“It doesn’t interest me to manipulate the French. I’m not keyed in to their value system. Because they are not my people, their imagined praise of condemnation means nothing to me. Paris, it seems, is where I’ve come to dream about America” (263).
Sedaris' experience living in Paris seems to reverberate with these kind of moments; he is able to spend his days watching American movies in a way he could not in America, is given free reign to judge his fellow Americans visiting Paris, and finds that the distance grants him a different, and largely more interesting, perspective on his homeland.
Sedaris' clumsy grasp of the French language as well as his deep-rooted sense of "Americanness" separates himself from the French people just as surely as his decision to live abroad separates him from his countrymen. Observing from some indefinable middle ground, Sedaris can be simultaneously scathing and sympathetic, fully indiscriminate in his determination to poke fun at himself and those around him. This extends to his "dreams about America" that can only flourish apart from it; the detachment he gains by living in France seems to clarify something about America for him. While at times the valiant idea of "American optimism" becomes the victim of his wit, there is a decided preoccupation with America and Americanness, and being in Paris only serves to magnify its presence in his life.
How can we read this preoccupation, especially in light of his decision to remain in Paris? In what way does living life as an expatriate allow Sedaris to "dream about" and experience America in ways that he could not when actually living there?
