Read by David Sedaris
6 Hours 26 Minutes
Published April 2013 by Little, Brown and Company
Publisher's Summary:
From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.
Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy.
Publisher's Summary:
Every time my husband and I are planning a trip, I start thinking about what I'll read while he's driving. I'm the navigator but when you're traveling roads that you're familiar with, that should leave plenty of time for reading. It doesn't. My husband doesn't mind doing the driving but he likes to be entertained while he's doing it - well, maybe not entertained exactly, but talking will be involved. Some years back, after my parents were talking about the most recent book they'd listened to while traveling, I decide that would solve two problems. I'd get to "read" a book and my husband would have someone talking to him. There turned out to be two problems with this idea. Number one, when you reach an area that requires more of the driver's attention, I had to turn off the book. Number two, my husband still talked. Right over the book he was supposed to be listening to at the time.
This time I felt like I had the perfect solution. I purposely looked for a book that would only take up about half of our driving time, leaving plenty of time for navigational periods and areas that required his concentration. Then I looked for an author I knew he enjoyed and something that could be broken up easily. Bingo - anything by David Sedaris would work. My hubby seemed very amenable to the idea.
In a total of twelve and a half hours of driving, we listened to two and a half hours. To be fair, we took new routes both to and home from our destination - we had to pay attention to what we were doing. Still, I'm throwing in the towel on audiobooks on road trips. We'd no sooner start the book, then my husband would want to know what how much longer I wanted to go before we stopped for a bathroom break or to talk about the time he ate in a great little place in a town we were driving by. He cannot focus on stories while driving. Not even for David Sedaris.
In his defense, I'm sure he expected, as I did, that the book would be hilarious. Nobody tells a funny story quite like David Sedaris. But this book is not all about being funny. There are some downright tough to listen to stories in this book. But it's hard to listen to a man tell a story about how hard his dad was on him, how he belittled him and embarrassed him, and made him feel worthless. Nobody tells those stories better than David Sedaris, either.
So, even though I won't bring any more Sedaris on car rides, I'm nowhere near done reading his books.
I've had this book on my list for a few years. I need to find a copy. My husband talked a lot too so I feel your pain :)
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