Sedaris proves greatness

With "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim," wry humorist David Sedaris has hammered in the fourth and final nail into the coffin of the debate over whether he is one of the finest personal essayists around.\nAnd clearly, he is.\nHe's been likened to the good company of Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde. He's been called the love child of Dorothy Parker and James Thurber. Sedaris is a fine writer, extremely witty yet morbidly compulsive and shameless. But he's strong enough to stand on his own. The compliments and comparisons are applicable and nice, but the strongest thing you can say about Sedaris is that he's a pure original.\nSedaris first hit it big was "The Santa Land Diaries," a spoken piece broadcast on National Public Radio about his time working as a Macy's elf during the busy holiday season. He's since been standing in the spotlight for his writing, which typically recounts the details from his personal, professional and -- most of all -- his family life.\nHe's had successful books since then, including his 1997 memoir "Naked" and 2000's best-seller "Me Talk Pretty One Day," his best anthology to date.\n"Dress Your Family" doesn't dare deviate from his successful formula: the book consists of about 20 short pieces, all autobiographical, and most of which were previously published in magazines like Esquire, GQ and The New Yorker, but are still pleasures to read again. \nAs the odd title suggests, the bulk of the essays in "Dress Your Family" are about Sedaris' family. I've always thought Sedaris' sharpest, wittiest stories are the ones about his family. And their personalities are enough to provide him with tons of material: his stern, Greek father, his relaxed and cynical mother (which, for my money, comes off the page as one of the most vivid literary personas in the past decade), his four sisters (including comedic actress Amy Sedaris) and his over-the-top brother Paul, nicknamed "the Rooster," whose experiences as a new father are documented in the story "Baby Einstein" and provide the biggest laughs in the new collection.\nWhat is so captivating about Sedaris' work is that his life story has been so seemingly typical. He grew up in Raleigh, N.C., with an endless supply of writing material from his childhood. One of the best essays is "Us and Them," a story about a neighboring family who didn't have a TV and went trick-or-treating on the wrong night. Sedaris landed low on the workforce ladder after he moved to New York. It is true, without a doubt, that his family is excessively colorful; but whose isn't? He may be a fiercely successful writer, but his stories feel no different than a friend telling you an anecdote. \nWith all of Sedaris' self-obsessions, it's hard to believe he can write about them so openly. With the brutal honesty he uses to dissect his family and his boyfriend, painter Hugh Hamrick, you have to wonder how they can still muster the will to talk to him. Fortunately for us -- and Sedaris, I suppose -- everything seems to work itself out in the end, and he can go on writing and we can go on laughing.\nWhen he comes to the IU Auditorium next year, as part of the 2004-05 lineup, I'll be one of the first in line.\n"Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" is available on www.amazon.com for $14.97.