Sedaris’ stories addictive, striking

While waiting for David Sedaris to sign my copy of “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” in Louisville, Ky., my boyfriend and I sat outside in the grass and read the essays aloud to one another. I would read two stories, then he would do the same.

Often, I found it difficult to keep it together while reading, such as when Sedaris and his siblings suggest their sister go lie in the street and attempt to get hit by a car so that their mother will be sorry for making them stay outside all day.

Particularly interesting was hearing my boyfriend read “Full House,” a story about Sedaris manipulating a teenage game of strip poker with the jocks into his own gay sexual fantasy.

Later, still waiting for Sedaris (who has been known to spend as long as 9.5 consecutive hours signing books for and talking to fans), we stopped into a local coffee shop to cool off from the 90-degree heat. Embarrassed, partially because of the androgynous Barbie genitals that graced the front cover, I cracked open the book yet again, unable to put it down despite my proximity to about 50 people who had already
read it – glaring at me, searing the word “poser” into my forehead.

The dead-pan humor and the mischievous tone that made me a page-turning addict were only pages behind when I found pieces that illustrated more sober subjects, such as family issues surrounding Sedaris’ sexuality and how writing about his family takes a toll on those relationships.

But he addresses these issues without resolving them and without giving them his full attention. No subject is too far away from a joke or a wink, whether in the form of a bong reference or the use of a talking parrot plot device. This is the allure of Sedaris’ style, especially in “Hejira” and “Repeat After Me.” Each skirts a concern plaguing the narrator in some way ever so carefully, without suggesting he has found absolution or come to terms with his own flaws.

The book even delves somewhat into the political realm when discussing homophobic rhetoric and stereotyping that surfaced after the Catholic priest scandals in “Chicken in the Henhouse.”

Sedaris’ schtick – tongue-in-cheek self-involvement – surfaces certainly, but it appears more sparsely, ultimately giving the jokes more punch. This book offers more variety in terms of emotion and tone than “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” arguably Sedaris’ most popular work to date. The author doesn’t seem to feel it’s inappropriate to wax sentimental, or even romantic, as in “The End of the Affair,” in which he writes, “Movie characters might chase each other through the fog or race down the stairs of burning buildings, but that’s for the beginners. Real love amounts to withholding the truth, even when you’re offered the perfect opportunity to hurt someone’s feelings.”

Thematically, the essays flow nicely; however, perhaps because many of the pieces were originally written for different publications, the stories are structured similarly – typically with a funny anecdote ending in a tender rumination, maybe a wry comment thrown in. The pieces definitely aren’t cookie-cutter, but they do read as a bit formulaic when read as a collection.

That said, this book offers readers a hilarious and sometimes provocative view of the strikingly normal – from trapping a mouse to finding an apartment.

Sedaris’ “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim” takes on so-called normal life from the bizarre point-of-view of a vested passerby in his own life. It will crack readers up – mostly at their own expense.