Sedaris\' Writing Style and What

Sedaris' writing style and what is central to understanding the way that the writer's mind works

The reader accustomed with Sedaris' writing style, autobiographical essays, is expecting from his next book, Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim, the same spirit of auto critical humor, retrospection and utter self-awareness. Through his writings, which appear as a king of catharsis, the author embraces and rejects the world at the same time. The essays gathered in this book span over a long period in the writer's life, from his childhood years through his adolescence and finally covering his long-term relationship with Hugh. Relationships with his family members, his classmates and later in life with his partner are projected on the white screen of the paper to the amusement, embarrassment or delight of the reader. The ways Sedaris makes the good and the bad along with the insanity of the second half of the twentieth echo in his essays acts like some sort of pain relief for both the author and the reader.

One of Sedaris' key features as a writer is the fact that he convinces through his genuine renderings of his own life. The reader is almost always able to find something in common with the character in his short stories, or essay, be it a childhood story told from the perspective of an adult or an adult story told with the naive eyes of a child.

In his essays dedicated to his memories about his family from the time when he was a child, Sedaris manages to keep a balance between self-pity, the reader's sympathy and the latter's tendency to despise the child character due to certain aspects, especially those related to his homosexual tendencies.

Essays like, Us and Them, Let it Snow, the Ship Shap and, Slumus Lordicus and the Girl next Door reveal a slightly dysfunctioning family that is nothing of the ordinary. In Us and Them, for example, the writer is focusing on his own image about the world around him, considering his own prejudices against those that are not fitting a pattern or presenting significant resemblances to his own small world.

Mr. Tomkey, the bad guy in a young boy's eyes, is the villain who is reported by his mother's friend as not owning a TV set and more over, "not believing in television." The writer explains why his family's neighbor, Mr. Tomkey, was so worthy of his resent: not only did he not care, but he "did not believe" in television: "it was unfair of him to inflict his beliefs upon others specifically his innocent wife and children" (Us and Them, p. 5). The spirit of irony is evident here. The reader is led to relate the judgment the young boy throws upon his neighbor to the pretensions of freedom of speech and religion the American society was proud of in the epoch. As soon as the notion of belief entered the equation, it became political and small children were taught to resent in others anything that alluded to the restraint of such liberties. It is ironic, however, that the young boy was revolted by the restriction to have a TV set and be able to watch it that he believed his neighbor imposed upon his entire family. The television was climbing to the top and children all over America were sharing the same values, images, symbols and jokes they were able to share through their TV screen. The revolution in technology that had brought TV into the American homes offered the new generation something to share, something distinct than what past generations had. The Tomkey children were apparently deprived of this basic right to share since they had no way of connecting their world to that on the small screen. On the contrary, at home "their were forced to talk during diner" ("Us and Them," p. 5).

What is likeable about the way Sedaris recalls such memories from his childhood is the fact that he is not casting judgments anymore. Beyond the mere record of a certain stage in his life, he makes no point of demonizing someone or something.