Sedaris talks pretty Thursday
David Sedaris writes stories about the family that many of us grew up with.
Imagine sitting in a car with the profane younger brother, the perpetually pessimistic mother, the cliché-spouting father, the supporting cast of other siblings, each of whom ends up adding some anecdote, some moment, to the mass of material that becomes family lore.
Sedaris, who is one of the featured speakers of Get Lit!, the seventh annual Inland Northwest Literary Arts Festival, which begins its nine-day run today, will read from some of his latest writings – along with a possible favorite or two – at 7 p.m. Thursday at The Met.
Over the course of the festival, everything literary will be celebrated. That includes writers such as Salman Rushdie, poets such as Rita Dove and Robert Bly and former National Public Radio broadcaster Bob Edwards. But they are only a part of what the week offers, thanks to the festival’s sponsor, Eastern Washington University Press. There are also poetry slams, workshops, panel discussions and more.
Sedaris, of course, is one of the highlights. The 48-year-old author filled The Met in 2003 for the fifth Get Lit!, and that’s likely to repeat this year.
If you haven’t read Sedaris, you can be forgiven. Many of us heard him before we ever bought one of his books, which carry titles such as “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.”
He first attracted attention in 1992 when he read an eight- minute-long piece for NPR about his job as a department-store elf.
“I wear green velvet knickers,” he wrote, “a forest green velvet smock and a perky little hat decorated with spangles. This is my work uniform.” At one point, he describes his leading a group of children through the Christmas carol “Away in the Manger,” which he just happened to sing in the manner of Billie Holiday. To a shopper who said that she was going to have him fired, he responded in a whisper, “I’m going to have you killed.”
If that sounds a bit dark and unfunny, then you have to understand: Sedaris’ humor works best in context, especially when it’s rendered in his distinctive voice – soft, slightly sibilant, almost childish, ironic and yet as critical of himself as of others.
Sedaris, who spent part of his childhood in North Carolina – a fact that he uses hilariously in many of his sketches – began reading his diary to audiences while, at age 27, attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. NPR’s “This American Life” host Ira Glass heard him in a comedy club, invited him to read on the radio and shortly afterward he began appearing regularly on NPR.
In describing biographical pieces for an NPR profile, Sedaris admitted that he isn’t strictly a memoirist.
“I think I change things around a bit, but they’re just for story considerations,” he said. “This is all to say that – I exaggerate a lot.”
As for his style of humor, he added that his motives are more innocent than the sometimes sharply worded dialogues would indicate.
“I’m not a horrible pessimist,” he said. “Sometimes I worry that I never did advance beyond adolescence. My voice didn’t, but I don’t think my interests did, either … If they cracked open my skull, a 12-year-old would pop out.”