When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Critics

• Up in Smoke

  Even if you disregard the van Gogh cover sketch of a skeleton smoking a cigarette, it’s difficult to miss that “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” is a book about David Sedaris’s midlife crisis. He was in his 30s when he was discovered by Ira Glass of ... (read full critics)

  nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

• Bookreporter.com - WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES by David Sedaris

  • Read an Excerpt By now, David Sedaris is a household name for anyone who listens to “This American Life” on NPR or reads the New Yorker religiously. I first came upon the author when my cousin read me his SantaLand Diaries. Because I do not enjoy b ... (read full critics)

  bookreporter published on Sat, 28 Aug 2010

6 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  I Want a Polygamist Relationship with David and Hugh

  I don't know what it is about Sedaris' writing, but I've decided I want to pitch a tent in his frontal lobe and live the rest of my days as a disciple of his neuroses. "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" is another wicked collection of short stories that at times had me laughing to the point of broken ... (continue)

  I don't know what it is about Sedaris' writing, but I've decided I want to pitch a tent in his frontal lobe and live the rest of my days as a disciple of his neuroses. "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" is another wicked collection of short stories that at times had me laughing to the point of broken capillaries. When I read the anecdote about his experience buying pot from a redneck living in a double wide with a girlfriend who referred to the remote control by the n-word, I thought my head was going to explode.
  Now, to be fair, this book is not all comedy. In fact, of the books of his that I've read I would consider this one to be the most reflective, if not downright serious at times. The last chapters read far more like a journal than a hysterical composition of outrageous yarns. But on the whole I loved this volume and I continue to ADORE Sedaris. In a perfect world, he and his life partner, Hugh would open the antique doors of their country home in Normandy and say, "Welcome home, Tori. David here has sobered up but you're welcome to live with us and deplete his old stashes of drugs, cigarettes and liquor."

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  ReadingQueen 12/17 said on Aug 10, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  Advance reading copy, signed by the author

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  Becky said on Nov 10, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Useless book, I want my 15 bucks back!

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  diego said on Apr 18, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Fewer laugh out loud moments that his previous books

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  Joey Doll said on Oct 14, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Humorous anecdotes, many taking place in France and Japan where he lived at times.

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  Missmath144 said on Feb 11, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 

  This book was recommended to me by my daughter (who just opened her very own bookshop in Amsterdam!). Normally I don't read short stories, but these are not really stories, more like "days in the life of David Sedaris". He gets a lot of mileage out of his family, his friends and the day to day life ... (continue)

  This book was recommended to me by my daughter (who just opened her very own bookshop in Amsterdam!). Normally I don't read short stories, but these are not really stories, more like "days in the life of David Sedaris". He gets a lot of mileage out of his family, his friends and the day to day life of an American who spends big chunks of the year in Europe. Luckily, his family members are completely bonkers, which means that these stories are very very funny. And he went to Japan to quit smoking... I will definitely read more of him!

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  Linda Wilke said on Dec 2, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 320 Pages
• ISBN-10: 1408700921
• ISBN-13: 9781408700921
• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Pub date: Jul 03, 2008
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libri Italiani, Nederlandse Boeken

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ISBN	Edition	List	Sale	Seller
9781408700921	Paperback	$19.30	--	The Book Depository
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