When You Are Engulfed in Flames

David Sedaris is a writer who appreciates the finer things in life. The finer things we either ignore or simply don’t see on a day-to-day basis. Throw in a dripping glob of neuroses and an erudite air of resignation and you too can arrive at the astute observations he so dutifully illustrates in his latest book, When You are Engulfed in Flames.

I think of Sedaris as an unconventional connoisseur of sorts. From sweat angels to the acumen of easily procuring dishwashing jobs, Stadium Pals, flaming mice, husbandry for spiders named “Big Chief Tommy”, confronting airplane irritants, and finally to “finishing” smoking while learning Japanese, his musings evoke a nostalgia for times and things past never yet experienced.

This show more particular collection of essays centers around movement. Specifically regarding travel, Sedaris shares his experiences either en route to or upon arrival of the multitude of destinations to which he’s traveled, some foreign, some domestic, all bizarre. Whether it be Japan, Thailand, France, the West Coast, Chicago, North Carolina, New York or wherever-have-you, his stories are ironic in that they all focus not on his destination, but rather the inner processing of his immediate surroundings, most notably his melancholy paranoia and courageous cynicism. It’s more about the people he meets and his subsequent detachment from the normal workings of the world, not just the places he visits. It is the journey apparently, not the destination that matters. Sedaris’ latest book is sublimely resigned, a comforting read for when the good times are indeed literally killing you. show less

Try the reading challenges. Without one of these I would never have discovered the work of Sedaris, probably the funniest American author after the first Roth, the one who wrote Portnoy's Lament. After all, Sedaris also comes from an ethnic minority, the Greek minority, and ethnic minorities often develop a certain kind of cutting humour as a form of self-defence against the majority of their fellow citizens. In Sedaris' case, the target of this humour is often himself, in a sort of self-deprecating self-celebration. Hence the hyperbole about his addictions, about being gay, about being untidy, especially in relation to his partner, a model of order and precision. The sketches that make up this collection are part of the writer's daily show more life, and range from the acute to the scathing, with moments so hilarious that you risk falling out of bed with laughter. A marvellous discovery. show less

The first few essays fit my general view of Sedaris, humorous observation often with an edge, and often at the expense of his family or partner, but with the piece "That's Amore" about a neighbor in New York, an ill-tempered harpy of a woman, the tone shifts. The essays (mostly) slow down and become less humorous and more thoughtful. Sedaris admits a preoccupation with mortality, not unexpected given the title, approaching it the way you approach the Atlantic ocean on a northern beach on a windy day, a toe in here and there. Several of the essays, including 'That's Amore" were moving. One, "The Man in the Hut" was about a man who was shunned (for good reason) in his neighborhood in the Normandy, again a strange and unpleasant person and show more yet, so lonely. Another is about sitting beside a man on a plane, a man who cries hopelessly the entire way across the Atlantic, aptly named "Crybaby". Sedaris makes no fun of any of these sad people although he uses some humor to illustrate his own fascination with them -- acknowledging that proper adults turn a blind eye to these kinds of people and avoid them but he can't--and that doesn't make him a better or worse person than anyone else, it is just who he is. The masterpiece is the final essay about giving up smoking, almost long enough to be a novella of a sort. Weeks can pass by here in Vermont without seeing anyone with a cigarette, so I think of cigarettes mostly as a thing of the past, but Sedaris smoked into his forties even though his mother died of lung cancer. He quit on a trip to Japan and kept a journal of that three month long time. Perhaps Sedaris is growing up at long last. A good thing, because he sure can write well. **** show less

This is a book of humorous essays based on Sedaris’s life. Many of the essays are laugh-out-loud funny, though an equal number feature humor that’s a bit more grim. He covers, among other things, traveling with his partner, his pet spiders, the woman who watched Sedaris and his sisters once when their parents were out of town (my favorite story!), and, in a series of essays, Sedaris’s experiences quitting smoking. The honesty with which he views the situations he relates is astounding.

I love Sedaris’s writing style. He has a way with words which, paired with his keen powers of spot-on observation, makes for a great read. However, listening to him read his own work is a different experience entirely. If you’re not paying show more attention, you might miss the joke in his even-keeled expression. But if you are listening, oh how funny it is, how perfectly placed the pauses, how fitting the subtle vocal inflections. I enjoy reading Sedaris's work, but from now on I'll be listening. show less

Fair warning, you're not likely to get an unbiased review of a Sedaris book from me. I absolutely love his writing and actually bought this copy of his new book at BookPeople when he was speaking there in June. I also have the audiobook version. So, um, yeah...I like him. Lots.

And I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It seems like he's gotten a little gentler than he used to be, but maybe that's just my imagination. I think my favorite story this time around is "Old Faithful" which is gross and hysterically funny and touching all at the same time, as the best of his stories always are. I also got a big kick out of "Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?" The bit about buying a fake ass really made me laugh, maybe because I could totally relate. Well, show more not about actually owning a fake ass, but about not having much in the way of a real one. Oh, you know what I mean.

So, if you haven't ever heard Sedaris or read his stuff, do. He's funny and poignant. Definitely worth your time. show less

Having had, like many, my initial exposure to David Sedaris's wit on public radio (in the initial 1992 airing of "The Santaland Diaries," in fact) it is nearly impossible for me to read his essays without hearing his voice. I'm not sure if that makes them funnier or not--it's just a condition of my reading. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in this collection, even if the general tone is fairly dark.

My Other Reader says she wouldn't bother to re-read any of these essays, because the value of their effect is rooted in shock and surprise. I don't think I agree. Partly, I go for the extreme contrast between the feeling shown in his insightful reflection on human limitations, and his callous exploitation of those limitations for show more yucks in practically the same paragraph. For sheer entertainment, I like the deadpan frankness, whether it's honest or blankfaced lying.

It's certainly difficult to know what a reader can credit as fact. The sustained use of the subjunctive mood at the end of an essay on the development of the author's sexual identity leaves an attentive reader inferring a bleak reality. And on the very next page, he launches into the hyperbolically fictitious account of his studies at Princeton during the Stone Age. (71-73) If my dad had struck me on the head with a big spoon at the dinner table because I had laughed at my grandmother's flatulence, I'd like to think that I or anyone else would quit laughing long before the spoon drew blood. (227)

At any rate, all of these essays are eminently readable, and the book is full of characters too odd to be entirely fictitious, not least Sedaris himself. show less

Sedaris' dark humor tackles all things human and keeps the narrative alive. His characters are regular people (or pet insects) that come to life through Sedaris' eyes. He sees the extraordinary in common things, and describes the doubts and flaws of humanity in all its splendor - from a mean grumpy neighbor to members of his own family, no one escapes his piercing words.
Additionally, his narrative is woven in such a way that you feel like loosely traveling through a labyrinth of events that make you wander farther and farther away from where you started, but you only notice it when suddenly you are back to the beginning, tying and tightening all the knots.
This was the second book I read by Sedaris, and he still gives me loud belly show more laughs - even when I'm in public spaces. show less