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1-Page Summary of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

Overall Summary

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is a collection of autobiographical essays by David Sedaris, who reflects on his life growing up. He uses his wit to describe the absurdities of suburban American life, as well as the dysfunctionality of his family.

The first few essays in the collection deal with Sedaris’s childhood. He describes his family as people who stand out no matter where they are, whether it’s a conservative or liberal community. In the first essay, “Us and Them,” he observes that one of their neighbors has decided to live without television because she finds it intrusive to her life. However, Sedaris doesn’t understand why someone would choose not to have a technology that could help them think beyond themselves.

David Sedaris writes about a time when his father and he tried to buy a beach house. He talks about how his father is always changing his mind and that it’s frustrating dealing with adults who can’t make up their minds. At the same time, Sedaris says that there was no way they would have been happy with the beach house anyway because they are not like other families who actually enjoy going to the beach. Another essay by David Sedaris recounts memories of being gay in school growing up in North Carolina during the 1970s. When David’s friend Walt invites him over for a sleepover, he hesitates because Walt has never had any interest in girls before but now suddenly wants everyone at school to think he does so much so that people will stop picking on him for being fat which makes David uncomfortable since he knows what kind of person Walt really is deep down inside even if others don’t see it yet or won’t admit it out loud yet themselves either as well as having to deal with feeling conflicted between wanting to be accepted by everyone else at school (including some bullies) while still trying not get picked on himself for being different from them (which includes getting picked on by those same bullies).

The short story “Hejira” follows David Sedaris after his father kicks him out of the house because of his sexual orientation. In the aftermath, Sedaris realizes that he was kicked out for being gay instead of not having a job and being unmotivated. The story “The Girl Next Door” takes place after Sedaris’ abandonment by his parents. He is trying to make it as an artist in a derelict apartment when he meets Brandi, who has been neglected by her mother. As they become friends, he develops what later becomes known as a savior complex and tries to educate her about better ways to live life. His plot fails: Brandi robs him while blaming him for trusting her enough to give him anything in the first place; worse still, she blames herself for stealing from someone so stupid as to trust anyone at all.

Sedaris closes his essay, “Nuit of the Living Dead,” with a story about how he was afraid that zombies would come into his home when he was alone. He made himself stay awake until morning by listening to mice in the attic and drowning one of them in a bucket filled with hydrangeas.

In the last chapter of his book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris comes to terms with the fact that he can’t find an ultimate thesis for all of his stories. Instead, they’re just a reflection of existential anxiety. He’s not trying to lift any weight off his shoulders; instead, he’s simply reflecting on these problems as best he can.