Naked is a collection of narrative essays, loosely connected, about David Sedaris’ life from his elementary school years
well into adulthood. A memoir from a relatively young and up-and-coming author might seem strange, but Sedaris proves that he has much to say. The stories are all bitingly funny and told with enough self-deprecation to make this as enjoyable and quickly paced as anything else he has written.
Young David is plagued by nervous twitches and behavior that devolves into a severe case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Walking home from school takes hours as David must count his steps, lick and touch certain objects, and perform a series of rituals that must be started again from the beginning if there is any question a part of the routine has been missed. David’s troubles plague his life at school, too. He is ostracized from the other students, and every year without fail, his teacher requests a visit with his
mother. David’s mother is gem of a character. She entertains and charms the teachers with cocktails until it becomes certain David will be left alone for another year. David’s twitching and rocking only ceases after he takes up
smoking cigarettes while away at college; the smoking allows him to develop a whole new series of more socially acceptable nervous habits.
The stories take us through David’s formative years, during which his family relationships are developed and solidified. Like every young adult, his parents for him are the source of endless humor. Sedaris discovers early on that he is gay, which introduces a whole new set of issues for him to lampoon. When his teachers and professors poke fun at silly, foppish men, David knows that he is the object of their scorn. While doing freelance contract work (because David prefers to work as little and infrequently as possible), he becomes the target of his coworker’s attempts to put him in the doghouse with the boss, who turns out to be a closeted lesbian.
For all the irony imbedded in these tales, the stories deal subtly and humanly with the biggest of life’s issues. Particularly poignant is the sharp-tongued, chain-smoking, alcoholic mother’s incurable cancer. Despite the fact that this is a family not prone to saying I love you or hugging enthusiastically, the love the children feel for their mother comes out in how they all of a sudden can’t interact with her at all.
In the title story, “Naked,” what starts off as a practical joke turns into David taking a mid-life, solo vacation to a nudist resort to spend time away from his partner and to deal with his mid-life body issues. None of the nudists are attractive, and it is acceptable to identify people by their scars but not their physical features below the neck. David is instructed to take a towel everywhere he goes, and he quickly discovers why after finding a copious amount of pubic hair imbedded in his resort trailer’s couch. Inevitably, David learns to take comfort in the surgery-scarred and aging bodies of his co-nudists. Despite the sunburn of his penis, David becomes quite accustomed to and fond of his own physical flaws in the process.
In terms of the subject matter, Naked is both an atypical and universally human memoir. As the reader delves into the first few stories, it seems as if the humor len