David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives — a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is another unforgettable collection from one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today.
eMusic Review 0
02.12.08
David Sedaris, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
2008 | Label: Time Warner
The King of Cringe gets darker and deeper.
Nobody does cringing quite like David Sedaris. In his 2004 collection Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, the author relates a fresh dose of humiliating, comically embellished episodes: the time he schemed to get at his great aunt Monie’s inheritance, the night he commandeered a game of strip poker at a childhood slumber party and a particularly unsavory episode binging on chocolate when a neighbor threatens to take it (he’s allergic).
In some ways the stories here are darker and deeper than Sedaris’ previous works, as in “Consider the Stars,” when Sedaris gets hit with a rock thrown by a popular kid — the “star” of the essay’s title. When Sedaris’ father shows up at the kid’s house, looking for compensation for the resulting dental bill, the self-hating Sedaris sides with his tormentor. And Sedaris traverses even thornier territory in “Hejira,” when he recounts the story of his father throwing him out of the house for being gay. But these sadder and more soul-searching moments only sweeten the humor, which Sedaris, blessed with an enormous talent for the unexpected narrative, impeccable timing and a trademark semi-whine, always delivers.
