Written by David Sedaris
This is the book that was published before When You Were Engulfed in Flames. There is a distinct difference between the two works.
Flames was, in every respect, a post-September 11th book. It was touched with humourous magnificence, but it was swaddled in pathos, poignancy, sepia-tinted nostalgia and the sense that things aren’t quite the same, even seven years after the terror attack on New York. The sense of vulnerability is palpable…even amidst the still-shocking satire and tear-jerking humour.
Me Talk Pretty One Day is a different kettle of fish. It’s raunchier, rougher, more outrageous (even in its contemplative stories) and far more willing to entertain the outlandish and the shocking. In short, it’s a book without any of the emotional restraints of David Sedaris’ more recent work…which makes it even funnier. I read this book in one sitting: it was captivating beyond words (ok…it was like being unable to take your eyes off a fascinating car accident), and it made me laugh out loud — IN PUBLIC — on no less than four separate occasions. There are people in my local Tim Horton’s who are now convinced that I find extra large double-doubles inexplicably hilarious!
One of the best moments in the book comes during David’s attempt to learn French while living in Paris. A class full of all sorts of ex-pats…under the tutelage of a Prada-dressed tyrant-queen, who has no time for any of her pathetic students, and drips the finest flavour of French snootiness. Reading about David and his pan-European and Pan-Asian classmates attempting to explain Easter to a very puzzled fellow Muslim student from Morocco — using only their broken, unhinged French grammar — is something that exists in a world beyond sublime. Here’s a taste:
“He die one day and then he go above of my head to live with your father.”
“He weared of himself of the long hair, and after he die, the first day he come back here for to say hello to the peoples.”
“He nice, the Jesus.”
Raw, outrageous, full of mind-shredding profanity, and flying in the face of all attempts at humility and politeness, Me Talk Pretty One Day is like a splash of cold Kool-Aid in the face…but laced with enough Red Bull to make your eyes pop. In the middle of a low moment of quiet melancholy, this book ripped me out of one reality and into another, without apology…and I’m forever grateful! :D
