaris for so many years on NPR is that reading his essays, you can hear his actual voice in your head. And really, his essays are pretty much uncensored versions of This American Life.
Sedaris tackles issues such as his family’s reactions to being included (read: at the center of) his essays and the nations homophobia. But he also exposes himself, creating vignettes right out of his childhood memories.
In the first story, Us and Them, young David becomes fascinated with a family in the neighborhood who don’t own a T.V. He hides in their bushes and watch them talk to each other during dinner. But when they are out of town for Halloween and come trick-or-treating a day late, he would rather eat his bags full of candy all at once rather than give any to them. He writes:
“I began breaking the wax lips and candy necklaces pulled from pile no. 2. These were the second-best things I had received, and while it hurt to destroy them, it would have hurt even more to give them away.”
And so suddenly, his fascination and pity for their televisionless lifestyle is replaced by anger for stealing his candy, as he sees it. The tale ends with the Sedaris family watching a Western listlessly on TV that night.
Not all of the essays are as humorous or poignant. In Hejira Sedaris writes about the directionless pothead he was at 22 years old. He dropped out of two different colleges, and moved back in with his parents, smoking pot and listening to Joni Mitchell. This would have been some time in the late ’70’s. And actually, smoking pot and listening to Joni Mitchell sounds like a pretty good time to me, but his parents kicked him out of the house. The point of the story, I think, might have been that they kicked him out for being gay, but Sedaris notes that this didn’t occur to him at the time, and in fact he only found that out a couple of months later. But he neglects to mention how he found out, what his life and relationship with his family was like after getting the boot, or anything else that might have a point. Plus I didn’t know what the title, Hejira, meant, so I googled it and it turns out it is the name of a Joni Mitchell album. I felt I should have known this, as my mom is a big Joni Mitchell fan, but I guess she never had that one on CD.
Most of the essays do say something though, and do keep up with Sedaris’s usual humor. Overall they are on the light-hearted side, with a little bit of sadness at the end. Like he has to grow up or realize something in them all. It kind of reminded me of The Wonder Years if Kevin turned out to be gay.
Buy Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim on Amazon
If you like this book/author, you might like:
(my reviews in blue)
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris
Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions by Christian Lander
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
Leave the Building Quickly: True Stories by Cynthia Kaplan
Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Goldenn Gelman
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Other works by David Sedaris:
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules by David Sedaris
Naked
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Barrel Fever: Stories and Essays
Santaland Diaries & Seasons Greetings: 2 Plays
The Santaland Diaries
Holidays on Ice: Stories
Me Talk Pretty One Day
