What I Learned : David Sedaris

I’ve always been a big fan of Amy Sedaris (from television shows like Strangers With Candy and a wayward episode of My Name Is Earl, among much, much more). It was through my then girlfriend that I was exposed to David Sedaris’ work. Only about a year ago did I connect the two, and subsequently purchased the tragic fables of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, an arousing collection of modern fables. Consequently, when I began to read What I Learned, I was expecting a very vivid and lively (and funny) story. I was not disappointed.

David Sedaris, particularly in What I Learned, uses images to make the writing come alive in the reader’s head. For example, in the writing, he exaggerates his father’s interest in his Princeton acceptance by adorning him with a breastplate, nightcap, and a velvet cape. Later, he continues this extravagance by having his father slip an engraved dagger into his bag to drive the point home that even patricide is a better end state to the college experience than studying literature. The use of such images (and others, like the burning alive of failing students) are used to connect with the audience. Clearly, students were not being burned alive, and his father had no interest in patricide. I would argue that it’s not very likely that his father sported a Princeton breastplate either. However, many graduating students, I’m sure, have had the overzealous relative, and their perception of this individual was very much more in line with the breastplate reference. In other words, to accurately express the perception of his experience, David Sedaris leaned heavily on this sort of extravagant imagery. In a more traditional sense, he does not chain descriptions together in the style of some, but the clear images he paints do serve his communication purposes.