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 ‘Dress’ for the happy occasion A Review By Beth E. Concepción David Sedaris lets people have an intimate look at his life and the lives of his friends and family in books such as “Barrel Fever,” “Naked,” “Holidays on Ice” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” In return, his readers set up Web pages that speak of him with God-like reverence and discuss his latest book-signing/reading/late-night talk show appearance with attention to detail that smacks of Sedaris himself. His fans have made the man rich enough to never have to work or write again, but he recently admitted to seeking volunteer work in England and France (where he and his longtime partner Hugh split their time) just to get new material. He told the Dallas Voice, “I’ve been trying to get a volunteer job in London because it would give me something to do. I love hearing people complain — especially when there’s nothing I can do about it. Back pain or the health system — great, I’m all for it. I want to hear people complain while I do little tasks for them. Like go to someone’s house who’s old and clean their oven … I’d be disappointed if they were very sweet and gave me cookies while I cleaned an oven that wasn’t really dirty. I’d come away disappointed. I’m hunting for crackpots, basically.” Even mundane life situations that can be explained easily sometimes look like the work of a crackpot upon first glance. Take an incident revealed in “Nuit of the Living Dead,” which is part of Sedaris’ latest collection of personal essays, “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” — anticipated by his fans with the religious fervor akin to discovering 10 more commandments. “I was on the front porch, drowning a mouse in a bucket when this van pulled up, which was strange.” Not the drowning part, but the van. Apparently, few cars pass his house in Normandy, France, which is in a village that has about a dozen inhabitants. It turns out that Sedaris was drowning the mouse because the mouse had been critically injured in a trap that Hugh set in the attic. Sure, it is a logical explanation, but what an opening sentence. Sedaris is at his best when he exploits himself, his family and those he meets for comedic merit. After all, truth is stranger than fiction. Many of the essays will be familiar to those who keep abreast of Sedaris’ work, as they previously were published in Esquire and The New Yorker. Two of these former Esquire essays — “Rooster at the Hitchin’ Post” and “Six to Eight Black Men” — were read by Sedaris himself to an elated crowd at the Trustees Theater during his Savannah stop Oct. 9 (see the Oct. 17, 2003, issue of The Chronicle online at www.scad.edu/thechronicle). Sedaris’ talent lies in turning pedestrian daily occurrences into something worthy of ogling in horror (“Full House” and “Possession”) and vice versa (“Hejira” and “The Next Door”). “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” is on par with “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” widely considered Sedaris’ best and funniest work. The book provides wickedly entertaining fodder, but doesn’t offer anything new for the devoted (except the ability to have his magazine essays bound in one place). |
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