Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

By: David Sedaris

Narrated by: David Sedaris

Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives, a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is another unforgettable collection from one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today.

©2004 David Sedaris (P)2004 Time Warner AudioBooks

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Humor and Short Stories/Collections, 2005

"In his latest collection, Sedaris has found his heart. This is not to suggest that the author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and other best-selling books has lost his edge. The 27 essays here include his best and funniest writing yet....What emerges is the deepest kind of humor, the human comedy." (Publishers Weekly)
"Sedaris is a careful writer, with a no-muss, no-fuss style that rarely misfires." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Sedaris' piquant essays are as meticulously honed and precisely timed as the best stand-up comic routines, which is, of course, what they are....Sedaris, openly gay, nervy as a tightrope walker, sharply hilarious, teasingly misanthropic yet genuinely compassionate, has a unique ability to supply exactly the right details to bring every funny, awkward, ludicrous, painful, horrible real-life moment into harrowingly crisp focus....He is mesmerizing." (Booklist)
"Sedaris has a satirical brazenness that holds up next to Mark Twain and Nathanael West." (The New Yorker)

Another great book from David Sedaris

David’s voice is calming and his stories as always interesting and funny. This was a good D. Sedaris book. Thumbs up.

Sedaris never fails

David Sedaris is my go to driving buddy. There’s nothing better than his hilarious and insightful recounted to company one on the drive home. Wind down, relax, and laugh your ass off.

Laugh out loud

David Sedaris at his best, never holding back, willing to go where others fear to tread.

Fabulous

I didn’t want it to end. This is my third Davis Sedaris audible and they are my favorites

Everything by David Sedaris is five stars

I think David could! make aphonebook interesting,everything flows so smoothly . David's stories and narration Will pull you in.

I Feel Guilty for Crimes I Haven't Committed

After I purchased David Sedaris' "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" (2004), I realized that I'd read it before. Well, actually, I didn't read it - I'd checked out Sedaris' narration on CDs from my small town's then one story, poorly lit, warren-like maze of a library. The library had bathrooms that smelled overwhelmingly of the stiff wood pulp paper towels that were dispensed in folded sheets from a rusty white box which, for some mysterious reason, was carefully locked.

I could have returned "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" to Audible, no questions asked. I have my own personal give it back credo. I only return books if I'm not going to listen to them, and that's usually because they are awful. That explains why most of my reviews are a 3 or higher: I only review books I finish, and I'm not going to waste my money and hours of my life listening to something that's bad. In Sedaris' case, I kept the Audible because I listened to it again, and it was still funny. It was a different funny - I noticed subtleties the second time of missed the first time - but I still laughed out loud

Sedaris is an old style raconteur. He grew up in the avocado green refrigerator, popcorn ceiling and gold shag rug 1970's. His sisters were something else, alternately torturing Sedaris and sucking up to his cigarette-smoking drive-without-a-seatbelt parents. I'm a few years younger than he is and from the Midwest, but things were pretty much the same. Except the Tupperware. We had lots of Tupperware with burp lids and starburst decorative lines.

So, yes, even the second time around, Sedaris is amusing. The title of the review paraphrases a quote from the book.

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Enjoyable

This was a funny collection of stories. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. It was my first experience with David Sedaris and I will definitely read more of his books.

Good, but not his best

If you?ve ever read any of David Sedaris?s biting, laugh-out-loud wit, you?ve missed the biggest treat in the world: hearing him read his work aloud. The runaway success of his last books, Me Talk Pretty One Day and The Santaland Diaries, has put this regular contributor to my favorite radio show (This American Life) on the radar of the average reader, but many people remain woefully unaware how much funnier he is in his own voice. Sedaris writes mainly on his own quirks and those of his equally neurotic family, self-effacing satire about growing up weird in suburban America and staying that way as a traveling gay writer. Although Dress Your Family delivers more of the same, it is a somewhat lesser offering than previous works, perhaps because, as one reviewer noted, the more success you have as a writer, the less chance and time you have to anonymously gather material. Sedaris tries to split the book for his new readers and old devotees: about a third of the book, the funniest, most accessible material, is essays Sedaris lovers will have heard from other sources, like the gut busting take on Dutch Christmas, Six to Eight Black Men, while another third of new material on his family seems a bit slower and more in depth than usual, fascinating for fans, but not as great for new readers.

Worthwhile

Sedaris has such a wonderful way of forming his stories, and he is the perfect narrator for them. Though not as consistantly funny as some of his earlier material, each story seems to have a certain poignancy that reaches out to you in the closing moments, a quiet thoughtfulness like the end of a fable. I appreciated this as much as the humor, and found this audio entirely worthwhile.

Funny funny book!

I love this book. It is narrated by the author. I had read the book a while back. Then, it is so good, I wanted to listen to it. It is one of those you can read over and over periodically. The author narrates it and at first, his dry, monotone sort of discouraged me from buying it. But I tried it and now I love it. It is great that he read it as these are his experiences so he gets the right inflection and intonation to make it sound the way he wanted it to sound. This is a collection of the funniest short stories I have ever heard. We had just moved and had no TV at our new house yet. I plugged in my IPOD and speakers and started playing one of the funniest chapters. He said he did not want to hear it but ended up listening and laughing through several chapters. The one about different versions of Santa Claus around the world will have you laughing so hard you can't stop. Very cute book. I love his other works as well...especially Holidays on Ice which was the first Andy Sedaris I had ever read. This family of his must have been so strange but hilarious! His sister is Amy Sedaris of Strangers With Candy (TV show). If you have a slightly quirky sense of humor, get this book!