272 pages
English language
Published July 3, 2002 by Abacus.
A recent transplant to Paris, humorist David Sedaris, bestselling author of “Naked”, presents a collection of his strongest work yet, including the title story about his hilarious attempt to learn French.
David Sedaris' move to Paris from New York inspired these hilarious pieces, including the title essay, about his attempts to learn French from a sadistic teacher who declares that every day spent with you is like having a caesarean section. His family is another inspiration. You Can't Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers of food and cashiers with six-inch fingernails.
https://www.davidsedarisbooks.com/titles/david-sedaris/me-talk-pretty-one-day/9780316776967/
Read it because people said it's funny, parts of it are, but not enough endorphins to keep me reading.
Not sure if it wasn't as good as Calypso, or his books get tiresome after the first, but I felt as if this was a slog with few humorous moments. Certainly my last Sedaris book.
Admittedly I don't really know who David Sedaris is other than Amy's brother. Not quite sure where this book came from, either. So I remain sort of mystified as to why I picked it up & why I read the whole thing. It's good, in that it's not bad. In fact, I exhaled sharply through my nose on several occasions. It may not contain the answers to life's mysteries but there are worse ways to spend an evening, I'm sure, than reading some loosely strung-together anecdotes.
I'm not going to write a detailed review of this one. The stories, individually, are generally a little humorous but it doesn't add up to a meaningful whole picture of the author.
David Sedaris is a self-deprecating narcissist... Is that a thing? Anyway, he's very funny. I don't think this is his best collection of essays--he has gotten much better at writing good conclusions, which are notoriously difficult--but they are typical David Sedaris. Favorites from this collection are the essays about speech therapy and learning French.
Only a few are dated (Clinton jokes?) and those living-in-a-foreign-country inside-David's-head are excellent.
Nice, elegantly-written, autobiographical stories.
