Rent: When You Are Engulfed in Flames ByDavid Sedaris
Overview & 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
I saw Sedaris on the TV and he reviewed (brief) his book. I was interested, but after struggling through half the book, returned it to the library. I am very happy that I did not buy this book, as it was very boring. I mean, who cares if grandma had worms in her legs and the gory details of her life with them! I guess of you are a Sedaris fan you would like this one. I DID NOT!
I was hoping for a good laugh on a long train ride. This book isn't funny. I'm 3/4 through the book, and I got two chuckles out of it. In the last five stories, animals get abused or hurt. In one story, a goat is chained in the backyard and left to starve. In another, a horse is used in beasiality porn. In another, a mouse is burned alive. The list goes on.
Sorry for not thinking that that's just soooo entertaining!
His stories are no longer truly funny, as in previous books (eg Me Talk Pretty One Day). They are vignettes of life -- observations and thoughts. Just that.
The only story I enjoyed is the one that was already previously published in the New Yorker (of Wildflowers and Weed). It seems that that the author has run out of material.
This book was ok. Not as funny as "Me Talk Pretty One Day" or "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim". The first few stories were pretty slow, but the book picked up later on. The last essay, "The Smoking Room" was my favorite. It had the Dave humor I enjoyed in the previous books. I also liked "Solution to Saturday's Puzzle."
