Naked by David Sedaris Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Naked
Book Review: "Naked" by David Sedaris
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordered this item on August 11, 2010 and it was shipped within the first 36 hours! It took about a week or so after that to get it, but that was perfectly okay with me. It was carefully packaged and it was in the condition as described. I have done business through this seller before and was just as satisfied with them. I would recommend them to anyone who's in the market for a great book and I would, again, gladly continue to do business with them. Thank you for my book. Two thumbs WAY up!Book Review: "Naked"- Sedaris bears all.
Summary: 5 Stars
Nothing's sacred to David Sedaris, as fans of his have come to discover and appreciate. His entire family is a sacrificial lamb to his sometimes scathing sense of humor, and anyone who crosses his path the wrong way is thrown onto the pyre just as quickly. Sedaris dissects people to the point of making them caricatures, and yet they always ring true, no matter how ridiculous. My favorite example is from the essay "Planet of the Apes," in which a young David hitchhikes home from the movie theatre, and accepts a ride from a crass old woman who asks him to "just tell me where you live, Pinocchio, and save the baloney for lunch." Regardless of whether people actually speak this way, all of us can say we've met some form of this woman, and David nails her in this description.
Sedaris is good for leading his readers through his own form of literary slapstick and then hitting them with some sad truth in the end. He does this quite well in "The Drama Bug," in an odd moment of admiration (instead of lampoon) of his mother, and "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out!" with an equally tender look at his often-satirized father.
Underneath the jokes and the bearing of dirty little secrets is a genuine love in the Sedaris family, which keeps these essays from sinking into either too-dark humor or a general "Mommie Dearest"-like look back in anger. Sedaris's family may drive him crazy, but the feeling is mutual, and that levels the playing field a bit.
Book Review: "Naked " does not live up to expectations
Summary: 1 Stars
My book club read this book for our August '98 meeting. We had read the reviews in Amazon.com and were expecting a laugh a minute. However, we were all disappointed in the book. For most of us, the book elicited a chuckle or two, and generally not until the middle of the book. One Amazon.com reviewer commented on Sedaris' dysfuntional family, but it is Sedaris himself who is dysfunctional. One of our members has heard Sedaris on NPR, and she enjoyed the book more than the rest of us because she said it explained a lot of the background of his radio stories. The consensus was that Sedaris is a loser who is writing to elicit our sympathy for his poor pathetic excuse of a life.Book Review: 'Naked' starts out strong, but fizzles.
Summary: 2 Stars
Let me be clear; I enjoy David Sedaris and I liked his book. However, "Naked" could and should be about 90 pages shorter than it is. I, like many others, found myself laughing out loud at the beginning of the book. I drove my wife insane with the number of times I said, "Ok, you have to hear this." But, like a comedian struggling on stage, Sedaris decided to push rather than leave well enough alone. Brilliant pieces like "A Plague of Tics" and "Next of Kin" are followed by weaker stories with forced punchlines. The crisp description and dialogue found early in the book give way to lead balloons like this one from "I Like Guys": "...but I hoped that the warm Mediterranean waters might melt the icicle she seemed to have mistaken for a rectal thermometer."
"Naked" is certainly entertaining. In fact, Sedaris is likely to become a staple on high school speech circuits around the country. Beyond that, he'll need to become more consistent (a la Garrsion Keillor's "Lake Wobegon Days" or Woody Allen's "Without Feathers") to separate himself from the huge pack of so-so humorists to the leagues of those whose names define humor.
Book Review: A Delightful Introduction...
Summary: 4 Stars
"Naked" is a delightful introduction to David Sedaris for those of you who enjoy "real-life" humor and have never read Sedaris. I had not read his books, but heard him on occasion on National Public Radio, so this really primed my palate for his histerical, "Me Talk Pretty One Day." "Naked" reels you through what it's like, or perhaps, reminds one what it's like to grow up misunderstood, confused, and desperate to belong, maybe...
What makes him funny is his cadence of language and quick segues to keep you interested, laughing and flipping pages