Engulfed in Flames

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (June 3, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0316143472

Amazon 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).

Life, as seen through the eyes of David Sedaris... If we all saw life in such a way, depression might be a cured disease.

Book quote about wearing glasses: High school taught me a valuable lesson about wearing glasses: don't wear them. Contacts have always seemed like too much work, so instead I just squint, figuring that if something is more than 6 feet away I'll deal with it when I get there.

His view on the spiders that his sisters were afraid of: Come bedtime I'd knock on my sisters door and predict that the spider (that dad let loose) was now crawling on the top of the house, where he'd take a short breather before heading down the chimney. "I read in the encyclopedia that this particular breed is known for its tracking ability, and that once it's pegged its victims, almost nothing will stop it. Anyway, good night."

Something like that would be equivalent to signing a death warrant!

It seems that everyone who has read this book mentions the chapter where he sneezes and a lozenge he has in his mouth flies out, bounces off of the back seat in front of him and lands on the lady next to him... the then tries to figure out the choices he has... I'll admit that I think that was the best chapter in the book.

This is a good book when you want something lite to read. Each chapter is a different "essay" and so one chapter does not necessarily lead to the next, yet they all (comically) tie into his life.