Books : When You Are Engulfed in Flames
List Price: $25.99Amazon.com's Price: $17.15 You Save: $8.84 (34%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780316143479
ISBN: 0316143472
Label: Little, Brown and Company
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: June 03, 2008
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Release Date: June 03, 2008
Sales Rank: 111
Studio: Little, Brown and Company
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
"David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," (The Christian Science Monitor) is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this remarkable new book.
Trying to make coffee when the water is shut off, David considers using the water in a vase of flowers and his chain of associations takes him from the French countryside to a hilariously uncomfortable memory of buying drugs in a mobile home in rural North Carolina. In essay after essay, Sedaris proceeds from bizarre conundrums of daily life-having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a fellow passenger on a plane or armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds-to the most deeply resonant human truths. Culminating in a brilliant account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris's sixth essay collection is a new masterpiece of comic writing from "a writer worth treasuring" (Seattle Times).
Praise for When You Are Engulfed in Flames:
"Older, wiser, smarter and meaner, Sedaris...defies the odds once again by delivering an intelligent take on the banalities of an absurd life." --Kirkus Reviews
This latest collection proves that not only does Sedaris still have it, but he's also getting better....Sedaris's best stuff will still--after all this time--move, surprise, and entertain." --Booklist
Table of Contents:
It's Catching
Keeping Up
The Understudy
This Old House
Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?
Road Trips
What I Learned
That's Amore
The Monster Mash
In the Waiting Room
Solutions to Saturday's Puzzle
Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool
Memento Mori
All the Beauty You Will Ever Need
Town and Country
Aerial
The Man in the Hut
Of Mice and Men
April in Paris
Crybaby
Old Faithful
The Smoking Section
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
Laugh at yourself and the whole world laughs with you. It's hard to write humorous essays that stand the test of time. Will Rogers realized that and just read the newspaper to audiences while adding an occasionally wry quip to get huge laughs. Put those messages into a book, and they wouldn't have lasted.
I haven't heard David Sedaris perform in person (which he does as readings), but I'm told he's marvelous. If you have had that pleasure, you will undoubtedly hear his voice, know his timing, and see his expressions as you read this witty, self-deprecating book. I suspect that such an imagined performance would easily turn this into a five-star book.
Proust waxed poetic about his memories of a madeleine (a shell-shaped cake in the France of his youth) in stream of consciousness prose. Sedaris does the same thing for a painful boil on his derriere, his horrible inability to learn new languages, and his desire to show a little more plumpness in his derriere. The results are equally memorable . . . but much more amusing in the case of Sedaris.
Sedaris likes to put together mosaics of seemingly unconnected memories that when combined show a different image and send a different message. It's a little like a Chuck Close portrait.
Like the best humorists, he takes us into her personal life . . . into the kinds of details that few of us would openly share with the public. In exchange for yielding his privacy, he helps us see ourselves ... Read More
Rating:  -
I just love David Sedaris, plain and simple. Also, because I bought this book the book store owner said I had good taste and let me have half off on my purchases for the day.
Rating: -
Once again, Sedaris manages to plumb the depths of his adolescence and later life to turn the minutiae and absurdity of life into comedic genius. It's not as good as some of his earlier stuff, but you'll still walk away happy you read it.
Rating: -
David Sedaris is without a doubt the most talented essayist in the country and the fact that he's also the most famous is not so much a validation of American taste as it is a validation of the Gevalia Kaffe/Sunday New York Times/All Things Considered/This American Life Podcast crowd. Good job! They're good at picking humorists and squeezing African-Americans out of Harlem.
Personally I prefer to read Sedaris than listen to audio tapes. His voice, I think, actual detracts from the situations. As in previous books When You Are Engulfed in Flames creates unbelievable, and in some instances unsympathetic, situations but Sedaris performs the literary magic trick of bringing you along for the ride. His voice, however, is so specific that it detaches me from the opiatic experience of walking in this talented man's shoes.
Also, as with previous essays, I believe he's at least 70% full of crap. But who cares? It's amusing crap.
Rating: -
I am familiar with several David Sedaris' works and I enjoy his occasional New York column. Most of which are extremely enjoyable to read (I didn't care for Barrel Fever). This book contains many short stories from David's life, written in a very relatable and humorous manner. David's works are some of the easiest reads I've ever encountered, and his candor is really disarming. Reading his stories makes me feel like I know his family personally, and the writing all the more endearing because of it.
Anybody who has ever thought their family was strange should read this book. People who can appreciate the minor quirks in ourselves and others will appreciate this book. Folks who enjoy a series of funny stories that will have you eagerly flipping the pages as you cackle with delight should buy this book.
Browse for similar items by category:
|
