When You Are Engulfed in Flames

I don't share much of a background with David Sedaris, I'm not from a "middle class" family, I have no college education (IVY LEAGUE even, c'mon), no one in my family has had anything to do with the arts, I'm an only freakin' child, I'm born bred and have always lived in the North West, I don't even have a passport let alone the means to live in any country I please... The list could continue and for some readers things like this make Sedaris' writing out of reach, even insulting.The thing is though we seem to have absolutely nothing in common we do have one thing, tiny as it may be, we the commanality of being human and living during this particular era. That is what connects me to him and his writing, his humble humanity. He knows he isn't a beauty queen, he consistently blunders through life making mistakes, playing the fool even and yet he has this amazing ability to WRITE about it, to share it with thw world and make fun of himself OUT LOUD to millions of readers. I love him for that, I love him for the fact academia hasn't sapped the humanity out of him and made him feel blunder proof or at least made him a blunder snob, hiding behind eight letter words that no one knows the true meaning of, ducking behind an Ivy league education.I picked this particular book up because my best friend is in the hospital, has been, will be, for a while. I have learned that he CANNOT handle being alone so I sit there, hour upon hour and try to read him to sleep. Sedaris' short stories and essays are perfect hospital food right? The problem is reading them aloud for the first time is hard because he makes laugh out loud (and not many do)so in the quiet hospital corridors one room is bellowing with laughter, from me, from my sick friend who really shouldn't be laughing right now, it hurts him, but he won't let me stop. A nurse cruises in inevitably when I am reading something that out of context seems dirty, it becomes even funnier.My context of reading this particular Sedaris book aside it is really a very funny, charming piece of literature that connects with the reader on many levels. The parts that others seem to be offended or put off by, I say read them with zeal, be happy that someone out there is making enough money off being a boob, off proudly being a boob to travel to Japan and France and across the U.S. and is taking the time (for money maybe but whatever) to share his experiences as a pretty much average Joe with us. Be happy to read from someone who relishes in the oddities, who isn't always tring to make you sympathetic and tearful. It really is a rare quality. You will find that most contemporary memoir(ish) literature relies on human empathy and sad, sad, sad, SAD parts of life. It's nice to take a break and read from someone who can tell you abot his mother dying of lung cancer in one paragraph and have you giggling in the next.Comedy or Tragedy, life is what you make of it. Trust me I have my own fair share of the comedically tragic, but when my friends can laugh at the crazy things I say and do when I am hallucinating because Lupus is attacking my brain I am way better than when they are crying over it.David Sedaris has the ability to make you laugh over things that put another way might make you cry. AND he has inspired me to REALLY quit smoking, I am done with cigarettes.

When You Are Engulfed In Flames is a solid four-stars and damn near close to five; we'll settle for 4.5. But then again, I'm a serious Sedaris fiend.By now, you (dear reader) have already made up your mind about David Sedaris and have either worked your way through this collection or else long ago discarded him, irrelevant as an expended filter tip.So if you find yourself in the former category then by all means, read on.When You Are Engulfed In Flames makes Sedaris' previous collection, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, seem like a disaster, a complete train wreck. Which is unfair because I think that Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is a strong collection with some exemplary essays. And also because I get the feeling that it was a more personal werk for him, that he's a bit more exposed and vulnerable in those essays.Thematically, When You Are Engulfed In Flames is a reprise of Me Talk Pretty One Day -- highly focused on language and style, on the humanity of humiliation and (to echo some other reviewers) those dark places where our sentimentality tends to get the best of us. But it's a counterpoint melody to Me Talk Pretty One Day -- arrogant where the other was modest, chagrined where the other took delight.Structurally, this collection is an echo of Naked, though perhaps a bit more mature. As I wrote of DFW's Consider the Lobster, the essays are arranged well, jokes from earlier essays recurring, serving to inform your later tittering. That said, the individual essays seem to follow a rhythm that is new for Sedaris. If this were an elementary school music class, I would say that his earlier essays have a rhyme scheme that goes ABAB, these are turned more toward ABCA.It seems a cop-out to recommend this collection. Those that are already turned on to Sedaris are unlikely to be disappointed; those that didn't much care for him in the first place won't find anything to change their opinions. Anyone with previous exposure is likely to see symptoms of his previous werks; I suppose the difference is whether you carry the antibodies?

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"When You Are Engulfed in Flames" is David Sedaris' fifth full-length collection of humorous essays. I've long been a fan of his writing, which for the uninitiated tends to focus on the more skewed aspects of his family and life. His collections usually include a variety of stories from various epochs of his life - as a child and teenager with his hilarious family, in his twenties (when he did drugs and had a variety of bizarre jobs), and with his boyfriend, Hugh, in Europe.Most of my favorite stories involve his family, especially stories from his youth. He adds one such gem here - "The Understudy," which features one of the worst babysitters in history, the corpulent and itchy, Mrs. Peacock. This story has more laugh-out-loud moments than anything I've read since....well since Sedaris' last book. I tend to enjoy less his essays about his years when he was an active drug user, although "All the Beauty You Will Ever Need" is one of the better of this genre.Alas, this collection is a bit thin on stories about his family; perhaps as he gets older he will focus more on recent events filtered through his observational humor style; "Crybaby" is a good example from this collection. The longest section of the book details his attempt to stop smoking in Tokyo, which is not the strongest ending to this otherwise solid collection. Overall, "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" is average work for Sedaris; not as good "Naked" but still likely to keep his fans entertained and better than most humor essayists.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have coffee or a drink with David Sedaris and just listen to him comment about what’s going on around us?

I feel part of his family

Great book & awesome writing style. Sedaris is the one contemporary author who knows how to write humour!

Fans von David Sedaris werden nicht enttäuscht! Musste mehrmals laut Lachen. David Sedaris ist einfach der lustigte Autor der heute schreibt.

知り合いの勧めで"naked”を読んであまりに面白かったので、続けて彼の本を読みたいと思っていたところ、YOU-TUBEで彼が新作であるこの本の一部分を朗読しているところを見ました。それが、彼の東京に訪れた時の話だったので、是非もっと知りたいと思い、早速購入しました。　この本も期待を裏切らず、面白くって何度声を出して笑ったでしょう！！彼の作品の良いところは、一つ一つの話が長くなく、英語学習者の私が、英語でちょっと何か読みたい時に読むのにちょうどいい長さなのです。また、ちょっと下品でユーモアのある話ばかりでなく、ほろっとしたり、考えさせられる話もあって、彼のやさしい人間性が映し出されています。　読み進めるうちに、やっと最後の話で彼の東京生活が描かれているのですが、何より一番爆笑したのが、彼が東京に来た理由なんです！！この点は読んで確かめてみてください！！　”naked”から10年以上経って、文筆家として成功した彼の生活ぶりが作品から感じられますが、彼のユーモアセンスと人間味あふれる視点は全く変わっていません。早く次の作品が読みたいですが、当分は以前の作品を読破して楽しみたいと思います。