When You Are Engulfed in Flames | 
 enlarge | Author: David Sedaris
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
Buy New: $17.15
You Save: $8.84 (34%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  269 reviews
Sales Rank: 186530
Format: Large Print
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0316024597
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780316024594
ASIN: 0316024597
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Product Description
"David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," (The Christian Science Monitor) is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this remarkable new book.
Trying to make coffee when the water is shut off, David considers using the water in a vase of flowers and his chain of associations takes him from the French countryside to a hilariously uncomfortable memory of buying drugs in a mobile home in rural North Carolina. In essay after essay, Sedaris proceeds from bizarre conundrums of daily life-having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a fellow passenger on a plane or armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds-to the most deeply resonant human truths. Culminating in a brilliant account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris's sixth essay collection is a new masterpiece of comic writing from "a writer worth treasuring" (Seattle Times).
Praise for When You Are Engulfed in Flames:
"Older, wiser, smarter and meaner, Sedaris...defies the odds once again by delivering an intelligent take on the banalities of an absurd life." --Kirkus Reviews
This latest collection proves that not only does Sedaris still have it, but he's also getting better....Sedaris's best stuff will still--after all this time--move, surprise, and entertain." --Booklist
Table of Contents:
It's Catching
Keeping Up
The Understudy
This Old House
Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?
Road Trips
What I Learned
That's Amore
The Monster Mash
In the Waiting Room
Solutions to Saturday's Puzzle
Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool
Memento Mori
All the Beauty You Will Ever Need
Town and Country
Aerial
The Man in the Hut
Of Mice and Men
April in Paris
Crybaby
Old Faithful
The Smoking Section
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| Customer Reviews: Read 264 more reviews...
 The Wildness... January 4, 2009
funny stuff, Sedaris book isnt what i expected, but it was my 1st Sedaris
practically every magazine I read reviewed the book and said it was absolutely hilarious and I've always read good reviews for his other stuff
i have to agree with some other reviewers, the essay "The Smoking Section" was awesome, the only bad part was that it was 83 pages long......, very, very funny though
the guy has a way with words, awesome descriptions of every day things
"This Old House", "The Understudy", "That's Amore", "April in Paris" & "Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool" along with "The Smoking Section" were my favorites to read
if you want to read a HILARIOUS collection of stories, check out Michael Ian Black's "My Custom Van" , now that is funny stuff
 it's okay January 2, 2009
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
A little dissappointed in this. His concert version in New York has his best stuff. I hate to say this but it is a little to GAY for me. Every character , he goes on and on about every piece of clothing they are wearing, who would even notice this except for a flamer? I only mention it because it detracts from his story. It was only semi-funny, more of a gay guy's observations of daily life and growing up with a bunch of sisters.
Eh January 2, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read all of David Sedaris' books and I feel like he's running out of material. I did not laugh out loud more than two times in this entire book, which cannot be said for the majority of his books. I felt like this book was a letdown and wish that I had not purchased it, in hardcover, no less.
Yes Sir. This is Good Stuff December 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Before writing this review, I read a smattering of other reviews, particularly the one star reviews. Yowza! I didn't realize there are that many people out there that expect so much from a book. Next, they will want Sedaris to rotate their tires and patch their jeans.
I found the book to be highly entertaining. Yes, it is a small departure from previous works by the author but for me it shows growth, not regression. As we stumble toward the cemetery we do tend to get more introspective - that's just the way it's designed. I for one, appreciate this new version.
Concerning the humor in the book. I have only one word. Funny. For those who are homophobic, I have two. Scary and Funny.
I hope you find this review helpful.
Michael L. Gooch, Author of Wingtips with Spurs: Cowboy Wisdom for Today's Business Leaders.
 A Mixed Review December 29, 2008
I really love him way too much for my own good. So I was so excited to pick up his latest book, and I truly was giggling through the first three chapters. He is just so crazy funny to me. I know that not everyone gets his humor, but I do. And I love it. He makes me want to download it and listen to him read it to me, because it's even more funny to hear him say what he's written. But as I got further through the book, it started to feel a bit forced, like he might be running out of material. Although, in some ways, he did feel more real in this book. There was more personal reflection than in his previous works, and I did like that. All in all, a mixed review (although I still will pick up anything and everything he writes). If you're a fan, read it. If you're a Sedaris first-timer, pick up Me Talk Pretty One Day and/or Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (and Holidays on Ice) first, and then come back to this one.
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