Customer Reviews

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

David Sedaris' managed to write a stream of consciousness set of reminiscences which were hilarious, sometimes upsetting, brave and often thought provoking. He talked about the kind of embarassing or uncomfortable moments that most of us try to forget right after they've occured with both humour and honesty. His section on how he quit smoking was brilliant and really very insightful about the whole subject of addiction. I think what I liked so much about this book apart from just how funny it was is that it was filled with insight without ever becoming pompous. All in all, a really good book that makes you laugh out loud, think about difficult topics, and read far later in the night than you meant to because it's so hard to put down.

Laugh at yourself and the whole world laughs with you. It's hard to write humorous essays that stand the test of time. Will Rogers realized that and just read the newspaper to audiences while adding an occasionally wry quip to get huge laughs. Put those messages into a book, and they wouldn't have lasted.

I haven't heard David Sedaris perform in person (which he does as readings), but I'm told he's marvelous. If you have had that pleasure, you will undoubtedly hear his voice, know his timing, and see his expressions as you read this witty, self-deprecating book. I suspect that such an imagined performance would easily turn this into a five-star book.

Proust waxed poetic about his memories of a madeleine (a shell-shaped cake in the France of his youth) in stream of consciousness prose. Sedaris does the same thing for a painful boil on his derriere, his horrible inability to learn new languages, and his desire to show a little more plumpness in his derriere. The results are equally memorable . . . but much more amusing in the case of Sedaris.

Sedaris likes to put together mosaics of seemingly unconnected memories that when combined show a different image and send a different message. It's a little like a Chuck Close portrait.

Like the best humorists, he takes us into her personal life . . . into the kinds of details that few of us would openly share with the public. In exchange for yielding his privacy, he helps us see ourselves in his experiences. Who hasn't struggled with a foreign language with embarrassing consequences? Who hasn't wanted to be a little more in some aspect of their lives? Who hasn't had trouble getting rid of a bad habit?

These themes and more are explored in well-written, interesting style that lacks only an overriding sense of meaning (other than that we are all a mess) to be important prose. Some of them are hilarious, breaking into images of burlesque skits in your mind. Others are more poignant than funny, using wry humor. But he mostly doesn't stretch; rather, he expresses who he is and how he sees life.

As a former smoker, former heavy drinker, former drug user, and current homosexual with a fascination for feeding spiders, some aspect of his life will intersect with yours. But at the same time, he has exotic tastes (spending a lot of time in Normandy, learning not to smoke in Tokyo, and traveling from city to city reading his essays while staying at the finest hotels) that will make his lens different than yours. You'll never see the world the same way, as Proust changed our perceptions of madeleines.

Is it worth the trip? Yes, but I advise small reading doses. It goes down more smoothly that way.

I've been a fan of David Sedaris for a few years now, and have read and re-read his books many times, often for the novel experience (for me) of laughing out loud while reading; few writers are as honest and funny.

This book didn't make me laugh out loud, but I enjoyed it hugely nonetheless, it is a bit deeper, a bit darker, and perhaps more thoughtful and personal than his previous writing.

I look forward to more writing from this author, and I congratulate him on his accomplishment with this latest book.

What to do when you are engulfed in flames?? This funny set of personal anecdotes from David Sedaris is clever, witty and downright hilarious. This is my first David Sedaris book and it certainly won't be my last.

Among some of the best "Sedaris moments" include: the long arduous yet funny attempts to stop smoking, his obsessions with his parents, what to do when your neighbor is a sex offender, and hilarious attempts to buy a human skeleton.

The book is universally funny and is meant to be read aloud for maximum humor effect. One of the better books I've read this year.

When you are engulfed in flames is a wonderful book, but not every fan of Sedaris is going to be happy. This isn't as funny as his other stuff, it's darker, more mature, and more personal than his other work. If you can still get past that, then you'll like this book. It's still funny, but it's a different kind of humor.

Don't read this expecting Me talk pretty one day. Read this with an open mind, and you'll enjoy it.

Everything but everything has happened to David Sedaris. The majority of his writings are painfully hilarious; some are just plain painful. (That's like my life and maybe it's like yours, too.) I recently came across some of Sedaris' stuff on YouTube, him performing / reading his work. I didn't enjoy him "live" as much as I thought I would and would urge people to READ his books. It'll give you time to take a break, to laugh and to cry -- sometimes simultaneously.

I read this book in public and was laughing like an idiot out loud.

A truly embarrassing book to read.

Keep it at home and read it when no ones there and enjoy.

In the past three weeks I've been on a bit of David Sedaris binge, reading a number of his books in a row. While finding the stories entertaining and usually funny, many of them were also easily forgettable. Something quickly digested, like candy.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is a different kind of Sedaris collection. The humour is still there, but it's more complex, layered under feelings of guilt, remorse, and fear of death. Maybe it's that Sedaris is getting older and these feelings are more prominent, or maybe his writing is just maturing. Either way, I like it.

The best Sedaris piece I've read, and possibly one of the best nonfiction essays I've read in a long long time, is the last essay in the collection titled The Smoking Section. In this essay, Sedaris chronicles, over around 100 pages, the evolution of his smoking habit and then subsequent decision to quit. If you only read one Sedaris essay ever, be sure that it's this one.

Very funny! Laugh out loud funny... Hugely entertaining take on so many awkward encounters. Looking forward to my next Sedaris book.

This guy must have a good agent because this is a book of juvenilia at the best and boring memoir at the worst. You will read this and realize "hey I could write about my Aunt Martha driving the car into a tomato patch on new years eve!" The best thing about this book is the cover.