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When You Are Engulfed in Flames
First published 2008 · 502 pages
A masterclass in turning everyday mortifications and neurotic spirals into sharp, surprisingly tender comedy.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like sitting at a Parisian café with your funniest, most neurotic friend while they spin mundane inconveniences into comedic gold. The pace is brisk and conversational, carrying you effortlessly from bizarre social faux pas in rural North Carolina to the isolating, surreal experience of trying to quit smoking in Tokyo. Sedaris's tone is famously wry and self-deprecating, wrapping sharp observations about human nature in layers of absurdity and mild misanthropy. Yet beneath the cynical, laugh-out-loud exterior lies a surprisingly warm and intimate mood. It is a book that delights in the weirdness of strangers and the indignities of aging, perfect for readers who find profound comfort—and endless amusement—in the shared awkwardness of simply being alive.
- Mood
- intimate
- absurdist
- cynical yet warm
- quirky
- Tone
- wry
- self-deprecating
- sardonic
- observant
- neurotic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- absurdity of daily life · cultural displacement · aging and mortality · addiction and quitting · family eccentricities
- The writing
- Meticulously crafted and conversational, blending a stand-up comedian's impeccable timing with a keen, almost surgical eye for human foibles.
- The arc
- Begins with hilariously petty grievances and bizarre social encounters, gradually deepening into a vulnerable exploration of addiction, aging, and the desire to change.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love dry, observational humor and find comfort in the shared neuroses of everyday life.
Content notes
- addiction and withdrawal
- drug references
- medical anxiety
About the book
"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).
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
Description from Open Library.
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