Book Review: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

I’ve squirreled away David Sedaris books in my home, ready to read when I feel I need them most. As I’ve said many times on this blog, David Sedaris is my favourite writer, and I savour his stories like a delicious chocolate bar I’ve been pining for. I don’t read his books in order so I’m still getting through his impressive backlist. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim was originally released in 2004, and I was delighted to discover some of my favourite stories in this collection that I’ve first read as part of his recent re-release.

Book Summary

Like all (or at least, most) of Sedaris’s books, this collection is made up of non-fiction personal essays about his life, his family, and his observations. Many of these stories recount memories of his childhood, including his mother, who we don’t tend to hear about as much in his later collections, as she passed away when he was younger. Like all of his writing these stories are hilarious, occasionally bordering on the absurd, but always entertaining. He tells a (somewhat) heartwarming story about being locked out of his childhood home due to a slew of snow days when he was young, and all his siblings convincing their youngest sister to lie in the road and try to get hit by a car so they can go back inside. We also get a glimpse into his brother Paul and some of his life milestones, including getting married, and having a child. Sadly, there is also a story about visiting his younger sister Tiffany, who clearly struggles with mental illness, but regular readers of Sedaris will know that she commits suicide later in life – at this point in David’s publishing history, this tragic event has not yet happened. He makes a few different visits to his siblings’ houses, one in which he meets his sister Lisa’s pet parrot Henry. A disturbing story called ‘Blood Work’ recounts a time when Sedaris was working as a house cleaner, and a client got his ads mixed up and thought he was hiring a sexy cleaning service instead; Sedaris works through this uncomfortable mix-up as best as he can, but it’s a cringey story to read, as many of his are. This might be the best way to describe all his writing; cringey, but fun.

My Thoughts

One of my favourite stories is “Six to Eight Black Men” which I read every Christmas, hopefully out loud to my family if they’ll let me. Dress Your Family was the collection it originally appeared in, and it details the bizarre holiday traditions Sedaris has learned about during his extensive travels throughout Europe. While in Amsterdam, Sedaris was asking a local about their Christmas traditions when the following was revealed:

“The words silly and unrealistic were redefined when I learned that Saint Nicholas travels with what was consistently described as ‘six to eight black men.’ I asked several Dutch people to narrow it down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always ‘six to eight,’ which seems strange, seeing as they’ve had hundreds of years to get an accurate head count.” (p. 160-161, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, hardcover edition)

His observational humour is complimented by his thoughtful commentary that each story has sprinkled throughout. Because Sedaris has four other siblings there’s no shortage of funny moments to mine, but it’s also obvious he cares about them. He often finds himself trying to understand their quirks, while he readily admits his own. His interactions with the aforementioned parrot are a great example of this:

“I raised my hand, and she offered Henry a peanut. Watching him take it in his claw, his belly sagging almost to the perch, I could understand what someone might see in a parrot. Here was this strange little fatso living in my sister’s kitchen, a sympathetic listener turning again and again to ask ‘So, really, how are you?’ ” (p. 147 of Dress Your Family)

I have yet to meet to a David Sedaris book I haven’t fallen in love with. His writing is just…so…good! While I eagerly await his next release I content myself with his backlist, and unlike almost every other book I read, I keep his on my shelf after I’m done; he is the only author I will re-read. His essays are also great read-alouds for adults, so I like to think of his books as a long-term investment.