Star radio storyteller David Sedaris presents his collected works in one audio box set. The longest (at five hours) is his latest, Me Talk Pretty One Day, which contains two live performances from San Francisco. Welcome to a world where dogs outrank children, guitars have breasts, and Sedaris's fellow language-class students try to convey the concept of Easter to a Moroccan Muslim in their fledgling French (translated into English): "It is a party for the little boy of God," says one. "Then he be die one day on two ... morsels of ... lumber," says another. Sedaris is hilarious, and his Billie Holiday impression is amazing.

The three-hour, Christmas-themed Holidays on Ice is the gem of the collection. It has his greatest hit, "SantaLand Diaries," a chronicle of his stint as an elf at Macy's, covering everything from the preliminary group lectures ("You are not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn't be here. You're an elf and you're going to wear panties like an elf.") to the perils of inter-elf flirtation. Other hits feature the crazed newsletter "Season's Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!" and the prostitute coworker his sister brought home one Yuletide, giving "the phrase 'ho, ho, ho' whole different meaning." Barrel Fever contains the fulminatingly funny "Glen's Homophobia Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 2" and "Parade," discussing the narrator's perhaps not fully plausible gay relationships with Bruce Springsteen, Mike Tyson, and Peter Jennings. Naked describes his adventures in a nudist colony, but his family tales are, as ever, nonpareil.

SYNOPSIS

Hailed by The New Yorker as one of the funniest writers in America, "whose satirical brazenness holds up to Twain and Nathaniel West," David Sedaris has delighted National Public Radio listeners for years. Now collected in a convenient box set, he gives voice to his biting sensibility.

Barrel Fever is Sedaris' first collection of comic stories and essays. Performed by David Sedaris, and his sister, Amy Sedaris, this program is described by the New York Post as "a nuclear barrage of humor you could never replicate by reading this material on your own."

In Holidays on Ice, Sedaris skewers the absurd conventions and contrivances of the holiday season, with hilarious effect. Listener-favorite "SantaLand Diaries" joins new seasonal material that sparkles with imagination. Special guest Ann Magnuson performs "Merry Christmas to our Friends and Family" and Amy Sedaris also peppers the stories with comical characters.

Naked is a riotous compilation of stories also performed by David and Amy Sedaris. Publishers Weekly praised this program's "smashing use of the audio as a unique entertainment medium" and called the performances "highly likeable and spirited throughout." They also named it one of the "best of the best" tapes of the year and deemed it "worthy of multiple listens."

Me Talk Pretty One Day combines pieces that have appeared in Esquire and The New Yorker, with extraordinary new material and uproarious live performances. Traveling from his childhood in North Carolina, to a second linguistic childhood as a non French-speaking citizen of Paris, these essays combine poignancy and humor in equal measure.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine - Rochelle O'Gorman