Author | David Sedaris |
---|---|
Cover artist | Jacket design by Chip Kidd |
Language | English |
Genre | Essay collection |
Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
Publication date | June 1, 2004 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
Pages | 272 (hardcover) |
ISBN | 0-316-14346-4 (first edition, hardcover) |
OCLC | 53138732 |
814/.54 22 | |
LC Class | PS3569.E314 R47 2004 |
Preceded by | Me Talk Pretty One Day |
Followed by | When You Are Engulfed in Flames |
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is a collection of essays by American humorist David Sedaris. It was released in the United States by Little, Brown and Company on June 1, 2004. The essays detail the author's upbringing in Raleigh, North Carolina, his relationships with family members, and his work and life in both New York City and France.
The book received praise upon its release, with critics from such publications as The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly highlighting its focus on Sedaris's family as the heart of the entire collection. [1] [2] Reviews also noted an evolution in Sedaris's writing, finding Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim's essays to be more introspective, somber, adult, and emotionally resonant than the author's earlier, more hyperbolic material. [2] [3] [4] The book debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Hardcover nonfiction [5] and won the 2004 Lambda Literary Award for Humor. [6]
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is a collection of twenty-two essays by the author David Sedaris. Twenty-one of them had previously appeared in publications [1] such as The New Yorker [7] and Esquire . [8] Sedaris originally intended to name the book Repeat After Me, taken from his favorite story of the bunch, but he worried that it was too similar to the title of his then-most recent essay collection, Me Talk Pretty One Day . He changed the name when his partner Hugh dreamed of a man reading a book entitled Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, which he thought was a great title, even if he could not see its relevance to the contents of the book. [9]
The book includes a number of stories about Sedaris's family and childhood, which was not a conscious decision on the author's part. During an interview with NPR's Fresh Air , he told host Terry Gross that whenever he received a themed writing assignment from The New Yorker, or from Ira Glass for a This American Life segment, he found his youth to be a deep well from which he could usually draw an appropriate story. He also told Gross that he tried to not fall into the trap of portraying himself as a cleverer child than he had actually been—he firmly believed that he had not in fact been particularly clever, athletic, or attractive as a boy. [10]
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim's cover art was created by graphic designer Chip Kidd. It features the torso of a naked doll, and Kidd, speaking to Time magazine, cited it as a cover that needed to have visceral appeal while also being appropriate to the book's title. [11]
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim received largely positive reviews. Augusten Burroughs of Entertainment Weekly called it the best book of Sedaris's career, deeming it a "brilliant comic performance" with "a deftly shaken cocktail of wit, weirdness, and melancholy," and prose that he found both elegant and skillful. The essay "Put a Lid On It" was singled out as a particularly moving and tear-jerking story, and "Rooster at the Hitchin' Post" as "screamingly, blood-vessel-burstingly funny." [1] Kirkus Reviews highlighted Sedaris's deadpan humor and sense of life's absurdity, [12] and Tasha Robinson of The A.V. Club lauded the book's humor as "down-to-earth, mutedly funny." [3]
The book's spotlight on Sedaris's family was well-received, with Kirkus Reviews noting that his lacerations of them were "not without affection even when the sting is strongest." [12] Burroughs's review also praised Sedaris's affectionate detailing of his family's eccentricities, [1] and Robinson felt that it was one of the collection's greatest strengths, helping showcase the author's "evolution toward plainer and sparer storytelling." [3] Writer Michiko Kakutani, reviewing the collection for The New York Times , called Sedaris's family reminiscences the heart of the book, and suggested that they "attest to the author's evolution from comic writer to full-fledged memoirist." [2]
Kakutani also observed a strain of introspection that was new to Sedaris and thought that it differed from his earlier, self-deprecating stand-upesque material, coming off as a more Chekhovian brand of comedy. She also felt that unlike Sedaris's earlier collections, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim was a book "with more emotional resonance, a more complex aftertaste." [2] Robinson asserted that Sedaris's comedy was more withdrawn, somber, and adult than usual, as well as less hyperbolic, but she also saw a familiar wry charm as he discussed events that were just as outlandish as ever. [3]
Also writing for The New York Times, critic Stephen Metcalf mused on the author's evolution by opining that his newfound success and happiness were "harder and harder to retail as genuine angst." He observed that Sedaris's now-comfortable life was forcing him to mine his own conscience for story material, and that Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim included a "strange, new attitude of self-reckoning" on Sedaris's part. He praised the new outlook, believing that Sedaris had perfected "the quick, tidy, sermonical soul-search" that could balance out his "plush new life as a publishing-world rock star." He singled out Possession, a story about touring the Anne Frank House, as a humorous dig by Sedaris at his own conscience, [4] but Kakutani disagreed, calling it one of two stories that "feel like strained, self-conscious efforts to generate material" and which should not have been included. [2]
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim was released on June 1, 2004, [12] and it debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Hardcover nonfiction for the week of June 20. [5] It remained in the top spot for one more week [13] and ultimately spent sixteen weeks on the list. [14] It went on to win the 2004 Award for Humor from the Lambda Literary Awards, [6] an organization that champions LGBT books and authors. [15]
David Raymond Sedaris is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "Santaland Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next book, Naked (1997), became his first of a series of New York Times Bestsellers, and his 2000 collection Me Talk Pretty One Day won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
Naked, published in 1997, is a collection of essays by American humorist David Sedaris. The book details Sedaris’ life, from his unusual upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, to his booze-and-drug-ridden college years, to his Kerouacian wandering as a young adult. The book became a best-seller and was acclaimed for its wit, dark humor and irreverent tackling of tragic events, including the death of Sedaris’ mother. Prior to publication, several of the essays were read by the author on the Public Radio International program This American Life.
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