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| When You Are Engulfed in Flames | 
 enlarge | Author: David Sedaris
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
Buy New: $17.15
You Save: $8.84 (34%)
New (56) Used (41) Collectible (20) from $12.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  271 reviews
Sales Rank: 241
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0316143472
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780316143479
ASIN: 0316143472
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Sedaris Gets me once again June 9, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
My brother in law introduced me to David Sedaris a while back on an audio tape, and I must say this book was just as enjoyable. The origins of the title was just so interesting. And it was a pleasure to see him on "The Daily Show" as well. Just all around fun stuff!
Half & half June 9, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I LOVE David Sedaris & was really looking forward to this next release. I was disappointed to find that about half of the stories were on other Audiobooks I have bought. I feel a bit ripped off. Couldn't he have waited until he had all new material to publish? Of course the material is all very funny & he's the guy I'd like sitting next to me next time I fly. Listen to the book & you'll get it!
The Best Yet! June 9, 2008
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have all of David Sedaris' books and audios and I think this is his best collection yet. I feel as if I KNOW Hugh, Lou, Amy, Lisa and Gretchen...so, for me, it's like an hysterical letter from home...granted it's a slightly dysfunctional home...but some of those are the most fun!
Quirky, original, true June 9, 2008
147 out of 161 found this review helpful
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.
 De' Ja' Sedaris June 9, 2008
36 out of 41 found this review helpful
Writer/humorist David Sedaris' sixth book delivers the hilarity and razor-sharp wit, social commentary, and tenderness of his previous books, but fans of Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and Naked may be in for a bit of a disappointment. His previous smashing success has made it increasingly hard for him to top himself. Upon diving into Sedaris' latest collection of autographical essays, one can't help but feel De' Ja' Vu. Any fans will have already seen all of these essays featured in the New Yorker magazine already over the past three or four years. I was a bit disappointed to get the "Wait a minute, I've read this before!" feeling with the opening story, "It's Catching," about his mother-in-law's medical bout with a worm living under her skin. But I guess we can't really blame Mr. Sedaris for the fact that we love him so much that we've already read pretty much all of these in The New Yorker, Esquire, etc. magazines.
Fans of Augusten Burroughs will enjoy Sedaris and also recognize him as a much more believable writer of the memoir. Unlike previous collections which each focus on one part of his life, "When You Are Engulfed in Flames," covers the range of Sedaris' anecdotal life: from childhood and life at home with his mom and sisters, to his adult life, including when he first moved to Paris and dropped out of French classes and ran around telling everyone "D'accord" because of his limited vocabulary. Because this book covers such a wide Sedaris life range, it feels almost like a "best of" kind of collection.
The book manages to only give you a good quiet laugh, not the rollicking hilarity of his previous works (check out "Santaland Diaries" from 'Holidays on Ice,' where Sedaris chronicles his days working as a Macy's elf, and "Repeat after Me" from 'Dress Your Family...' and 'David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall). But remember this is David Sedaris here, so a quiet laugh still far exceeds any other American humorist writing today. Some of the highlights in this collection include: "Keeping Up," a day around the zoo with Sedaris and his partner Hugh, and in the mind of Sedaris' during a lover's quarrel; "Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?"--Sedaris chronicles his trial use of an external catheter (Window seat in a cross-country non-stop flight? Don't mind if I do!); "Memento Mori," one of the funniest stories here, chronicling Sedaris' purchase of an actual human skeleton, and the ensuing spookhouse terror of keeping it in his home; and the memorable "What I Learned," Sedaris' speech to graduates of Princeton, his alma mater.
Fans will want this book to add to their Sedaris collection, but it could also be a good, safe introduction to Sedaris newbies, as the 10-15 page essays here aren't as bizarre as previous works ('Naked' being the weirdest). Where the book is worth a read (or a purchase) is in the 60-some page "The Smoking Section" memoir. Here Sedaris chronicles his life as a smoker, from childhood when he first began to smoke (including how in school they went on field trips to the cigarette factory and were given cigarettes to "take home to your parents"), to his efforts to quit by moving to Hiroshima. (The title of the book is derived from an actual public smoking warning during his stay in Japan.)
This is so-so Sedaris, which is still a heckuva lot funnier than anyone else out there. For more laughs, check out his other books, PLUS don't be surprised if you get addicted to his audiobooks, which he and his sister Amy Sedaris read. The audiobooks themselves are gold as his readings make the essays even more hilarious.
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