When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
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Book Reviews of When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Book Review: Very funny, with the "warmth of Cray"? D'accord!
Summary: 5 Stars
David Sedaris is a very funny story writer whose work often appears in The New Yorker, and who can occasionally heard on NPR reading his stories. This collection of some two dozen of his autobiographical stories titled, WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES, exhibits the humor, caustic wit, and sometimes bizarre, even shocking episodes that one has come to expect and love in Sedaris's work.
In ENGULFED IN FLAMES he discusses such things as the drug use and cigarette smoking of his younger days, his having been solicited by seemingly ordinary folk who pick him up hitchhiking, his attempts at language learning (including the universal applicability of the phrase, "D'accord!"), and his experiences of everyday life in France, Japan, and the United States. Curiously, the more exotic stories tend to be those set in America--at home in North Carolina, in New York City, or on the road. In one story ("Town and Country") he describes a patrician, refined looking couple who sit next to him on a flight, and who turn out to be as crude and foul-mouthed as they come. Some of his funniest, most poignant stories involve his mom. In a flashback to childhood ("In the Waiting Room"), his mom spies him chewing on a big chunk of meat: "'I hope you choke to death,' she said. I was twelve years old, and paused, thinking, Did I hear her correctly? `That's right, piggy, suffocate.' In that moment, I hoped that I *would* choke to death." This reminiscence happens to take place as he finds himself accidentally--a misprision of language-- sitting in a French doctor's waiting room clad in nothing but his briefs.
The longest story in the collection, "The Smoking Section," has to do with Sedaris's quitting smoking while also living in Japan for a time. Written as a journal, the piece celebrates the joy of smoking, the challenges of quitting, and the peculiarities of life in Japan. The funniest parts have to do with his frustrated attempts to learn the language. A young Korean woman in his class named Sang Lee, also struggling with Japanese, serves as his foil and so the target of his humor. At one point early on, he learns that most of the class already knows hiragana, the Japanese syllabary. One of his classmates tells him he "just picked it up." "'A flu is something you "just pick up,"' I told him.... `Picked it up,' indeed. I know two characters. That's it. Only two. This puts me ahead of that loveable nitwit, Sang Lee, but still, it's not much of a lead." It's to Sedaris's credit that his mockery, though at first surprising and sometimes even shocking, never comes off as cruel. There's always a humanity and decency to his stories. Sang Lee, in fact, ends up outshining Sedaris, who drops out of class (and subsequently mocks Japanese attempts at English, such as, "With being enchanted by the warmth of Cray and the tradition of pottery over the period...").
David Sedaris has yet to put out a disappointing collection. WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES is another offering that will delight the reader.
Book Review: Quirky, original, true
Summary: 5 Stars
Reading a David Sedaris short story is like watching the author think. Each one is told as a stream of consciousness that somehow ties together beautifully in the end. This collection includes some laugh-out-loud essays, and others that are touching and poignant. All are interesting and so original they are obviously taken from real life.
If you're not familiar with him, Sedaris is the Dave Barry of the National Public Radio set. I've been a Sedaris fan for a long time through NPR's "This American Life." This book is like a collection of the best of those quirky radio essays. (I also have the audio CD set, a 9-hour, 8-disc marathon that plays like an NPR fundraising marathon without those annoying pleas for cash.)
The stories are filled with memorable characters. Irritated Becky, who sits next to Sedaris on a plane flight and inspires incorrect answers in Solution to Saturday's Puzzle. Gravel-voiced Helen, who lives next door to Sedaris and is the unlikely heroine of That's Amore. Sedaris' sister Amy, the owner of a magazine called New Animal Orgy in Town and Country. Woven throughout the essays is the fast-walking Hugh, Sedaris boyfriend, who demonstrates true love by lancing a boil in Old Faithful.
Not all the essays are mass appeal (my husband, who is not a big NPR listener, hated the first one but loved the third) but I think there's plenty of good stuff in here to please just about any thoughtful adult reader. There is plenty of sex and language, however, so it's not for your pre-teen or Aunt Betsy. But for most anyone else who wants a good laugh, it's a must-read.
Book Review: Dark and funny
Summary: 5 Stars
I love David Sedaris. This is the third of his books that I've read. It's not quite as funny as the others, but I don't think it's really supposed to be. His story about his neighbor Helen did make me laugh out loud for a very long time, though. My husband thought something was wrong with me. I had tears.
What I loved about his book more than the others is that I felt as if I knew David inside and out by the end. I felt as if I could go out to dinner with him and we'd be like old friends, catching up after all of these years. His writing is so endearing, which has to be hard to pull off, considering some of the topics. I love a man who loves spiders? How does that happen? But I do.
David also finds a way to write about being gay that easily crosses over. Straight boring moms such as myself will find all of his relationship stories interesting. In fact, when he writes about his relationship with Hugh, I found myself nodding, "Uh huh, been there David. Right on!" And he's so right about the exorbitant amount of time us straight people spend trying to figure out how gay sex takes place. (But why didn't you tell us David? You make fun of us for wanting to know, but then you don't satisfy our curiosity). His trials about quitting smoking are also enlightening and help me to better understand my friends who smoke.
The only criticism I have about the entire book is that I could have done without the line about a type of cracker tasting like penis. Hey I know what that tastes like, and I don't want that taste going anywhere near my crackers. Other than that, I love the book and highly recommend it.
Book Review: This book is a collection of interesting essays
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a collection of essays about the interests and experiences of David Sedaris. He is a well travelled, intelligent, curious man. My favorite chapter is The Smoking Section. This is about the three months he spent living in Tokyo while trying to quit smoking, eating raw horse meat and struggling to learn the Japanese language. I also liked the chapter about his strange tastes in paintings and how his family shared his love of art while he was growing up. I also enjoyed the chapter where he talks about his fascination with giving names to spiders and keeping them as pets. He talks about some people that made an impression on him. He talks about a lazy baby sitter he had when he was young. I also enjoyed reading about about a crusty old woman named Helen who Sedaris lived with when he worked in New York as a house cleaner. She had a passion for Italian cooking. I liked reading about his interests in crossword puzzles and his fascination with how people die. He devotes a whole chapter about buying a skeleton for his boyfriend Hugh as a gift. This chapter is pretty funny. He spends a lot of time travelling on airplanes, so he talks about the people that he meets on them in several chapters. I like the chapter Crybaby where he talks about sitting next to a man on an airplane whose mother has just died. This chapter shows the compassionate side of the author. I really liked reading this book.Book Review: Take This Book on Staycation
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the must-read book for anyone taking a "staycation" this summer. Sit in a chair and forget about the high price of gas and the economy tanking while laughing out loud at twisted mind of David Sedaris. He mines the commonality of everyday experiences - - an obnoxious seat-mate on an airplane flight, the use of certain four-letter words, walking at a different speed than your partner on a vacation - - for bits of doofus humor that leave us both laughing at him and thinking, "I know exactly what he means." It's much more relaxing than fighting crowds at the airport or spending hours on the interstate.
In this collection of essays, Sedaris takes us from his childhood in Raleigh to his time in New York to life in Normandy, and finally, to quitting smoking in Japan. Who goes to Japan to quit smoking? Meeting colorful characters is a reason to travel and Sedaris's don't disappoint. We meet the lazy substitute baby-sitter, Mrs. Peacock (hair like a mermaid's, the color of margarine), busybody neighbor, Helen (bullying the other tenants and subjecting him to her Famous Italian Dishes), and April, the spider he took to Paris. Sedaris's takes on the deeper issues of loss, fidelity, bigotry, and addictions are touching but no less comedic than any of his lighter subjects.
Time spent in Sedaris's world is escapism at its funniest. I want to go there more often.