The book Naked by David Sedaris is and autobiography of his life. The book is basically a joke and Mr. Sedaris is telling us a funny story that we want to hear, designed to make us say, “Well at least I’m better than that.” His book so far revolves around himself growing up. Mr. Sedaris is a natural comedian but he has a very dry humor and that is reflected greatly in his writing. He starts out describing his family and his life and he is strangely in love with himself. His childhood was sheltered as he was the only boy in the family and looking back he describes himself in a horribly ignorant way with a slight twist so we feel he is joking but then again… “…servants, several of whom are extraordinarily claver despite their crooked teeth and lack of breeding” (4). He also paints an interesting family life. With the book starting out with him reflecting on his childhood we see that, as a child, everything was below him. He also paints a disturbing portrait of women in his family, “Rather than improve her social standing, she chose to spit out children, each one filthier than the last” (8). He also says his sisters go missing, an event that never happened, but shows his self-centeredness in a bright light. Even further than that, his family is dysfunctional except his dad and we see his grandmother become a disturbance in the family.
Some interesting themes in the book are that money buys happiness. He believed as a child that with money came his ability to smile. One theme was women. Women were not to be placed on his level but there is an undercurrent that suggests awe towards them, “All I want is to be friends…” (44). This he says after a girl intimidates him. Another is that with perseverance anything can be accomplished. As a teen he had a twitching disorder or OCD and by about page 50 he gets over it with hard work and cigarettes, which interestingly enough are good. We see that good and bad are turned around in this book. “…cigarettes that calm me… giving me something to do with my hands and mouth. It’s as if I was born to smoke” (22). David as the author seems to struggle with the ways his life went as a child though in the child’s perspective he was very happy and we see this ethical dilemma played out as he writes.
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My parents have some audio tape of David Sedaris reading his book, I think, and I had no idea who he is. But now I see why my parents like listening to him; he does have an interesting sense of humor. I'd like to hear about how he was strangely in love with himself; that sounds interesting. But I laughed at the quote about the women; it takes some guts to say that about a mother and her kids. Either his family really was terrible or he's just shining a bad light on them. Lastly, is him getting over his disorder with smoking prove that anything can be accomplished with perseverance? You wrote he also worked hard, but I would not classify smoking as working hard. But I guess this still adds to his dry humor, so at least he's not faulting from his character. I'm excited to hear what else he's going to say about his life.
Spenser, your book sounds very funny and something that I would be interested in reading. You brought up a good thought on what you think the author was trying to do. Usually, authors don't write about how their life was a joke or want the reader to think that they are better than them. Having this diversity in the book really makes it interesting. I like the part where you say that he pretended his sister went missing because he was so self-centered. This really shows his personality when he was younger!
Ha! Nice choice of a book Spencer. Sounds like this guy is pretty full of himself, and I'm sure it's an interesting book to read. I find it funny how he found a way to make smoking good for himself. Good insights, great observations. I look forward to reading more about it!
I have heard David Sedaris on the radio a few times and have found him quite funny.
It's interesting how he describes his relatives and the people around him, while the descriptions are humorous, they are also less than kind. I wonder how these people mentioned in his book responded to that.
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