Perspective

"Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" by David Sedaris is an autobiographical work and is conveyed in the first-person. David is adept at providing a collection of stories from his childhood and adolescence. Of course, no one other than the other principals in the story, especially David's siblings, could provide such a vivid and insightful work. But just as each of his siblings would have his or her own story, this account is David's and no one would be better suited than he to tell that particular story.

Making his story different than his siblings was the fact that David was the only homosexual sibling among the children. Although the children all suffered in their unique ways from parents who failed to see each child in his own best and special light, it was David who felt the most isolated within his family. His father was not...