When You Are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris
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Book Reviews of When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Book Review: A Departure from the Sedaris We Know and Laugh With
Summary: 2 Stars
When You Are Engulfed in Flames isn't very funny, and Sedaris doesn't really want it to be. Certainly, I laughed a few times, but the quality of Sedaris' humor has changed; he relies heavily on scatological jokes and much less on wit and child-like observation. But when the theme of your book is death and dying, scatological humor rings the truest. After all, When You Are Engulfed in Flames is Sedaris' midlife crisis, on paper, and available for purchase at most bookstores.
Of course, then, this alters the focus of the book. Indeed, all of Sedaris' books are essentially about him, but When You Are Engulfed in Flames is much, much more about him. In Naked, Sedaris fleshes out the character and human qualities of his mother. In Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris successfully creates characters for his father, his boyfriend, his grandmother, his brother, and at least two of his sisters. As magnanimous as Sedaris is in those two books, his writing could still be read as self-centered. But it's only in When You Are Engulfed in Flames when he populates too many essays with random, undeveloped characters, which forces the focus on him, and he makes that peculiar turn into selfishness and forgets the reader. This is most evident in the last 80+ pages of the book when Sedaris subjects the reader to his diary as he tries to quit smoking.
The only stories I really liked were "Keeping Up" and "That's Amore," the latter of which is a wonderful blend of the mournful midlife crisis tone that Sedaris wants to explore, and it's also touching and funny. The rest of the essays do not have such careful crafting. I recommend all of Sedaris' other books, but I would pass on When You Are Engulfed in Flames.
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: A kinder, gentler (but still weird) David Sedaris memoir
Summary: 4 Stars
David Sedaris's most recent book of essays is as weirdly satisfying as his earlier efforts. He still plays the neurotic, extremely shy ex-pat, living in Normandy with boyfriend Hugh, afraid of his own shadow but having the ability to ferret out the weird side of every human interaction. In this essays, he explores artistic pretensions -- his own and his parents'; the terror of getting lost; getting picked up by an aggressively-friendly trucker; his coming out; the delights and irritations of flying first class; the crazy yet lovable lady next door; a long reflection on his efforts to quit smoking and drugging. He also treats us to the strange side of human existence -- urine leg bags, how and whether to greet the neighborhood pedophile; his arachnophilia that went as far as delightedly hunting and feeding flies to a spider; shopping for a human skeleton; sex-talking with an overly-enthusiastic immigrant NYC cabbie. Sedaris has become an expert at untangling and comically expressing the simultaneity of his emotions. A weepy airplane passenger causes him to feel him irritation, compassion, embarrassment and self-pity. While the oddness of his public persona makes for comedy, his inner life leavens it with pathos and insight.
WYAEIF does not have the frantic edge of some of Sedaris's earlier works, but it is a hard book to put down. Some discomfort comes from wondering how much of his work is true, how much embellished and how much plain made up. Sedaris has more than enough material to have come from several lifetimes. Still, his wry voice and personal insights make him delightful to read, however much one feels like a voyeur perusing the wreckage of his life.
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: a catharsis of resignation
Summary: 4 Stars
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 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.