45 pages 1 hour read

David Sedaris

Naked

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1997

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary: “The Women’s Open”

When they’re young teenagers, Louis takes Lisa and David to watch a golf match. Golf utterly bores the children, and it seems that their father takes them along in order to get a better spot to spectate from. “First, our father would push us to the front of a large, gaily dressed crowd. Robbed of their choice spots, these spectators would huff and grumble […] ‘They’re kids,’ our father would say. […] ‘Come on, pal, have a heart’” (47). Louis also makes David collect used tees from the green and keeps them as good-luck charms.

While watching the golf tournament, Lisa gets her first period. Louis asks a spectating woman to take Lisa to the bathroom and “outfit her with a sanitary napkin” (49). She reluctantly agrees. Later, David and Louis return to their car, where Lisa is reclining in the back seat. She tells Louis to “go fuck [himself]” (50) but instantly regrets it: “The moment she said it, Lisa bolted upright, as if there might still be time to catch the word […] before it reached our father’s ears. None of us had ever spoken to him that way, and now he would have no choice but to kill her" (50).