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When You Are Engulfed in Flames | 
 enlarge | Author: David Sedaris
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
Buy New: $10.25
You Save: $15.74 (61%)
New (79) Used (36) Collectible (15) from $10.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  238 reviews
Sales Rank: 88
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0316143472
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780316143479
ASIN: 0316143472
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: NEW AND UNREAD
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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 233 more reviews...
 seemed somewhat different...but not worse than others. October 4, 2008
This was a nice read--but, a little different from other David Sedaris books...not in a bad way. This book is about David's adult life...
Fabulous! October 2, 2008
I really was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. A few times, I laughed aloud- quite unusual for me if I am alone reading. Honestly, I was sorry when I finished the book-
 So sorry for his loss October 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Cleetus: My appologies in advance to the late David Sedaris for what I have to say about his book.
Bo: I know what you mean, brother. It's never kind to tarnish the good name of the dead.
Cleetus: Poor fellah, if only he had the horse sense to duck and roll, he'da put out those flames quicker and saved himself a heap of problems.
Bo: That's the trouble with today's younguns. Whenever their on fire, they just don't know whut to do. Jest jump in the rainbarrel, for Pete's sake! That's whut I always do.
Cleetus: Now, about this here book ... Any fellah who's not got enough horse sense to roll in the dirt when he's on fire shurly has not got enough smarts to write a whole book. That's why I didn't get past the front cover.
Bo: You're right about that, brother. I jest don't think this was the book for us.
Cleetus: Nope.
Bo: But we still give it five stars out of five stars in this here review ... hey, why not. We're swell fellahs.
Cleetus: Git yer copy today, guys of America ... in memorium.
 Huh? October 2, 2008
After seeing some of the reviews on Amazon, I'm wondering if I even read the same book as everyone else. Everyone touts David Sedaris as this great comedic writer, and raves that his stream-of-consciousness short stories are hilarious or poignant by turns. There was the odd humorous moment here and there, but I can't say I found this book "laugh-out-loud funny" at all. Mostly I found it to be a lot of pointless rambling in a person's mind...which is probably fairly realistic, but not particularly interesting to me. Maybe I'm just not cut out for the short story style of writing.
don't make assumptions October 1, 2008
to those of you reviewing this book and other David Sedaris books, please don't assume as some of you have noted, that your older Aunt, mother or grandmother shouldn't read this for fear of being shocked. Come on now, getting older does not mean one's sense of humor is diminished.
The book is funny, as are all his books and yes even us old women get it!
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