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When You Are Engulfed in Flames

David Sedaris

4.05 · Rating details · 193,173 ratings · 9,828 reviews

It's early autumn 1964. Two straight-A students head off to school, and when only one of them returns home Chesney Yelverton is coaxed from retirement and assigned to what proves to be the most difficult and deadly - case of his career. From the shining notorious East Side, When You Are Engulfed in Flames confirms once again that David Sedaris is a master of mystery and su ...more

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Hardcover, US / CAN Edition, 323 pages

Published June 3rd 2008 by Little Brown and Company

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Aug 01, 2011 Lyn rated it liked it

In our present culture, we sometimes write "LOL" meaning laugh out loud to recognize something is funny, but this is usually just a smile or an acknowledgment of a humorous situation.

I can sincerely type LOL, or even ROFL, or LSHIS (laughed so hard I snorted).

This is funny.

Sedaris has a rare gift of relating a hilarious story or by simply telling a commonplace occurrence in a funny way.

So why just three stars? In between the laughs is the not altogether likable persona of Sedaris. He may imp ...more

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Jul 11, 2008 Dusty Myers rated it liked it

Here's my take on Sedaris, or maybe my take on Sedaris before I listened to this book: Naked is easily his best work because it's his most thorough, his most unencumbered by his own fame. If we were to compare his oeuvre to MTV's The Real World, Naked is the original New York season (despite not being Sedaris's first book). In New York, the cast members were people already living in the city (with the Alabama exception) and trying to make a living; the whole "be on TV" part of it was something Here's my take on Sedaris, or maybe my take on Sedaris before I listened to this book: Naked is easily his best work because it's his most thorough, his most unencumbered by his own fame. If we were to compare his oeuvre to MTV's The Real World, Naked is the original New York season (despite not being Sedaris's first book). In New York, the cast members were people already living in the city (with the Alabama exception) and trying to make a living; the whole "be on TV" part of it was something they dealt with in the name of free housing. Now, of course, teens run at the chance to go live in some other city just to "have their lives taped," just for the fame it might bring, and what they actually do on the show is dull as a result. Naked is the masterpiece because the essays therein are longer and more satisfying; the whole thing is memoir in its finest form of sifting through the past to let someone understand how life (or maybe just a life) gets lived.

Then he got wildly famous and was able to publish any old essay in any old magazine. This, I recognize, is a factor of his talent both as a writer and a humorist, not a factor of his name. Still, even as "far back" as Me Talk Pretty One Day, I left much of the essays with a sense of incompletion. "Picka Pocketoni"? Why wasn't this narrator doing anything? It wasn't enough just to stand there and report, I felt.

A lot of WYAEiF is about how wealthy and glamorous Sedaris's life is, and how wealthy he was growing up, which is something I'd never really sensed before. He talks about the cork-lined dining room at his parents' house with the (at the time) contemporary Danish modern furniture. He talks about the $20K he spent to quit smoking by moving to Tokyo for three months. He mentions an $8K first-class ticket he bought. He mentions a lot of airplane rides; I think at least three of the essays have their roots in something that happened to D.S. while flying across the Atlantic. This smacks to me of a writer who's run out of things to write about; and yet there are essays about old neighbors ("That's Amore", one of the collection's best), so it seems Sedaris still has enough memories to last a few more books.

I heard that in some interview somewhere, Sedaris confessed that he was getting to the point in his life where he'd act in a scene explicitly for the purposes of creating something to write about. Maybe Sedaris has a history of this (I can't imagine he just wanted to up and go to a nudist colony on his own; clearly, he saw great material in the exercise) but something about the heft of those earlier essays ("Santaland Diaries", too) makes them seem more honest. In the interview, Sedaris was talking specifically about the decision to cough so hard on a plane that his throat lozenge would be expelled from his mouth. He thought, Let's see what happens, and coughed. This action begins one of the essays in this book, and it's never revealed as constructed.

I'm not aligning myself with that camp of Memoir Exposers For The Truth. My complaint isn't that Sedaris makes things up. It's that at one time, behind the essays, was this guy David Sedaris, or as close to the guy as we could get, and now it seems that behind all these essays lies "The Writer David Sedaris". I'm not making myself clear.

(Which, incidentally, is one thing I can't fault Sedaris for. His timing in writing is impeccable and his descriptions apt and lovely in places. Oh and funny. The book in just incredibly, unendingly funny. In short: get the audiobook.) ...more

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Apr 28, 2020 Debbie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: funny, 2020-best-reads, bookcase-of-faves-at-home, favorite-authors, all-time-favorites, luscious-spines-live-in-my-bookcase, favorite-memoirs

Yep, pogo-stick time! Leave it to Sedaris to send me bouncing!

Okay. Imagine this: You end up in a waiting room in France in just your underwear, all because you uttered “I agree” in French. Or, how about if you coughed so hard a lozenge flew from your mouth onto the lap of a nasty passenger sitting next to you on a plane? Seriously, these things happened to Sedaris, and man can he make every little detail hilarious. I’m grinning just thinking of the pickles he had to wriggle out of!

Sedaris is m Yep, pogo-stick time! Leave it to Sedaris to send me bouncing!

Okay. Imagine this: You end up in a waiting room in France in just your underwear, all because you uttered “I agree” in French. Or, how about if you coughed so hard a lozenge flew from your mouth onto the lap of a nasty passenger sitting next to you on a plane? Seriously, these things happened to Sedaris, and man can he make every little detail hilarious. I’m grinning just thinking of the pickles he had to wriggle out of!

Sedaris is my new hero. He’s hysterically funny, a player of words, full of dark humor, and sometimes gross. And he is tuned into the absurd in a big way. I’m not sure anyone else could have pulled me out of my pandemic funk and gotten me to laugh for a little while. My favorite kind of funny is when someone describes an absurd moment and runs with it. Sedaris gallops. He puts himself front and center and becomes all tangled up in the absurdity. Whether he witnesses something bizarre, has a strange conversation, or experiences some odd person or ailment, I’m all in. His stories remind me that truth is often stranger than fiction. It also stirs up memories of absurd things that happened to me, and I love going down memory lane. It’s a treat to clutch onto memories of funny right about now.

I was late to the party. I tried reading a Sedaris book ages ago, and I couldn’t get into it. But I read Calypso when it came out a couple of years ago, and I was a goner. How did this happen that I went from bored to ecstatic? Anyway, this book is right up there with Calypso, and both live on my All-Time Favorites list.

In most collections, there are some dud essays. Here, there are just two, and they’re short. The worst I can say is that they’re a little bit boring (one is about art pieces and it’s a snooze), but their presence didn’t make me knock my rating down even a fraction of a point. (When you’re in love, you push the bad aside.)

The only flaw—and again, Sedaris can do no wrong, so this is a baby flaw—is that occasionally he wanders off the subject to tell another story. He always brings it back to the main story, but it sometimes feels like he’s a bit disorganized and that his editors should have used their eyeballs better.

It’s all I can do not to describe more of his hilarious stories; they’re still spinning in my head. But better to let the master tell them himself because I’m sure I won’t do them justice. I want to say, “Look, just look at this!,” as I shove a page under your nose, demanding that you read this because I just know you’ll laugh. But then, who knows if you have the same funny bone as I do.

As a tease, here is a taste of his funny:

“I can’t make out the list of ingredients, but they taste vaguely like penis.”

“The document was in Thai, a language that looks like cake decoration to me.”

“I remember lying in bed and thinking with shame, My mom coughs like a man.”

“I don’t think of myself as overly prissy, but it bothered me to find a finger on my bedroom floor.”

“It is not unpleasant to hold someone else’s warm teeth in your hand, and before returning upstairs, I paused, studying the damp plastic horseshoe that served as Helen’s gum.”

“She slid the dentures, unwashed, back into her mouth, and it was like popping the batteries into a particularly foul toy.”

“A bow tie announces to the world that you can no longer get an erection.”

Check this book out (yes, I’m still pushing it under your nose!). It’s just what the doctor ordered. Oh, and thanks, Julie, for sending this title to me on a list of things to help out with the Pandemic Blues. ...more

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Oct 02, 2018 Robin rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018, humour, american

Oh, David Sedaris. I'll always love him for rescuing me from the bog-of-eternal-stench which is A Little Life. I survived my weeks-long recovery from that epic torture session by reading Sedaris' hilarious Me Talk Pretty One Day. He earned lifelong gratitude from me, reminding me books don't have to include dozens of sexual assaults, or a multitude of self harm shower scenes, in order to be great. They can actually make you LAUGH. OUT LOUD. IN PUBLIC. Or, in my car, in endless Montreal traffic, Oh, David Sedaris. I'll always love him for rescuing me from the bog-of-eternal-stench which is A Little Life. I survived my weeks-long recovery from that epic torture session by reading Sedaris' hilarious Me Talk Pretty One Day. He earned lifelong gratitude from me, reminding me books don't have to include dozens of sexual assaults, or a multitude of self harm shower scenes, in order to be great. They can actually make you LAUGH. OUT LOUD. IN PUBLIC. Or, in my car, in endless Montreal traffic, where God knows I desperately need something to chortle about. They can involve pedestrian things like, oh I dunno, poop, or furniture, or struggling through a language class.

Anyway, if I had wondered that my admiration for David Sedaris was a result of his taming my PTSD from a god-awful book, now I know that isn't true. I mean, he DID tame my PTSD, but that was incidental. The guy is simply brilliant.

He's like the Greek, gay, literary Seinfeld, with a womanly sounding voice. He takes incidents that many people would just move past, and manages to extract the humour and the pathos in a very self-depreciating, honest way. Much is about himself, but somehow it doesn't come across as self-absorbed, something that is very difficult to accomplish. Somehow I loved to hear how he, David, coughed a lozenge onto the crotch of the sleeping woman next to him on the airplane, who had earlier called him an asshole for not trading seats with her husband at the bulkhead. I loved hearing how he quit smoking, and how much of it had to do with his hotel snobbery rather than cancer risk. I loved the story of him sitting in his underwear in a French waiting room, a result of him saying "d'accord" when he didn't understand the nurse's instructions (to put on a robe, of course).

Not all the essays in this collection are strong. But there were a few, at their conclusion, that made me think, that was just PERFECT. How beautiful that I can be touched, eyes pricked with threat of tears, about a story which at the onset seemed to be about furniture. Bravo, David Sedaris. Thank you again for the laughs. ...more

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Jan 12, 2016 Majenta rated it really liked it

4 1/2 stars.

"The houses looked like something a child might draw, a row of shaky squares with triangles on top. Add a door, add two windows. Think of putting a tree in the front yard, and then decide against it because branches aren't worth the trouble." (Page 27)

"...I referred to him as Sir Lance-a-Lot. 'Once is not a lot,' he said. This was true, but Sir Lance Occasionally lacks a certain ring." (Page 238)

Thanks for reading! ...more

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Jan 12, 2016 Brian rated it really liked it

“How different life looks when people behave themselves.”

"When You are Engulfed in Flames" is a more mature and serious work from Mr. Sedaris. Just like the rest of us, he is growing up. Death, the comfort and security of old relationships, and the humility of age are all thematic elements in this text. However, that is not to say that Sedaris has lost his inimitable sense of style and humor. “Flames” is a seriously funny book, but it has more pages between the laugh out loud antics of some of S ...more

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Jun 23, 2008 James rated it liked it

Eh.

That’s my review: eh.

With maybe a shoulder shrug.

Someone better read than I recently remarked something to the effect of, “Once you’ve read one David Sedaris book, haven’t you read them all?”

Yes.

And Kurt Vonnegut.

And several others. But that’s neither here nor there.

Sedaris’s recent book makes such a dismissive comment truer than ever. For readers familiar with Holidays on Ice, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and Me Talk Pretty One Day, there is little Funny and Original to enjoy fro Eh.

That’s my review: eh.

With maybe a shoulder shrug.

Someone better read than I recently remarked something to the effect of, “Once you’ve read one David Sedaris book, haven’t you read them all?”

Yes.

And Kurt Vonnegut.

And several others. But that’s neither here nor there.

Sedaris’s recent book makes such a dismissive comment truer than ever. For readers familiar with Holidays on Ice, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and Me Talk Pretty One Day, there is little Funny and Original to enjoy from When You Are Engulfed in Flames. And especially for readers of The New Yorker like myself, where most of the essays in this publication were initially published, there is a lot to be desired.

A few highlights include an explanation for why Sedaris does not believe in God: “Because I have hair on my back, and a lot of other people, people who kill and rob and make life miserable, don’t. A real God wouldn’t let that happen.” And his prediction that, “It’s safe to assume that by 2025, guns will be sold in vending machines, but you won’t be able to smoke anywhere in America.” With the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on D.C’s gun ban, Sedaris’s prescience is foreboding.

But what I found most interesting about When You Are Engulfed in Flames was the About the Author: “David Sedaris’s half-dozen books have been translated into twenty-five languages, including Estonian, Greek, and Bahasa. His essays appear frequently in The New Yorker and are heard on Public Radio International’s This American Life.”

It was the first sentence that intrigued me. There’s a good David Sedaris essay to be had from that line. Did David Sedaris himself write it? If not, but the editor did, why the importance on Estonian, Greek, and Bahasa and not the other 22 languages? Does translation into these three languages indicate a literary achievement of some sort? Is it a big deal for Estonians, Greeks, and Indonesians to be reading David Sedaris? While Microsoft Word’s spell check wants Bahasa to be Bahamas, Bahaman, Batas, Balas, or Banana, Bahasa is in fact spelled correctly. It is the native language of Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, and therefore one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. So for David Sedaris to be available in this language is no small feat. Why then Estonian and Greek? And what are the other 22 neglected languages? Why are they less special? ...more

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Feb 06, 2014 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2014, favorites

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

The funniest collection by David Sedaris that I’ve read so far. There just aren’t words to express how happy these books make me. Sedaris is by far my favorite humorist/essayist/columnist/whatever-ist you want to call him. His writing can turn my frown upside down and always leaves me laughing like a lunatic.

My infatuation actually began with another Sedaris – David’s sister Amy. Anyone who looks like this:

But prefers to get paid ...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, non-fiction, library, 2016, humor, biography

3.5 or maybe 4 - rounding up because I was entertained. Not my favorite Sedaris. This one seemed to be darker and more serious than the others of his I have read (includes some artsy filler stories). There were some of the usual amusing tales - most of which in this book took place in France or on an airplane. The last 1/3 of the book (or so) was a cross between what it is like to live in Japan and being a smoker from start to finish.

I don't think I would recommend that someone start here if th ...more

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May 27, 2020 Mark Porton rated it really liked it

When you are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris was a much needed reprieve from a miserable previous book. I was after something to lighten the mood and make me laugh. Well, Sedaris did the trick – I downloaded it onto my Kindle around 10pm, sullen, miserable and crestfallen. Halfway through the first chapter of my new book, I was laughing out loud.

”It was just a Guinea Worm, people get them all the time” Hugh’s (David’s Boyfriend) Mother explained regarding a worm she previously had growing o When you are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris was a much needed reprieve from a miserable previous book. I was after something to lighten the mood and make me laugh. Well, Sedaris did the trick – I downloaded it onto my Kindle around 10pm, sullen, miserable and crestfallen. Halfway through the first chapter of my new book, I was laughing out loud.

”It was just a Guinea Worm, people get them all the time” Hugh’s (David’s Boyfriend) Mother explained regarding a worm she previously had growing out of her leg when she lived in Africa. Fair to say though, the worm in her son’s leg was a bit shorter. BAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I just love the relationship David has with Hugh. The descriptions of the arguments are just hilarious. Hugh seems like such a clever fellow – cooks, plumber, handyman, artist. On the other hand David seems like a Woody Allen type, worried, concerned, emotional – it’s a great mix.

David’s father seems constantly unimpressed by his son. For example, when David was looking for external validation when wearing a bow tie, all his father could say was ”A bow tie announces to the world that you can no longer get an erection”. That comment totally caught me by surprise, and my poor dog, sleeping next to me, was woken up again. The essay on the way his parents take up collecting art is very funny indeed.

As a self-confessed Ornithophobe (I love birds but am scared of them, I’ve even been chased by chickens), The author believes birds aren’t as carefree as they’re cracked up to be – he says ”Take the crows that descend each winter on the surrounding fields and pluck the eyes out of newborn lambs. Are they so hard up for a snack that they have to blind an international symbol of youth and innocence, or are they simply evil?”. As someone who has been swooped by Magpies, for no real reason, I take the evil option. But I just love the way he observes and relays his thoughts to the reader. It is very, very funny.

The book is a collection of short essays, and it’s really refreshing to start a new adventure just as you’re ready to move on. The only problem I have with this book is the mammoth last chapter, which is essentially about him giving up smoking. For me this went on way, way too long – and to be frank I didn’t find that part (a big part) all that funny.

This author observes ordinary life brilliantly, just mundane stuff he makes funny. We all know there is humour and absurdity everywhere. The skill is to find it and distill it into words, skillfully enough to make others laugh.

This book did the trick, I love this author – a very funny bloke

4 Stars (rounded down to 3.5 for the long last chapter) ...more

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Apr 07, 2009 Jason Koivu rated it liked it

Shelves: comedy, humor

When You Are Engulfed in Flames continues David Sedaris' cataloguing of the awkward moments of his life in humorous, memoir-like essays.

Herein are more of his usual daily-life topics: getting to know the neighbors (I.E. the local child molester), his fascination with creepy shit, the annoying people that enter his life, relationship issues (poor Hugh comes in for it in this one!), his pet spider and a mish-mash of other stuff.

Sedaris is very open about his personal issues. He has some OCDs and ...more

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Oct 24, 2008 RandomAnthony rated it really liked it

You know, Montambo is right, this is Sedaris' best book. While earlier in his career the author seemed to go for easy laughs (Look at my brother! What an ass!) or convenient self-loathing something seems to have clicked this time around that transforms the work from magazine article quality to literature. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Sedaris sounds like a real writer in this book; the essays flow unforced and genuine insight accompanies the punch lines. Sedaris doesn't seem to be writing for p ...more

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Mar 19, 2019 Montzalee Wittmann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris and narrated by author is a book I picked up from the library. I enjoyed this book so much! The first story had me laughing so much!!! He has a way of telling a basic story but making it extraordinary and either heartwarming, thought provoking, or hilarious! I could relate to many of his characters! I think I have seem them all he listed. Love his books!

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Sep 13, 2013 Julie rated it really liked it

This collection of personal essays is not for everyone. My grandmother, who died three years ago at the age of 87, would've been hospitalized by the third chapter. My 70-year-old father, who is alive and kicking, wouldn't crack the cover.

That's okay. I get it. The musings of a white, gay, affluent male with an extensive drug past aren't for everyone.

But, I couldn't stop laughing. To be specific, I chuckled, I chortled, I giggled, I guffawed. I tittered behind my hand, I fell forward with deep ...more

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Sep 18, 2019 Calista rated it liked it

Shelves: bage-mature, lgbtq, want-to-own, z-david-sedaris, famous, genre-poetry-prose-rhyming, genre-comedy, wordsmith, 2008, genre-short-story

David totally brought the funny in some of these stories, but overall, this was not my favorite collection of his. I list all the stories at the end.

The Understudy had me in stitches. Oh, so funny. Town and Country was pretty funny. Oh, In the Waiting room had me rolling. I almost had to pull over for that one. Solution's to Saturdays puzzle had me laughing uncontrollably also.

So there are some gems in this book. It was well worth reading. I felt like the last story about Japan and him wanting ...more

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Aug 29, 2019 Antigone rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: essays-shorts

I find humor particularly difficult to review. Even if I like a work, what sparks my smile may leave you cold. So much depends upon a shared sensibility - which is, in actuality, the bedrock of the craft.

The art of comedy lies, for the most part, in guiding a mind to merge with yours for a moment to rejoice in the ridiculousness of reality. It's not enough to know what's funny, not if you plan to take this act on the road. Because as much as an audience may want - or even need - to get the joke, ...more

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Mar 30, 2020 Anne (on semi-hiatus) rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, bio-memoir, 2020

In my binge listening to Sedaris lately, looking for laughs and something to lighten my day I didn't find this selection of essays as humorous as the 3 previous books. I even went through it a second time to be sure. There were definitely some funny moments and some chuckles to be had and the trademark Sedaris take on people and awkward situations. But there were more than the usual number of characters in this selection that were acerbic and unlikable and some of the essays just fell flat for m ...more

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Jan 04, 2011 V. Briceland rated it did not like it

Dear Mr. Sedaris,

First off, I understand that you live in France. With your boyfriend. In France. Where they speak French, because it's France. Thank you for reminding me you live in France, with your boyfriend, where they speak French, with funny French accents, and funny funny French words, with their French ways, every ten to twelve pages. Else I might have forgotten you live in . . . wait, where was it again?

No, seriously, I'm glad you have an army of NPR-head fans to squirm with delight at Dear Mr. Sedaris,

First off, I understand that you live in France. With your boyfriend. In France. Where they speak French, because it's France. Thank you for reminding me you live in France, with your boyfriend, where they speak French, with funny French accents, and funny funny French words, with their French ways, every ten to twelve pages. Else I might have forgotten you live in . . . wait, where was it again?

No, seriously, I'm glad you have an army of NPR-head fans to squirm with delight at your every little bon mot. it must be pretty gratifying. As a former fan, however, I'm a little distressed at the direction you've been moving over the last several years, especially in this volume.

I understand that your legions of fans love it when you collect eccentrics like some eBay addicts collect Precious Moments figurines. It seems to me, however, that even as you celebrate the grotesque in every essay, you seem less in touch with the real, the good, and the positive.

If it doesn't belong in a freak show, the material seemingly doesn't belong in your book. For example, it seems as if you have a (very patient) boyfriend who cares for you, but you show precious little evidence of returning the affection as in your essays you toss aside the flowers he buys you, mock his musical enthusiasms, and generally diminish his role in your life. You recoil with horror when a friendly cabbie offers to help you find companionship in a strange city, but you lovingly recall for several long pages the memory of looking at photos with your sister of a woman copulating with a horse.

Oh, I'm all for celebrating oddities. Good for you. The mainstream gets enough attention. The fussy, grandmotherly way in which you gather them to your sides and cultivate them, however, lately borders less on comedy or insightful reporting, and more toward outright pathology. It seems a shame, as I know you're a much more capable writer than your adoring fans want you to be.

--A friend

P.S. We suffered for too many years with your funny French lessons. Please, please, don't do the same with Japanese. ...more

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May 31, 2008 Brian rated it it was ok

Shelves: autobiography

After reading Sedaris' previous collection, I began to suspect that he had mined all of the material he could from his family and the earlier hard times he experienced. It appeared he was now left with the task of finding hilarity and poignancy in the life of a rich, celebrated author. "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" confirms that his days of dressing as an elf, picking apples, and hitch-hiking cross country with an incomplete quadriplegic are long gone. In their place we are left with essays ...more

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Nov 10, 2020 Kelli rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

Honestly, why even write a review of anything by David Sedaris? I'm pretty sure this book was published twelve years ago or more, and I know for a fact that it is sitting on my bookshelves in the next room, but the only way to really submerge yourself here is the audio version read by the author. There simply is no better way. I have listened to and loved Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Calypso, and now this one. Holidays on Ice did nothing for me but the other four were comedy gold.

Thank you Dav ...more

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Aug 10, 2019 Nusrah Javed rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites, non-fiction-read

Every night before I went to bed, I would read an essay from this collection. The longer ones would take me more than one night, even three sometimes. Every single night though, exhausted from the day of taking care of a 4 month old, work and general adulting, I would go to sleep with a smile on my face. Sedaris's words kept pulling me back from a breakdown so many times; from unbearable exhaustion to a month full of house guests. One particular night I started laughing out loud at one of his es ...more

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Apr 26, 2008 Shannon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lulz

I don't quite get the people who say this isn't as funny as his other books- I thought it was plenty funny. The comment about having a 400 dollar sweater that looked like it had been thrown to a tiger and thus was already ruined and incapable of being further ruined.. that made me laugh. And saying a cracker tasted like penis. And lots of little one-liners. But what's really awesome about his stuff is that it's MORE than just a bunch of one-liners. He really is a very observant, intelligent, hil ...more

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Jan 26, 2016 Maxwell rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: short-fiction, audiobook, non-fiction

The reasons that this didn't get a 1 star from me are because 1.) I didn't actively dislike anything about it, I just found it boring and 2.) David Sedaris' narration is great. Actually, his narrating is probably one of the only things I did like about this book.

As an avid listener of NPR's This American Life, I have, from time to time, heard stories from David Sedaris and found them highly enjoyable. So enjoyable, in fact, that I've been driving to work almost in tears from laughter. What I exp ...more

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Jun 11, 2008 brian tanabe rated it really liked it

When I first saw this in a bookstore I thought to myself, can he do it again? Is there more scrapable hilarity clinging to the walls of his interesting life, fit to amuse and entertain his many fans? Sedaris does in fact do it again and apparently there's an endless well of funny stuffy, a font of hilarity, within this man.

This is another great collection, on par with his other works for all the Sedaris fans out there. There is one story in particular (“That's Amore”) -- or rather a character in ...more

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Jul 23, 2015 Ivonne Rovira rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have adored the hilarious David Sedaris from his very first readings on NPR. And nothing in When You Are Engulfed in Flames makes me adore him less — not even his ultra-competitiveness with children and his cavalier attitude towards cancer.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames explores the give-and-take of long-term relationships, some objectionable neighbors, the struggles of quitting smoking or learning a new language, and Japanese society — always in pretty funny ways. While not as hilarious as ...more

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Jun 12, 2008 Alana rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, 2008_06_june

While I certainly won't call this the best David Sedaris collection that you can purchase for yourself, I will say that any David Sedaris is worth reading -- and thus, my star rating. It would probably be more like three and a half if Goodreads did half stars the way LibraryThing does, but ah well.
The observation I have for this collection is that with Mr. Sedaris giving up drinking, drugs, and smoking... his stories seem to be a bit more tame. Much more focus on his boyfriend Hugh or stories ti ...more

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Oct 01, 2017 Rae rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, books-i-own, audiobooks

Another exceptional work by Mr. Sedaris. Kept me laughing from beginning to end.

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Dec 04, 2011 Sam Quixote rated it liked it

Is there anyone better to read when you want to relax and laugh a bit, than David Sedaris? I still think "Santaland Diaries" is must-read material for this time of year and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is one of the funniest books I've ever read, full stop. So it's a given that when he publishes a new book I have to buy it immediately. I know, "When You are Engulfed in Flames" came out in 2008, this is 2011, but I did try and read it 3 years ago but I gave up frustrated. The solution to completing i Is there anyone better to read when you want to relax and laugh a bit, than David Sedaris? I still think "Santaland Diaries" is must-read material for this time of year and "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is one of the funniest books I've ever read, full stop. So it's a given that when he publishes a new book I have to buy it immediately. I know, "When You are Engulfed in Flames" came out in 2008, this is 2011, but I did try and read it 3 years ago but I gave up frustrated. The solution to completing it this time? - audiobooks.

Sedaris reading his stories is a different beast to reading them yourself. I love podcasts and felt that him reading his stories was like listening to a podcast, telling everyone funny stories that had happened to him, and so I got through this book in a day after a few enjoyable hours spent listening to him while driving.

His bad baby sitter, Mrs Peacock, was a funny and strange character who demanded back scratches and that David and his sisters clean her house while their parents were on holiday; his Italian neighbour in New York, Helen, who was this extremely bullying and unlikable person and who beat up a disabled kid for accidentally pocketing a biro of hers; and the Normandy neighbour who turned out to be child molester.

While his characterisations of real people is always brilliant, what I liked better were the anecdotes centred around himself - arguing with cab drivers for whom English was a second language; giving up smoking in Japan; or sitting on a plane in first class next to a Polish man who couldn't stop crying as he'd just buried his mother. The foreign element tips it over for me as it reminds me of the brilliance of "Me Talk Pretty One Day" which also focused on language and communication issues. And most touching of all were his love letters to his boyfriend Hugh, for who is clear he is deeply in love with.

"When You Are Engulfed in Flames" is not his best book but definitely an entertaining audiobook, particularly when Sedaris attempts voices of some of the characters. The anecdotes are far from stale but also not as entertaining as other volumes and this is why it took me a few years to get around to finishing it. Having done so though, I'm glad I did, and can recommend this as an antidote to hours of tedious driving. ...more

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Jun 10, 2008 Imogen rated it really liked it

When I am not reading David Sedaris, I am thinking: David Sedaris, man, there is a popular guy whose books are kind of just always around and not very interesting. But when I *am* reading him, I'm always like, there are five or six absolutely brilliant punchlines in every one of this guy's books, and the other parts are, y'know, enjoyable enough.

I think it's a testament to my always forgetting how much I like him that I guess I've read all his stuff, but I absolutely never think of him as an au ...more

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Aug 12, 2008 Erin rated it it was amazing

Some people find that after reading one or two of Sedaris's books, he becomes less ha-ha funny. Maybe they get used to his style of humour. Maybe there's a golden order in which to read them (personally, I find chronologically by publishing date works well). Maybe there is a slight advantage to hearing him speak in person. I tend to read him while imagining how he'd say it, and immediately a dry sentence comes to life.

I could go on about the maturation I see happening in his work, but I won't. N ...more

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About David Sedaris

David Sedaris

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David Sedaris is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist and radio contributor.

Sedaris came to prominence in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "SantaLand Diaries." He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. Each of his four subsequent essay collections, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997), Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Dress Your Fa ...more