Me Talk Pretty One Day

It's been a year since David Sedaris began his residency in Paris, and he has finally finished his sixth essay collection. The book is full of witty essays that read like lectures by a college professor; Sedaris was, after all, employed as a creative-writing lecturer prior to his move to France. His family is another inspiration. Although the book is called You Cant Kill the Rooster, it's really about his brother, who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers and cashiers with 6-inch fingernails. The New Yorker called him "Twain and Hawthorne" compared to Twain and Hawthorne, but Sedaris is an amazing reader whose appearance at an event will draw hundreds and whose performances are unforgettable. At last, someone even meaner than the French!