Review on NAKED David Sedaris Wellness & Relaxation by Cathy Sharp

David Sedaris has a unique, inimitable voice - caustic, irritable and rough - it's all his own, and that voice is portrayed in "The Naked", one Collection of perfectly demonstrated humorous essays that seem to bring together the grotesque characters of Flannery O'Conner's stories through the blunted prism of Mark Twain's finest travelogue. Here are a few highlights that make Naked a must-read: 1. Out With Your Ya-Ya - A ruthless profile of his testy grandmother and the power she held over the household when she was forced to move in with Sedari's immediate family due to illness . The sharp conflict between the grandmother and the mother of Sedaris is juicy and cheerful.2. Planet of the Apes is a chronicle of Sedari's hitchhiking, some of which are so dramatic and dangerous that a film could be made about the adventures. Unfinished ATV - In order to get a discount on room and board at the university, Sedaris agrees to take in and care for a roommate, a paraplegic student. Her physical limitations and life of rejection make her the cynical hitchhiking soulmate of Sedaris. Together they travel the country as "husband and wife”. Sedaris, a decent husband, stands next to his wife, who languishes in her wheelchair. They use this ploy to elicit sympathy from strangers and inflate themselves with pride and arrogance to fool the public. COG (Child of God) - At fifty pages long and in three parts, this is perhaps Sedaris' most powerful essay in the collection. He describes Myths riding the bus across the country, a strange middle-aged man who lives with his mother whom Sedaris meets while working at an apple processing plant in Oregon, and COG, a born-again amputee (Flannery O'Conner right) , who suffers from alcoholism, flatulence and, contrary to his self-proclaimed piety, dreams of material wealth.