• Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

  • By: David Sedaris
  • Narrated by: David Sedaris
  • Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (7,571 ratings)

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Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim  By  cover art

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

By: David Sedaris
Narrated by: David Sedaris
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Publisher's summary

In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives, a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is another unforgettable collection from one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today.

©2004 David Sedaris (P)2004 Time Warner AudioBooks

Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Winner, Humor and Short Stories/Collections, 2005

"In his latest collection, Sedaris has found his heart. This is not to suggest that the author of Me Talk Pretty One Day and other best-selling books has lost his edge. The 27 essays here include his best and funniest writing yet....What emerges is the deepest kind of humor, the human comedy." (Publishers Weekly)
"Sedaris is a careful writer, with a no-muss, no-fuss style that rarely misfires." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Sedaris' piquant essays are as meticulously honed and precisely timed as the best stand-up comic routines, which is, of course, what they are....Sedaris, openly gay, nervy as a tightrope walker, sharply hilarious, teasingly misanthropic yet genuinely compassionate, has a unique ability to supply exactly the right details to bring every funny, awkward, ludicrous, painful, horrible real-life moment into harrowingly crisp focus....He is mesmerizing." (Booklist)
"Sedaris has a satirical brazenness that holds up next to Mark Twain and Nathanael West." (The New Yorker)

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What listeners say about Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Sedaris is the gay Mark Twain.

He finds what is funny and what is sad about life right now. He reads the book himself and his delivery doubles the experience as compared to the printed version.

He's got the strangest life and family and I recognize a little of my own life and feelings in his stories.

The best thing I can say about this book is that I laughed until I ruptured something.
If you haven't discovered David Sedaris yet, do yourself a favor and get this book and every other book of his you can get your hands on.

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121 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not the place to start

First, I must tell you that I have been a huge David Sedaris fan since he started on This American Life. But I agree with the previous reviewer who said that his reading of this book lacks the sparkle of his live and radio presentations. The same stories that had me bent over laughing during the Carnegie Hall recording came across as flat and serious. If you have not heard David Sedaris before, definetly download "Live from Carnegie Hall" or "Me Talk Pretty One Day".

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47 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Read on...Hilarity Ensues

If you're unfamiliar w/David Sedaris, start with this or any of his books. He writes in a simple prose essay format with humor sprinkled throughout. Everyday familial situations become hilarious stories and I can only imagine his family dodging his calls and visits less they end up as foddor for his writing.

In this collection, he introduces his redneck brother, Rooster; the sly mother returns; his practical, pragmatic father weighs in; and we hear more about his rebellious sister and her unkempt, breezy lifestyle. Of course he shares insights on his relationship w/Hugh. You'll laugh throughout and even feel a little sad at how he can encapsulate moments of pure clarity at the unfairness of life. A must read if you enjoy humorous prose.

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36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

I blew through this book in several days because I was addicted to the belly laughs. In fact, I listened to this book while running, which provoked more than a few suspicious glances, as I would occasionally have to stop and grab my knees in spasms of laughter. My favorite parts are when Sedaris reads his material in front of a live audience; he plays up the timing and the voices. Also, the piece about his brother is unbelievable. You really have to hear it (not read it) to get the full effect. Wait for the bit about the "watery coffee," -- you'll see what I mean.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Laugh of loud funny!

This is a collection of short stories read by the author, mostly about his some what disfuctional family. If you liked Sedaris' last book, "Me Talk Pretty One Day", you will certainly like his new audible selection "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim". David's narration may turn off some listeners, but I find it enhances his stories and makes them funnier. If you're new to Sedaris, check out the audio sample before your purchase. One minor complaint is that several stories (example: "six to eight black men") were taken from previous books of his. Still enjoyable none the less.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Funnier than Engulfted in Flames

David Sedaris has produced another collection of essays and collected them in "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim." For me, Sedaris was an acquired taste and this volume is the most enjoyable for me. It seems lighter and funnier than Engulfed in Flames which I found a little dark.

In this volume Sedaris sensitively tells about his family, early experiences, and quirks of family members. Some passages will leave you laughing out loud. The writng will catch you off guard and carry you to places you have never known possible. The reading is worthy of the book.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Always funny!

David Sedaris has refreshing humor that is only made better with his personal readings of his work. My favorite selections are the ones that were recorded with a live audience, but they are all hilarious. It is easy to listen to all at once or in pieces, since it is a collection of stories.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The humor and sadness is palpable

I have enjoyed David Sedaris wit for many years-he has kept me chuckling and lifted my moods with his sly and clever way of talking about his family, friends, and adventures. This book is full of his heartfelt experiences that take on a humorous slant because of his wit, but also because of the way he narrates--listening to him is the very best way to "read" his books.

However, something he wrote recently has me wondering about his ability to write about his family in such a stark (and as it turns out probably true) account of his family's personal issues. I was really saddened to learn of the suicide of David Sedaris sister, Tiffany. Last month he wrote about it in an essay in The New Yorker, and I was surprised that he claimed not to know what could have driven her to such an end--because in this book which came out in 2004, he clearly knew what her life was like. I, probably like most other's, laughed at his account of her living situation which he described as an apartment like a "revolving junk shop" and her kitchen floor which had been stripped of it's linoleum and left with tar paper as a floor. Tiffany, he said, had wanted to show him her artwork -mosaics that she made out of bits of pottery taken from the trash, but he could only think about how her apartment needed cleaning. I assumed he surely was embellishing his tale of such a dismal, unhappy life, but as it turns out, it was probably close to the truth. So, he clearly knew his sister, but says in his article that he had not talked to her for about 8 years (just about the time this book was published.)

Nothing is ever as black and white as it may appear on the surface. Many people deal with hardships, heartache and sadness with laughter--it is a gift to themselves and others' at times. I look forward to listening to his new books, however, maybe I'll appreciate his talents a little differently in the future.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Hysterically Funny

OMIWORD. I can't even tell you how many times I laughed out loud listening to this book. Once I had pull the car over because the laughter just got the best of me. There are many vignettes and I think a listener/reader could find something to identify with in each of them. A wildly entertaining listen! I would recommend it to everyone.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I Feel Guilty for Crimes I Haven't Committed

After I purchased David Sedaris' "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" (2004), I realized that I'd read it before. Well, actually, I didn't read it - I'd checked out Sedaris' narration on CDs from my small town's then one story, poorly lit, warren-like maze of a library. The library had bathrooms that smelled overwhelmingly of the stiff wood pulp paper towels that were dispensed in folded sheets from a rusty white box which, for some mysterious reason, was carefully locked.

I could have returned "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" to Audible, no questions asked. I have my own personal give it back credo. I only return books if I'm not going to listen to them, and that's usually because they are awful. That explains why most of my reviews are a 3 or higher: I only review books I finish, and I'm not going to waste my money and hours of my life listening to something that's bad. In Sedaris' case, I kept the Audible because I listened to it again, and it was still funny. It was a different funny - I noticed subtleties the second time of missed the first time - but I still laughed out loud

Sedaris is an old style raconteur. He grew up in the avocado green refrigerator, popcorn ceiling and gold shag rug 1970's. His sisters were something else, alternately torturing Sedaris and sucking up to his cigarette-smoking drive-without-a-seatbelt parents. I'm a few years younger than he is and from the Midwest, but things were pretty much the same. Except the Tupperware. We had lots of Tupperware with burp lids and starburst decorative lines.

So, yes, even the second time around, Sedaris is amusing. The title of the review paraphrases a quote from the book.

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11 people found this helpful