|
|
|
 |
Family's stories hit home, funny bone
By Patrick Kinney
Assistant Scene Editor
There’s no need to ask David Sedaris how his family
is doing. If you are ever curious, just read one of his
books.
“
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” is a collection
of nonfiction essays about the Sedaris clan. The author
details incredibly personal adventures and misadventures
with extreme intimacy. Nothing is too private for the
reader.
Obsessive-compulsive disorders and a complete deficit
of athletic ability marked Sedaris’ early life,
which helped him fit in with what became an odd group
of brothers and sisters. After dropping out of several
universities and declaring his homosexuality, Sedaris
roved the country holding odd jobs along the way.
He has since managed to make a career out of retelling
the tales of his peculiar family life and travels. He
hones his yarns into the type of wordy, contemplative
pieces that you would expect from a regular National
Public Radio commentator, which is Sedaris’s other
job.
Sedaris has never spared himself from his own satirical
gaze. In several stories, he turns the microscope on
himself. In one essay, he gives directions to lost tourists
while simultaneously attempting to euthanize an injured
mouse. In another, he describes his apartment hunting
woes, but at last finds the place of his dreams in the
Anne Frank annex while vacationing in Amsterdam.
More often than not, the book follows Sedaris on the
road during a speaking tour or while visiting his grown
siblings. He catches up with his sister Tiffany, who
has found a new means of income selling antiques found
in people’s garbage. His eternally stuck-in-the-frat-house
brother marries and has a child in true “dude” fashion.
In an essay called “Repeat After Me,” Sedaris
displays a new version of his family — one in which
they are fed up with being fodder for his essays and
spoken word performances. In the story, the author’s
sister tells him about an embarrassing moment and instead
of comforting her, his immediate reaction is to pull
out a notebook to make notes of it.
This episode seems to have sobered Sedaris. In “Dress
Your Family,” he seems to be wondering what right
he has to exploit his family’s stories. Several
times in the book he pauses in mid-story to ask, “Are
we [his family] special?”
The magic zaniness of Sedaris’s books do notcome
from his strange family, but from disclosure of qualities
we all can find in our own lives. |
|
|
|
