By: David Sedaris Publisher: Back Bay Books Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Format: Bargain Price Label: Back Bay Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 291 Publication Date: May 31, 1998
Product Description: Hip radio comedy fans and theater folks who belong to the cult of Obie-winning playwright/performer David Sedaris must kill to get this book. These would be fans of the scaldingly snide Sedaris's hilariously described personal misadventures like The Santaland Diaries (a monologue about his work as an elf to a department store Santa) seen off-Broadway in 1997. In a series of similarly textured essays, Sedaris takes us along on his catastrophic detours through a nudist colony, a fruit-packing plant, his own childhood, and a dozen more of the world's little purgatories.
Amazon.com Reviews: Hip radio comedy fans and theater folks who belong to the cult of Obie-winning playwright/performer David Sedaris must kill to get this book. These would be fans of the scaldingly snide Sedaris's hilariously described personal misadventures like The Santaland Diaries (a monologue about his work as an elf to a department store Santa) seen off-Broadway in 1997. In a series of similarly textured essays, Sedaris takes us along on his catastrophic detours through a nudist colony, a fruit-packing plant, his own childhood, and a dozen more of the world's little purgatories.
David Sedaris is hilarious Naked is a collection of short stories and essays about David Sedaris' own life. He is so funny, and clever. You can really identify with his writing and it is the kind of funny that makes you seriously laugh out loud and have people turn to look at you weird. If you enjoy gay men, quirkiness, feel uncomfortable in crowds, ever felt your family was infested with aliens, had siblings, went to camp, went to college, didn't go to college. This is the book for you. It will also interest people above current trends and trival things like fashion.
A WONDERFUL AUDIO BOOK This book on audio download is wonderful because the stories are hilarious and insightful, and so very honest. It's amazing how David looks at the most serious of subjects through a lens of humor and it works!
The audio book is read by David Sedaris and that makes it much more personal and effective. I couldn't stop listening!
Hilarious This was my first Sedaris book and I loved it. Laugh-out-loud funny and a down to earth style. I'm not on my 3rd book from this author. Love him!
Come gather 'round you people... A few years ago someone rather famous said that it is the duty of art to reflect society. That, for better or for worse, it is the duty of the artist (painter, writer, poet, etc) to portray in their art the condition of their society. More on this later.
Naked. In reading Naked I found a window, a portal, that once looked through shed a little light into the world of Mr. Sedaris; his friends, his family, and his quest of understanding of both himself and the society in which he lives. Some of the stories were met with a chuckle and some of the stories were met with more of a 'hmmmm.' It was a good, quick read. One that dutifully passed the few hours in which it took to read. And, once finished, I placed it upon my bookshelf where it quickly, and expectantly faded from memory.
Now, in writing this review, I am forced to think back to what I have read and come up with with something to say. But I have nothing. As there is nothing. If am forced, the best I could say is that the book is full of well-written essays on life. And it is. But there is nothing special or outstanding, nothing to learn from them, and certainly nothing to pull from to make us a better person, nothing to give us any insight into the human condition.
In reading this book, I realized something. And this goes back to my first paragraph. In writing this book, (and I am to assume this other books are the same), Mr. Sedaris has perfectly reflected the society in which he lives. A dull, self-centered society in which people are more apt to look outward toward the suffering and humiliation of others instead of looking within. Naked perfectly encapsulates the current state of the American condition. A condition in which each night we gather round the television to watch the love life of a perfect stranger, and then, coffee and donuts in hand, we gather round the water cooler the next morning to discuss and second guess that stranger's decisions. Quietly telling ourselves that if we were in that same situation, we would've done things differently...
Naked, like so many other semi-fictional memoirs that are being churned out these days, allows us to take our eyes and minds off of ourselves and look at, smile at, and ridicule the lives and the decision of others. And I can think of nothing more telling of current American society than that.
Mr. Sedaris is neither genius, nor master essayist has, whether he had planned it or not, succeeded in reflecting the society in which he lives; shallow, self, and presumably sex-obsessed society who takes pleasure in the misfortunes of others. Overall, an admirable, if not disheartening (and marketable) feat.
Two Stars.
Disappointed Reading a book by David Sedaris is like reading a column by Garrison Keillor--mostly quite boring. Both are good when they are live reading their material because it is all in the delivery.
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