When You are Engulfed in Flames by David…

When You are Engulfed in Flames (edition 2007)

by David Sedaris

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
9,128	268	875	(3.89)	220
Once again, David Sedaris brings together a collection of essays so uproariously funny and profoundly moving that his legions of fans will fall for him once more. He tests the limits of love when Hugh lances a boil from his backside, and pushes the boundaries of laziness when, finding the water shut off in his house in Normandy, he looks to the water in a vase of fresh cut flowers to fill the coffee machine. From armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds to the awkwardness of having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a sleeping fellow passenger on a plane, David Sedaris uses life's most bizarre moments to reach new heights in understanding love and fear, family and strangers. Culminating in a brilliantly funny account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris's sixth essay collection will be avidly anticipated.--From publisher description.… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	hairballsrus
Title:	When You are Engulfed in Flames
Authors:	David Sedaris
Info:	Abacus (2007), Paperback, 320 pages
Collections:	READ 2015
Rating:
Tags:	None

Work Information

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

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sweetiegherkin: These two nonfiction books deal with giving up a vice (alcohol and, to a lesser extent, drugs for Burroughs; cigarettes for Sedaris) and both do so with dark humor scattered throughout their memoirs. That being said, Sedaris's work is more funny than serious while the opposite is true for Burroughs's. Also, Sedaris's book is largely short stories/vignettes while Burroughs's follows a more traditional narrative. Both men are homosexual and that plays some factor in their books, although it's not the overarching story and/or theme.… (more)

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▾Member reviews

English (265) Dutch (1) All languages (266)

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Showing 1-5 of 265 (next | show all)

Great fun read for Sedaris fans. Didn't laugh out loud quite as much as I have with his others but still enjoyed it. The last story - Smoking Section - loses its energy pretty quickly but overall a good read for the beach or a long weekend.

gonzocc | Mar 31, 2024 |

Fewer laughs than "Me Talk Pretty One Day," but still a great read. (

)

Local_Decoy | Jan 22, 2024 |

My favorite stories in this book were the ones I'd heard or read before. That's weird, I guess, but I've always liked his stuff more and more on subsequent readings. I still go back and listen to that Live at Carnegie Hall album I have when I need a laugh. So I expect that when I reread this book I'll like it even more than I like it now.

What is it about David Sedaris that makes him so fun to read? Part of it, I think, is that he cops to a lot of bad thoughts that most of us try to hide. He's less an author to me than a character I like to follow. I guess that's why I wasn't the biggest fan of those animal stories he did for This American Life (they weren't about him, but about boring anthropormorphized squirrels and ducks) and why the one story in WYAEIF that I didn't like was the weird one about Princeton. Why put one unreal story in the middle of a bunch of real stories? That's weird, right? (

)

LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |

I just continued after "Let's Explore Owls" with the audiobook of When You are Engulfed in Flames and I must say, the transition was seamless. Seeing as they are exactly the same book I am going to give this exactly the same rating.
I just want to mention the last two chapters. I have never smoked, I have no opinion on smoking, I just don't care. So hearing someone whining about smoking and quitting smoking for about 2 hours was tedious to say the least. I totally get that since these chapters are about a subject for which I give not one shit the only problem here is that I couln't relate, not that the writing is bad. I'm just going to pretend these chapters don't exist. (

)

bramboomen | Oct 18, 2023 |

I read these stories/essays as I ate breakfast before work, and they definitely got my day off to a fun start. (

)

blueskygreentrees | Jul 30, 2023 |

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▾Published reviews

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▾Other authors

» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Sedaris, David	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Colombo, Matteo	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Deggerich, Georg	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Richard, Nicolas	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sedaris, David	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Audie Award (Finalist – Narration by the Author or Authors – 2009)

Audie Award (Finalist – Short Stories/Collections – 2009)

Audie Award (Finalist – Humor – 2009)

Distinctions

New York Times bestseller (Nonfiction – 2008)

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Canonical title

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Original title

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

For Ronnie Ruedrich

First words

My friend Patsy was telling me a story.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

813.6

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

File:EngulfedSedaris.jpg

Sage Rosenfels

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

▾Book descriptions

Once again, David Sedaris brings together a collection of essays so uproariously funny and profoundly moving that his legions of fans will fall for him once more. He tests the limits of love when Hugh lances a boil from his backside, and pushes the boundaries of laziness when, finding the water shut off in his house in Normandy, he looks to the water in a vase of fresh cut flowers to fill the coffee machine. From armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds to the awkwardness of having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a sleeping fellow passenger on a plane, David Sedaris uses life's most bizarre moments to reach new heights in understanding love and fear, family and strangers. Culminating in a brilliantly funny account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris's sixth essay collection will be avidly anticipated.--From publisher description.

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▾LibraryThing members' description

Book 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).

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