I consider myself a big David Sedaris fan, so I was very happy when Andrea returned from Sam’s Club with his latest book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.

She got it the day after we saw him on Letterman, where he read a bit from the book concerning telephone calls being made while on the toilet. It was funny and classic Sedaris. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was not like that.

I say “unfortunately” and realize that the tons of rabid Sedaris fans are going to think I didn’t like the book. I did, it’s just that it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

This book is dark. Throughout his other books, you learn quite a bit about his family and his life growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina. I guess it is one of the reasons I like him – I know the places he talks about, such as Cameron Village and Crabtree Valley Mall.

But in the other books his family’s eccentricities come across almost sitcom-like, an Ozzie and Harriet of dysfunction. In this book, it’s a lot more about the dysfunction.

David Sedaris is gay. He’s never been shy about it in his writing, but in this book you learn that his father threw him out of the house because of it. You learn that his mother’s drinking is a little more than “occasional”.

He also talks about being young and gay. In a story entitled “Full House” he is invited to an all-male sleep-over where a game of strip poker is played. He has to think fast to avoid the discomfort of becoming visibly aroused in full site of his classmates (and I must also remark that strip poker, in my experience, was always a co-ed game).

There are a number of other painful childhood experiences described in this book, and while very witty and well written, they aren’t exactly funny. In fact, when trying to dredge up comparable memories of my own, my subconscious immediately pushes their little bobbing heads back down under water as soon as they surface, and I am not sure I want to bring them fully to light again.

The lightest part of the book deals with the youngest Sedaris child, David’s younger brother nicknamed “The Rooster”. While the other Sedaris progeny are off living in France, or New York, or even Winston-Salem, the Rooster has a successful flooring business in Raleigh, is married and has the first Sedaris grandchild.

Since his flooring business is nearby, I once got a call from a friend that went “you gotta come over, David Sedaris’s brother’s company is flooring my neighbor’s house”. I didn’t rush over, but I did see the little sign they put out front while they were working (and my guess is that the Rooster doesn’t do any actual flooring work these days).

I would recommend the book to all Sedaris fans, but for those looking to get started, please try Naked or Me Talk Pretty One Day first.