When You Are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris
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Book Reviews of When You Are Engulfed in Flames
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.
Book Review: Life at mid-life
Summary: 5 Stars
I must admit that this is the first David Sedaris book I've read, and I hope it won't be my last...or his last, now that he has given up smoking. "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" is a warm mix of syntax and prose, moving at just the right speed to absorb every nuance of his observations. When one is finished it might occur that Sedaris would be a nice dinner companion, though I suspect the reader would probably get to know him better in print than over a meal.
This is a book of comparisons and the author likes the word "like". It could be his favorite word but every simile he uses has a humorous tone meant to educate the reader in diverse ways. It's hard to classify David Sedaris at mid-life...he's not as neurotic (but no less perspicacious!) as Woody Allen but a bit more overstated than, say, Bob Newhart. A gay Ernest Hemingway? Well, not quite, but at least there was booze and smoking material surrounding each writer.
Every chapter in Sedaris's book is engaging but his final one (and by far the longest) deals with his giving up cigarettes as he roams the cities of Japan. I would imagine that if you're relinquishing a habit or an addiction, writing about it must be helpful. This is a wonderfully constructed book and I highly recommend "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" for the author's wit, insight and terrific narrative style.
Book Review: Not for me...but might be for you?
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was really hard to review! How exactly do you explain 'I hated this book and couldn't stop reading it. You might like it, too!'
Personally, I did not like this book. Each time I put the book down, I swore I wouldn't read any further. His stories left me with an odd, indecipherable feeling; sort of disturbed and a little melancholy. Mostly I just felt sorry for the author, like he was a guy that couldn't quite get a break, always a bit of bad luck following him. But a few hours later, maybe the next day, I would find myself picking it up and reading on...until I would set it down again and so on. I couldn't bring myself to call it quits, I felt compelled to keep reading.
It was while writing this review that I pinpointed what kept me engaged in the book. Like it or not, David Sedaris weaves you into his stories in a way makes you almost certain you were there, too, like he's triggered a memory just about to drop off the radar of your mind. His style of writing was rich and realistic; I found myself identifying with the way he organized his thoughts and how he digested the circumstances of others around him.
I don't feel I've much useful information to offer about the book beyond what I described: his writing is great but the content is for you to decide!
Book Review: Really good, but an evolution of Sedaris.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read David Sedaris' other books, and I wouldn't recommend doing it in public unless you enjoy being stared at by the people around you as you miserably fail to stifle your disruptive laughter. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" proved to be particularly disabling to read: I frequently laughed to the point of uselessness.
I had a couple of similar experiences while reading "Engulfed", but it was different than his past books too. I would say it's just as good as his previous works, but has a slightly different aim than they did. What Sedaris always does so well is keenly analyze things that most of us experience but immediately dismiss in the press day to day life. Instead of moving on, Sedaris lingers and recounts his experiences for his reader or listener with quirky insights that frequently remind you of your own fleeting thoughts or emotions in similar situations.
To me, that is the underlying appeal of David Sedaris. Typically, his insights are uproariously funny. In this case, they're a little more poignant and chuckle-inducing, but the experience of recognizing my own foibles in Sedaris' skewering of his own foibles is still the same treat it's been in the past.
Highly recommended for fans of Sedaris and for anyone who likes off-center insights on the world.