Naked Kindle Edition

As always with a new book by David Sedaris, I can hardly wait to get it and I am never disappointed. Naked is wonderful. I always feel as if Mr. Sedaris (who I think of as David because I feel like I've known him all my life) can see straight into my brain and give me the gift of hours of pleasure knowing there is someone as wacky and obsessed with the funny bits of life as I am. I would recommend this book to anyone with a good sense of humor and a desire to see the both the frailty and grandness of the human condition. Definitely another laugh-out-loud journey through David's fabulous mind.

Naked had been sitting on my shelf for at least a year before I decided to read it. I have a bad habit of not reading books after I buy them, so this should come as no surprise.As a memoir, Naked is an unbelievably good collection of autobiographical essays. As you make your way through Naked, you just find yourself in disbelief at Sedaris' dysfunctional family. Everyone out there claims to have some sort of dysfunctional family, but Sedaris' truly takes the cake. From the authors childhood filled with his nervous tics and OCD habits to his teachers visiting his home while being offered alcoholic beverages while watching his mother make mock impersonations of her son. It makes you really feel for the author. The best part of Naked by far is the Ya-Ya, Sedaris' grandmother. It makes me wish I had at least one grandmother just like her growing up. If you don't find yourself laughing out loud at least once, you don't have a sense of humor :). Then the authors tales as a long-time hitchhiker while doing a wide variety of manual labor jobs give readers like myself hope that haven't quite figured out who they are or what they want to do in life. On a personal level, these tales were really what I liked the most about Sedaris. The fact that he's come out of all of the hell and many years of uncertainty/wandering to become a successful author and playwright is truly inspiring. It just goes to show you anything is possible, even if it takes until much later in life to figure it out.My gripe with Naked comes as a "side-splitting" and "hilariously entertaining" memoir. For me, the humor started to die around the time Sedaris goes away to camp for a month. From that point on, the novel's comedic aspect drops off significantly. Granted, the novel definitely takes on a darker tone up until the last few chapters, but it was my expectation that it'd be funny for more than just half the book. In that regard, the reviews and descriptions of the book disappointed me.Overall, it's definitely a worthwhile read for anyone who wants to be genuinely captivated by another persons trials and tribulations as well as how they overcame them. Just don't expect to be a comedy from start to finish. I wouldn't quite give it 4 stars, but more along the lines of 3.5 stars. As it's been out for about 14 years now, Naked is certainly a bargain for the price. So if you end up not liking it as much as you thought, it won't have burned a large hole in your wallet. :)-Travis S.

Totally laugh till you cry, sidesplittingly hysterical!!! You just cant be in a bad mood when you read this book, David Sedaris at his finest! I've read this book about five times and its still so funny!

The leader of our Writer's Intensive used this book as the main format on descriptive content. I found it a perfect choice, as Sedaris' ability to bring the writer into his world was remarkable. He never left out a detail, at the same time he did not over expand either. His stories were raw, offensive and real. This is the stuff the world hides from and will die before admitting. Sedaris brings out the politically incorrect in all of us and explodes it in the streets. If you feel isolated on this planet; if you feel nobody could have come from a messed up family as yours, read this book. It really serves to bring humanity closer together in the most uncanny and humorous way. He is funny! One of the best books/memoirs I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Absolutely amazing.

I came in to this book with huge expectations. I’ve seen celebrities talk about his books, I’ve had friends talk about his book and how funny they are but I only laughed at his moms parts. Mostly I was kind of bored or annoyed by his point of view. Maybe this wasn’t the correct book from him to read first but I don’t think I’ll give him a try anytime soon. Literally the only reason I’m giving this a 2 star instead of a 1 star is because I really enjoyed reading the parts about his parents, they had me crying laughing.

This is a compilation of short, non-fiction bibliographic stories (though I doubt the full veracity of some of them, but that's poetic license I guess). Being that it was a lot of short stories, it was easier to like the whole book because even if you got to a story where you had no interest, it didn't last long.I did enjoy reading this book but it was a different experience than many reads, largely due to the fact that I have heard both Sedaris and some of these exact stories on This American Life. That gave me the authors voice already. I do not know if that was better or worse, but I had to stop and read some passages again. Not as much as I have had to do with other books I have read recently (Sleepwalk with me, which I just finished).I will definitely seek out some more Sedaris for the future.

I bought this book as was reading it in book group. Delivered on time, as described no issues with seller whatsoever....however the book itself was a complete let down. Others I know liked his humour and many others in the group enjoyed this lighthearted read, I myself just didn’t find amusing or interesting. A big disappointment!

Naked, published in 1997 is the second book by David Sedaris I have read having read Me Talk Pretty One Day, a later work, some years ago. All of Sedaris' work comprises of anecdotal, autobiographical short stories. A comic writer many of his stories are genuinely hilarious, but comedy is a personal taste thing and I found the stories overall in this one less amusing than I did the previous book I'd read, which isn't to say that was the case with every story.In this book Sedaris tackles such diverse topics as his time on a nudist colony, his Greek grandmother, his volunteerism in a psychiatric hospital, his sister Lisa's friendship with a prostitute, a pornographic novel discovered in their home, Lisa's first period and her marriage, and his childhood issues with his homosexuality and OCD among others.I felt when reading 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' that Sedaris' childhood made anyone's seem dull and tame, and 'Naked' expands on this, the man's life is full of incident and wild stories to tell at dinner parties, whilst what happens to David the majority of the time is unfortunate and often cringeworthy, you feel slightly envious that he had all these experiences. It beats the heck out of childhood Saturdays spent traipsing around garden centres.The funniest stories this time round for me were 'The Drama Bug' a story in which Sedaris becomes taken with Shakespeare and begins to address his family in Shakespearean Language, which genuinely made me laugh aloud, The Women's Open : the story of Lisa's first period which distinguishes itself for Lisa's reaction to her father in the car. Cyclops, the story of the way in which parents project the worst case scenario outcome onto everything you do; I also liked True Detective an episode in which David tries to establish who is wiping their bum on the bathroom towels among other crimes and finally my favourite The Incomplete Quad chronicling Sedaris' friendship with a disabled student at university, and their various attempts at using her disability for financial gain, getting away with shoplifting and hitchhiking, really funny.Some of the stories though are actually quite sad, the fact that nobody really liked his grandmother Ya-Ya, and the story of his mothers diagnosis with terminal cancer. Funny or sad, these are stories of a large, chaotic family and the sort of emotions and relationships that occur within a family dynamic, and as such should be very identifiable with a lot of readers. I think like me, other readers will like certain stories better than others and perhaps will like ones that I wasn't too keen on, and dislike ones that I enjoyed.I struggled with maybe three stories in the book, C.O.G, Naked, and Something For Everyone which made the last section of the book a bit of a "go slow" as these were longer stories which I didn't really find interesting or funny. Like most short story collections you take to some stories and not to others which then makes the book rather a patchy experience. I don't know if I'll read a third collection of his stories, I think it's important that there was a long gap between my reading this book and Me Talk Pretty One Day because I think if you read all his stuff on top of one another it would become a bit samey and irritating.I do wonder how his family, his brothers and sisters who are still living feel about having themselves and their childhood exposed in such a way, I read that an adaptation of Me Talk Pretty One Day was blocked after Amy Sedaris, herself a writer, voiced concerns to David about how their family would be portrayed.Overall, I really enjoyed some of it and some of it bored me so maybe we'll say a 6.5/10

I have loved listening to David Sedaris on Radio 4 over the years, crying with shock and laughter at times. So when I saw this book on Amazon I had to buy it. Well... what I've discovered is, half of the greatness of his writing are the stories themselves, but the other half is HIM TELLING THEM. So I'm afraid I stopped reading this half way through and will have to buy it in audio book format so I can listen to David's once-heard-never-forgotten deadpan slightly effeminate, world-weary voice recount the stories himself.

Such a fantastic book. He just writes so well and his observations are hilarious. You will laugh out loud. I think if you haven't heard David sedaris you'll enjoy this book more if you listen to him first - just google him and some clips come up. Definitely improves the book when you hear his voice and intonations as you read.

David Sedaris is the funniest writer, with a special acidic sense of humour. Excellent.