AGENDA:
Discuss David Sedaris
Work on Humorous Personal Narratives (Sedaris nonfiction)
Please post a comment about a David Sedaris story that you find funny.
Discuss what elements of writing humorously Sedaris uses in the story.
Post your comment on here for credit!
From litlovers.com
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Me Talk Pretty One Day:
1. What better place to start a discussion of a Sedaris book than
with the parts you find the funniest? Which parts make you LOL (laugh
out loud)? Go around the room and share your belly laughs with others.
2. Are there sections of the book you feel are snide or
mean-spirited? Perhaps his criticism of Americans who visit Europe
dressed "as if you've come to mow its lawns." Or perhaps the piece about
his stint as a writing teacher. Is petulance a part of Sedaris's
schtick...his charm?
3. Talk about the Sedaris family, in particular his parents. How do
they come across? Whom does he feel closest to? Sedaris makes an
interesting statement about his father: it was a mystery that "a man
could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests."
Is that unusual?
4. David Sedaris is a descendant of Woody Allen's brand of
humor—personal idiosyncrasies or neuroses raised to an art form. What
does Sedaris reveal about himself, his insecurities, angst, secret
hostilities, and do you find those parts funny or somewhat touching,
even sad? Actually, do you like Sedaris as he reveals himself in his
book?
5. Are there parts of Me Talk Pretty that you disliked, didn't find funny, found overworked or contrived?
6. For a book club meeting: it would be fun to get the audio version
and listen to selected segments. I especially recommend the French
lessons in Paris.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
HMWK: Read
I really liked Go Carolina. I loved how he started off the story with the reference to the TV shows. I loved how in the story, David tried to avoid saying words with the letter 's' in it. This story connects to me because i had to go to speech therapy when I was younger, and I remember it being exactly like this. The speech therapist would make me use words that highlighted the problem. I hated it. Overall, I really liked this story, and I can't wait to read more.
ReplyDeleteI found "Go Carolina" extremely funny and embarrassingly relatable. When I was younger,I too had a sibilant "S" and had to go to speech therapy. I enjoyed his incorporation of humor while also relaying how traumatizing and alienating it was. Being pulled out of class and taken to a small room with a woman named "Misses Susan Smith", who tells you that you don't speak correctly is mortifying and resulted in my use of synonyms for words that start with "s". I couldn't believe that Sedaris mentioned that in his story because I thought I was the only one who would think up such an absurd thing.
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