I love David Sedaris. Like love love him. For those of you who don't know much/anything about this amazing man; David Sedaris is an author who has written numerous books, most of them are about his odd experiences while others are extremely dark and funny fiction. His works include Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim, Naked, Barrel Fever, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, Holidays on Ice, and Lets Talk About Diabetes with Owls. He also tells his stories on NPR's "This American Life" and has concerts where he reads out his journals and stories.
I don't remember exactly when I started reading his work, but both of my parents would teach his stories in their classes. I've read all of his books at least once and saw him in concert last year for my birthday. His hilarious, and although he has a following, not too many people (especially young people) truly appreciate his work. He and his sister, Amy Sedaris (you might know her from her acting she's so great), are both odd and quirky and dark and just all over fantastic. David Sedaris' work is so great because he was raised in a pretty average family. Raised in a big family in North Carolina, Sedaris imagined becoming a famous artist, singer, basically someone people knew. He writes all about everything, coming out of the closet to a pair of swingers, kissing rich family member's asses, finding a dirty book in the forrest and dealing with parents. The reason Sedaris is great is because he writes all about things that are normal (well, more or less normal) and creates a funny, heart-warming or even sad story out of an average event through his writing.
Recently, David Sedaris wrote a short story for the "New Yorker" about his youngest sister, Tiffany's, suicide. The story is sweet, and twisted and funny and sad. He is just so funny and odd. It's hard to explain. I'm a huge lover of reading and literature (both of my parents wrote dissertations in english literature), and David Sedaris rekindles my love of books every time. He's wording and style is inspiring and creative.
Also, he loves stuff thats so offbeat it makes me SO happy. For example, Sedaris and his partner Hugh both share a love for odd things. One of these is taxidermic animals and body parts, skeletons and Sedaris collects very weird art (one of his paintings that he writes about is a whippet dog with outrageously large nipples). Sedaris also likes to hand out funny things to his audiences (for example, condoms).
Sedaris' experiences are interesting as well as his fictional stories. There are just WAY too many non-fiction works, but one of my favorite fictional stories is a fake christmas letter in Holidays on Ice. It perfectly illustrates his humor (dark is being nice) and very twisted. He also is willing to laugh at himself and has on numerous occasions done odd things during readings, like wearing clown makeup on stage and not even explaining the purpose of this. (On your left you'll see him wearing some bunny ears). If for whatever reason your still not interested in reading or listening to David Sedaris' work, let me just paste some words together that all are in at least one of Sedaris' stories. "Thats my midget", meth, turd, "She got hit by a truck", the Ship Shape, tanning, ice-milk, Oprah, negligee, apple-picking, pot, popular and Billy Holiday. Also he's adorable and funny and just look at this face and imagine his twisted, crazy, HILARIOUS brain.
Yeah, he's my favorite.
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