Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (David Sedaris)

When three different people saw me reading Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, they gave me three different comments. One said, “David Sedaris. I’ll bet you’re laughing your ass off.” Another said, “David Sedaris is a god.” The last said, “I hate David Sedaris. Whenever I read his stuff, I realize that I can’t write.”

And having read this book, I acknowledge the validity of all three responses. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim cracked me up, heightened my awe, and gave me some gloomy insight on my personal literary efforts. Depending on your perspective, Sedaris’s essays are less than, or much more than, pure journalism. By his own admission, they’re “true-ish,” but I predict that you’ll love the telling so much that you’ll gobble up all the shenanigans.

The Sedaris siblings, clockwise from top left: Gretchen,
Lisa, David, Tiffany, Paul, Amy (from newyorker.com)

In Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Sedaris tells tattley tales almost entirely about his family. They all come off as lovable loons, author included. Sedaris continually turns the pen against himself, and in the process, you’ll adore the guy even more. He nerdily mucks through childhood with his roguish siblings and classmates. He embarks on a fabulously awkward adolescence, seeking his niche in a homophobic world. He navigates his young adulthood through a druggy fog, and blunders through his eccentric maturity, eventually settling into imperfect financial and relational success.

Although the book features a few grim sketches (his dad kicks him out for being gay, his parents are victimized by criminal tenants, his sister lives deliberately in squalor), the book as a whole is undeniably definable as light reading. You’ll be mesmerized by its wonderful wackiness and seamless wordsmithing. Sedaris is one of those artists who’s so great, he makes it look easy. His storytelling is as genial on paper as it is on the radio air, where I and so many others were introduced to his genius. (If you haven’t heard him read his own work, find an audio recording online. Then you can “hear” his masterful tone and cadence in the print.)

David Sedaris at WBUR studios, June 2008

To a large extent, the essays are silly fun, but each one has a fable-like takeaway. With a spoonful of sugar, Sedaris tells the lessons he’s learned - lessons in social status and humility, blindness to and hyperawareness of one’s shortcomings, self preservation and selflessness, humanity and identity, overcoming disappointment, and preeminently, the importance of family. So while you’re smiling, pause and consider the implicit message. While you’re at it, consider also the masterpiece in your hands, and thank God for David Sedaris.

Check it out on Amazon!