Name: Dave Konopka's review of When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Item: When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Rating: 3
Author: Dave Konopka

David Sedaris

"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

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Dave Konopka

Laura Mauler

I read these stories/essays as I ate breakfast before work, and they definitely got my day off to a fun start.

Jeannette Ordas

A mixed bag, but classic Sedaris. I'm sure I've read this collection before, but enjoyed it this time around.

Amy Thibodeau

The essay on living in Tokyo is worth the price of the book. The other essays were a bit hit and miss. Not his funniest.

olivia musick

Fernando Andrade

Este es el segundo libro de Sedaris que me toca leer, y algo me dice que el resto de sus libros van más o menos por lo mismo: ensayos sobre su vida profesional, amorosa y familiar, sin un orden temático o cronológico. El humos de D.S. es magistral, y como me pasó con el libro anterior que leí, disfruté de algunas historias más que de otras. El secreto es encontrar los personajes recurrentes más entrañables (para mi, su mamá, su hermano y Paul y su vecina octagenaria de NY) y disfrutar de sus historias, ignorando un poco los temas o personajes menos interesantes para el lector.


Pero está suave.

Once again, David Sedaris brings together a collection of essays. He tests the limits of love when Hugh lances a boil from his backside, and pushes the boundaries of laziness when, finding the water shut off in his house in Normandy, he looks to the water in a vase of fresh cut flowers to fill the coffee machine. From armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds to the awkwardness of having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a sleeping fellow passenger on a plane, David Sedaris uses life's most bizarre moments to reach new heights in understanding love and fear, family and strangers.

When You are Engulfed in Flames

Melody Izard

I think I must have been in some sort of end of winter funk when I started this book. I didn't think it was funny - it was just like the other book of his that I had read - I really should be reading something else. Then I got to the part about the "Stadium Pal" and I lost it. Then there was no stopping me from reading passages out loud to my husband whether he wanted me to or not.

Daryl Houston

I hated Me Talk Pretty One Day when I first read it maybe 14 years ago (or it's more that I couldn't muster any respect for the character Sedaris as put forth in the essays, which colored my reception of his book, in which there are admittedly some very funny essays), but then I had a pretty big chip on my shoulder back then. This is the second Sedaris collection I've read this year, and I've warmed to him. It may help that now that I've heard recordings of his reading some of his essays, I hear them in his voice and with his pacing, which are distinctive and good. There's lots to laugh at in this collection, and also stuff not to laugh at (he's not a humorist only), and I liked it. The title essay was kind of annoyingly long and rambly, though I guess that was by design.

“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). 
Source: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-sedaris/when-you-are-engulfed-in-flames/9780316154680/

Halsted Mencotti Bernard

This collection is gentler than Sedaris' others, but no less funny. I laughed out loud multiple times during each piece. His story about quitting smoking in Japan is particularly excellent.

Dave Konopka &
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

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When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris