When You Are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris
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Book Summary Information
Author: David SedarisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-06-02
ISBN: 0316154687
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316154680
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Book Review: Sedaris at his Best
Summary: 5 Stars
David Sedaris has always been dry, clever and often quite funny. When You Are Engulfed in Flames starts out familiarly so, with some entertaining stories and some stories falling flat. If you make it through the first half and have had a pretty good laugh but wouldn't put it up there, prepare to be amazed.
In the second half, David Sedaris shows his pure talent, pushing life to the edge with beautiful wit, sarcasm and the best dry humor around.
His Japan segment is sheer brilliance as he recalls his quite interesting and hilarious tales in a foreign country - but the other stories don't disappoint either. A must read, Sedaris ups his game to a sometimes relatable and always hilarious level. Never have I been more enthralled in Sedaris' work and I'm a big fan and have read most.
Throughout the beginning, some of the dry humor just really isn't that funny and at some points it seems almost as if its trying to be funny and loses the dry quality. The Harvard essay just didn't hit me that well, with some well placed jokes but what really came off as an uninteresting, mildly humorous tale. I've often found that Sedaris does his best when observing the life around him, not when creating a fictional world.
His family interactions aren't presented in a new light in the early, yet still funny, chapters and there are some hilarious stories but still nothing compared to the second half, a brilliant observance of mere life.
Summary of When You Are Engulfed in Flames
"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
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
Crybaby
The Smoking Section
Humor Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
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