naked by David Sedaris

“Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris. In Naked, Sedaris turns the current mania for the memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview-- a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable. A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervous tics, to the great amusement of his teachers; a stint of Kerouackian wandering is undertaken (of course!) with a quadriplegic companion; a family gathers for wedding in the face of imminent death. Through it all is Sedaris's unmistakable voice, without doubt one of the freshest in American writing.”

I didn't get to add Naked to my post featuring Jim Gaffigan, Mike Birbiglia and Paul Feig, but I think that was OK because this novel deserves its own post.

The main reason why I decided to read Naked was because I saw a trailer for C.O.G. (2013). Further investigation of the IMDb page led me to discover that the film was based off a short story and Googling this short story led me to Naked by David Sedaris. I originally was going to go straight to and only read the "C.O.G." chapter. But I decided to give all of Naked a chance and I don't regret it.

Absolutely one of the greatest books I've read in my entire life. David Sedaris is my spirit animal. I wish we were best friends. He's so quick witted and has such a brilliant inner monologue. I literally do a lot of the same things he does; we both keep journals and daydream at work. I envy that he hitchhiked for a couple years of his life. I wish I could travel like that; it'd be so much cheaper. I would most definitely go to California every summer if I could just ride my thumb there. He's obtained so many stories from hitchhiking. That's another reason why I would do it -- for all the stories I'd have for the rest of my life. Ah, memories. 

From the "Dix Hill" chapter on, Naked got immensely funnier. My favorite chapter is "The Drama Bug" where Sedaris describes how he was in local productions and how he used to talk like he was in Shakespeare's time. "Cyclops" and "I Like Guys" were two extremely hilarious chapters as well and some more of my favorites.

I loved David Sedaris's daydreams. He described in one chapter how while he was working he would plan out episodes of a TV show about him and a proboscis monkey named Socrates. I thought it was so funny because I do the exact same thing every day of my life! It doesn't matter where I am or what I'm doing as long as I have somewhere to write down my ideas I'm always thinking of scenes, screenplay ideas and episodes for a television show I want to create. Thinking is a dangerous pastime, but when I'm thinking about what I want to write it's the best way to pass the time.

There are a bunch of quotes that I'm taking away from this amazing book. One of my favorites: "Sleep spares you humiliation and saves money at the same time: nothing to eat, nothing to buy, just lie back down and dream your life away."

My only wish is that Naked was more stories of how he got to his career like the other comedic memoirs I've read. However, Naked did have a tone I recognized. The book mostly consisted of stories about his different adventures and how he thinks. I really liked that theme. I plan on reading all the other books he's written; maybe one of them has stories of how he got to his career, but if not, no big deal.

I highly recommend Naked by David Sedaris.