Product Description

A collection of humorous stories, where the author takes to the road with a thieving quadriplegic, sorts out the fancy from the extra-fancy in a bleak fruit-packing factory, and confronts his naked self in the mirrored sunglasses of a lunatic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #551340 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
David Sedaris is a playwright, radio commentator, contributor to Esquire and apartment cleaner.

Customer Reviews

Twisted, Insane and Hilarious! Unique!
Only David Sedaris can take a mundane activity and turn it inside out so intensely and simply that you can't stop laughing. This collection includes his morbid Greek grandmother who turns the family life upside down until they force her into not one, but two nursing homes where she traumatizes all around her. As a youngster, Sedaris finds an old pornographic novel with horrible typos that speaks of relentless incest. Passing it down to his sisters, they all develop a fear of their "sexual prowling" parents. Senior Sedaris tricks the kids into going golfing only to have sister Lisa have her first period at the fourteenth hole in front of all the Golfing big shots. Does the author stop hitch-hiking after several attempts on his life? No. This he finds exciting, made all the better when he can produce marijuana to calm any fag-hating drivers. The stories are alarmingly fresh and Sedaris' viewpoint is so violently skewed, you wonder how he lives his life at all. This is a hilarious outlook on life.

The three I've recently read, and you should too
I've recently come across three fantastic funny books. The first was called BARRING SOME UNFORESEEN ACCIDENT and it just blew me away. Second was THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES by Ceclia Ahern, and finally, last but not least NAKED by Sedaris.

If you like to laugh, you'll enjoy these books, but I have to say that NAKED was the best yet. Now, I've not read a lot of Sedaris, but he's one funny guy. The book is a hilarious collection of memoirs, essays, the usual hodge-podge that Sedaris somehow manaages to make work. Possibly the best story is A PLAGUE OF TICS which involves his literaly "nakedness" in front of a bunch of loonies. Sedaris is a master storyteller of immense proportions and his humour translates easily from America to England. Kudos to the master.

Cure for selfish whining about family
David Sedaris writes mostly about his family (including himself), but instead of relying on the tired old wouldyoubelieveit style to get their personalities across, he makes obsessiveness, predictability and contemptuous familiarity seem normal and inevitable. Which they probably are. The writing is very 'straight' for such a hilarious book, and it's appallingly and brilliantly clear - you're not spared just exactly how everything felt, even though he doesn't exactly tell you.