When You Are Engulfed in Flames | List Price: $25.99
Discount Price: $12.25
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Binding: Hardcover
Release Date: 2008-06-03
Sedaris's best yet [Posted on 2008-11-11]
I am familiar with several David Sedaris' works and I enjoy his occasional New York column. Most of which are extremely enjoyable to read (I didn't care for Barrel Fever). This book contains many short stories from David's life, written in a very relatable and humorous manner. David's works are some of the easiest reads I've ever encountered, and his candor is really disarming. Reading his stories makes me feel like I know his family personally, and the writing all the more endearing because of it.
Anybody who has ever thought their family was strange should read this book. People who can appreciate the minor quirks in ourselves and others will appreciate this book. Folks who enjoy a series of funny stories that will have you eagerly flipping the pages as you cackle with delight should buy this book.
If you like Sedaris, you like Sedaris [Posted on 2008-11-14]
David Sedaris is without a doubt the most talented essayist in the country and the fact that he's also the most famous is not so much a validation of American taste as it is a validation of the Gevalia Kaffe/Sunday New York Times/All Things Considered/This American Life Podcast crowd. Good job! They're good at picking humorists and squeezing African-Americans out of Harlem.
Personally I prefer to read Sedaris than listen to audio tapes. His voice, I think, actual detracts from the situations. As in previous books When You Are Engulfed in Flames creates unbelievable, and in some instances unsympathetic, situations but Sedaris performs the literary magic trick of bringing you along for the ride. His voice, however, is so specific that it detaches me from the opiatic experience of walking in this talented man's shoes.
Also, as with previous essays, I believe he's at least 70% full of crap. But who cares? It's amusing crap.
Not his best, but still fantastic [Posted on 2008-11-18]
Once again, Sedaris manages to plumb the depths of his adolescence and later life to turn the minutiae and absurdity of life into comedic genius. It's not as good as some of his earlier stuff, but you'll still walk away happy you read it.
Amazing [Posted on 2008-11-19]
I just love David Sedaris, plain and simple. Also, because I bought this book the book store owner said I had good taste and let me have half off on my purchases for the day.
Self-Absorption Driven to Laughter [Posted on 2008-11-19]
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.
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