| When You are Engulfed in Flames | 
 enlarge | Author: David Sedaris
Publisher: Little, Brown
Category: Book
List Price: £11.99
Buy New: £5.92
You Save: £6.07 (51%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 1727
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 1408700921
EAN: 9781408700921
ASIN: 1408700921
Publication Date: July 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Self-Absorption Driven to Laughter November 19, 2008
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.
 funny and honest ***1/2 November 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
'My friend Patsy was telling a story. 'so I'm at the movie theatre,' she said,'and I've got my coat all neatly laid out against the back of my seat when this guy comes along-' And here I stopped her , because I've always wondered about this coat business.' Typical Sedaris - realistic dilaogue and gossipy love of the apparently unimportant detail.
These are funny and they are self revealing and honest. I haven't scored them higher because they are so similar. There are some great characters - the terrible babysitter, Mrs Peacock who makes them scratch her back and pick up dog turds on the lawn - or their NY neighbour Helen swearing and cooking loathsome food offerings.
Very amusing and probably best read when picked up now and then, rather than all together as I did.
 The best of a marvellous bunch October 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I guess the only reason you're reading this is to find out if this is as good as all his other books. In my opinion, this is the best of the lot. And while I don't think his changes of pace, and attempts at pathos/bathos have ever been very successful, his all-out humour is brilliant. It's that rare and wonderful thing; a book that causes you to laugh out loud and embarrass yourself and irritate others while doing so, In fact, there's a bit about that in here too...
Laugh out loud October 9, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Just wanted to leave a quick message to say how fantastic I found Mr.Sedaris's latest book, in particular his 'stopping smoking' chapter which left me laughing out loud.
It is very honest and he is the best at saying exactly what you would like to say but can't.
All his books are worth a read and this is no exception.
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