I liked David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice; in fact I burst into uncontrollable laughter while reading it at a bus stop.So one day a few weeks ago, with an hour to kill before karaoke, I bought Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day in a used bookstore. It's a collection of funny, slightly embellished autobiographical stories from throughout the author's life.
The stories from his childhood are slightly funnier than the ones from adulthood, perhaps because the ones about being a kid are told through the eyes and thus lens of experience of the adult. The book's stories, which I believe were published in various magazines before being collected for the book, progress slowly from ridiculous to quirky but sane. The stories from adulthood are more bittersweet than hilarious: Sedaris manages to find humor in dire and depressing situations, and the portraits of his family members are simultaneously loving and irreverent.
When I bought the book, I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a collection of short stories, since I actually thought it was a novel. But no! The short story format fits my attention span, so all was good.
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