num_pages: 272
description: David Sedaris's new collection, Me Talk Pretty One Day, tells a most unconventional life story. It begins with a North Carolina childhood filled with speech-therapy classes ("There was the lisp, of course, but more troubling than that was my voice itself, with its excitable tone and high, girlish pitch") and unwanted guitar lessons taught by a midget. From budding performance artist ("the only crimp in my plan was that I seemed to have no talent whatsoever") to "clearly unqualified" writing teacher in Chicago, Sedaris's career leads him to New York (the sky's-the-limit field of furniture moving) and eventually, of all places, France.Sedaris's move to Paris poses a number of challenges, chief among them his inability to speak the language. Arriving a "spooky man-child" capable of communicating only through nouns, he undertakes language instruction that leads him ever deeper into cultural confusion. Whether describint the Easter Bunny to puzzled classmates, savoring movies in translation (It Is Necessary to Save the Soldier Ryan), or watching a group of men play soccer with a cow, Sedaris brings a view and a voice like no other--"Original, acid, and wild," said the Los Angeles Times--to every unforgettable encounter.--jacket
language: English
title: Me Talk Pretty One Day
titlecomplete: Me Talk Pretty One Day
characters: David Sedaris
genres: Humor, Essays, Biography, Autobiography, Comedy, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Short Stories, Memoir, Audiobook
ratings_count: 688977
places: Paris, Raleigh, North Carolina, New York City, New York
awards: awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Lambda Literary Award
category: Humor, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Puddly Award
category: Humor, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Thurber Prize
category: American Humor
publisher: Little, Brown and Company