By Chuck HinsonSpecial to the Turnagain Times
By Chuck Hinson
Special to the Turnagain Times
David Sedaris’s humor is certainly not for everybody. It’s unconventional, outlandish, pointed, even bizarre at times, but there is no doubt Sedaris is a funny little man. His latest collection of absurd observations, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, was just released in hardback last month by Little, Brown and Company. It is his sixth book. Die-hard fans can’t wait to get a copy of it, while others don’t get what the big deal is.
My daughter and I brought a friend to see Sedaris when he performed excerpts from some of his writing in Anchorage a couple of years ago. My daughter could not stop laughing about his observations of how people misused and misinterpret words. His wit is fast and sometimes makes fun of people. However, the friend we brought to the show was offended by his humor and almost walked out. It could have been that she thought Sedaris seemed to disregard the feelings of others, exposed his family of origin to certain embarrassment, or matter-of-factly addressed the fact that he is gay. At any rate, I suppose you either like him or you don’t, and I am certain he doesn’t care one way or the other.
Brian Miller, of Seattle Weekly writs’, “writing about himself. I don’t think we ever understood or enjoyed him any other way…he’s never sold himself as the possessor of an Important Life With Significant Things to Say About the World. I doubt he cares about the world, and I’ve always found him funny in that his personal essays are so unapologetically narrow.”
For at least ten years now, his essays have been regularly featured in such publications as The New Yorker and Esquire, but his first claim to fame came with This American Life, a feature on National Public Radio. Perhaps his most hilarious essay to date is “Santaland Diaries,” which was first broadcast on NPR’s Morning Edition. It has become an annual public radio tradition. It was featured in his book, Holidays on Ice in 1997, and since then his popularity has continued to grow.
In 2000, he published Me Talk Pretty One Day and the following year he received the “Humorist of the Year” by Time magazine. Dress Your Children in Corduroy and Denim came out in 2004.
I find him funniest when he is playing around with translations. For instance, how he arrives at the title of his new book, “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” comes from a brochure in a hotel room in Japan, Sedaris observed that it included “a section on safety awkwardly titled Best Knowledge of Disaster Damage Prevention and Favors to Ask of You.”
He goes on to illustrate other weird English. On an apron picturing a dog asleep in a basket it said, “I’m glad I caught you today. Enjoy mama.” And a messages on gift bags it was written, “When I think about the life in my own way I need gentle conversations,” or “Today is a special day for you. I have considered what article of present is nice to make you happy. Come to open now, OK?”
David Sedaris has the “ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art” The Christian Science Monitor wrote. “Sedaris’ sometimes affectionate, usually dark insights might be troubling if they weren’t so damn funny,” The Village Voice reported.
Beth at Powells.com says, “…he (Sedaris) has a deft touch, moving between sarcasm and sadness or, in this collection, between redneck babysitters and quitting smoking.” Other readers online have said these stories seem to be a little forced and that they were let down.
For me, his latest book is not as knock down funny as some of his others, but I still liked it and would recommend it. He is funny. Perhaps the Seattle Times says it best, “Culminating in a brilliant account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris’ six essay collection is a new masterpiece of comic writing from ‘a writer worth treasuring.’”