David Sedaris’ Dress Your
Family in Corduroy and Denim stands as another strong effort by the essayist.
It rings of everything typically of Sedaris-humor: awkwardness, an honest
examination of both reality and society, and of course and increasingly
metatextual awareness generated by the fact that the author’s family is now
well aware that they are fodder for his writing. Of course, even their fears
have become material and their requests to be off the record put on open
display.
While the text is not innovative, and in my opinion as
interesting as some of his other works, Sedaris has a way of turning the
mundane into something interesting. How else could one enjoy hearing about
running an apartment complex or the strange events of a biker wedding? Yet
Sedaris makes menial landscaping and domicile upkeep sound fun while
transforming his brother into a redneck alien that struggles to comprehend
fatherhood. As always she strikes a balance, lingering in the general humanity
of us all, finding our shared experiences. Everyone struggles with the kids,
gets together with friends from high school or college in order to awkwardly
reminisce, and deals with family oddities. It is here that Sedaris captures us,
it is here that his constant reader returns.
For the newbies, give the text a shot, chuckle a bit, and
expand your scope on the world while remembering that the human experience is
just that, an experience.
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