Me Talk Pretty One Day Characters
The main characters in Me Talk Pretty One Day are David Sedaris, Louis “Lou” Sedaris, Sharon Sedaris, and Amy Sedaris.
- David Sedaris is the author and narrator of Me Talk Pretty One Day. He was born in New York State; grew up largely in Raleigh, North Carolina; and has since lived in Chicago, New York City, Normandy, and Paris.
- Louis “Lou” Sedaris is David Sedaris’s father. He works as a computer engineer for IBM for many years.
- Sharon Sedaris, David Sedaris’s mother, is a continual source of support for her six children.
- Amy Sedaris, an accomplished actress and comedian, is David Sedaris’s younger sister.
Characters
David Sedaris
A brilliant essayist and humorist, David Sedaris is a candid, irreverent writer with a fierce wit and a knack for genuine honesty. Born in New York State, Sedaris moves to Raleigh, North Carolina, when he is a child. Sedaris is close with his large and rather unconventional family, who are mentioned in several essays. Growing up gay and closeted in a conservative community, young Sedaris contends with the feeling of being an outsider and struggles to achieve self-acceptance. He experiences difficulty in college and drops out. Sedaris also develops an addiction to hard drugs, which he eventually sheds successfully, although he continues to struggle with dependency. From Raleigh to Chicago, New York City, Normandy, and Paris, Sedaris moves often and engages in a variety of odd-jobs and careers before finding success as a writer. While living in New York, he meets Hugh Hamrick, and the two fall in love and move to France. They remain a couple to this day.
Louis “Lou” Sedaris
Father to David Sedaris, Lou is a Greek immigrant and works as a computer engineer. He is the father of six children, of which Sedaris is the second. A man of science and practicality, Lou has a certain amount of trouble understanding Sedaris, especially earlier in Sedaris’s life. Lou works at IBM for many years, and he helps design some of the features of early home computers. Mild-mannered and intelligent, he enjoys thorough and lengthy explanations of difficult scientific and technological concepts, even sometimes offering them to passersby on the beach. Lou is a man of numerous quirks, including a stark insistence that food is still edible far beyond its expiration date. Despite their differences, Lou enjoys a close relationship with his youngest son, Paul—especially after the death of Sharon, Lou’s wife.
Sharon Sedaris
Mother to David Sedaris, who is the second of her six children, Sharon is a humorous, brutally honest, and loving person who enjoys a close relationship with her children. Often acting as a refuge for the Sedaris children against some of the more imposing whims of her husband, Lou, Sharon welcomes the kids to join her in her favored activities, even those as simple as watching television or participating in family suntanning competitions. Despite not always understanding Sedaris’s artistic aspirations, Sharon is a source of tough love and support for him and his siblings until her untimely death due to lung cancer.
Amy Sedaris
A talented actress and comedian, Amy is David Sedaris’s younger sister. Amy purposefully defies convention and walks her own path. She has a keen grasp of people’s characters and will go out of her way to do impressions of them, often pulling off elaborate stunts and pranks involving costumes. Amy is a free spirit who, while not well understood herself, understands and empathizes with others.
Gretchen Sedaris
Gretchen is another of David Sedaris’s younger sisters. Gretchen and Sedaris have a close relationship, especially through childhood. Gretchen’s natural artistic abilities are a major source of envy for Sedaris and drive him into the world of art, although his artistic endeavors have many negative consequences, as he expresses in “Twelve Moments in the Life of the Artist.”
Paul “the Rooster” Sedaris
Paul, Sedaris’s younger brother, insists on being called “the Rooster” and expresses the indomitability of his spirit through the phrase “you can’t kill the Rooster.” A particularly unusual member of the family who was born in North Carolina—unlike his siblings, who were born in New York State—Paul enjoys a close and unconventional relationship with their father, Lou, and still lives nearby.
Hugh Hamrick
Hugh is David Sedaris’s partner....
(This entire section contains 879 words.)
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The son of a US State Department official, Hugh spends his somewhat turbulent childhood in numerous African countries. While his family holds a great deal of privilege, even possessing servants and guards, Hugh lives for years in proximity to poverty and violence. He is sent to live with at least two other families while his parents travel for work, and in these environments, Hugh feels alienated and unsupported. Hugh eventually finds success, and he meets Sedaris in New York in a chance encounter. Sedaris and Hugh later spend summers restoring a house in Normandy together, and they eventually move to Paris for some time. The two are still together to this day.
Miss Samson
An unsympathetic speech therapist, Miss Samson takes it upon herself to “cure” Sedaris of his lisp during his time in elementary school. Unwilling to see Sedaris’s perspective, she insists upon what she considers to be the proper pronunciation of the letter s, though Sedaris is resistant to all attempts to correct his speech.
Mr. Mancini
Mr. Mancini is Sedaris’s childhood guitar teacher. Although Sedaris doesn’t want lessons, his father sends him to see Mr. Mancini, who is a little person (although Sedaris uses the far less sensitive term “midget”). Mr. Mancini is a self-professed ladies’ man who insists upon naming guitars after beautiful women and who constantly describes his sexual exploits to Sedaris, who is clearly far too young to hear about them. When Sedaris reveals his passion for singing commercial jingles in the style of Billie Holiday, Mr. Mancini dismisses Sedaris as a pupil, clearly suspecting his homosexuality.
