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When You Are Engulfed in Flames | 
 enlarge | Author: David Sedaris
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
Buy New: $11.99
You Save: $14.00 (54%)
New (67) Collectible (15) from $11.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  162 reviews
Sales Rank: 19
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0316143472
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.54
EAN: 9780316143479
ASIN: 0316143472
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - EXCEPTIONAL VALUE - EXCELLENT BUY - QUICK SHIP - SECURE PACKAGING
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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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 157 more reviews...
David Sedaris, hilarious as always July 25, 2008
I always buy the audiobook versions of David Sedaris' books because he reads them himself, and listening to him read, with his dry wit and elfin voice, sometimes innocent and sometimes sly, is half the fun. When You Are Engulfed in Flames is in turn amusing, laugh-out-loud funny, and, occasionally, somber and serious. The title is a riff on his stay in Japan, an example of the broken English he constantly ran across. Sedaris is no snob making fun of the Japanese, however, for he tells us of his hopeless attempts to learn Japanese, being the worst student in the class, and being able to learn only the very simplest phrases. While most of the book is humorous, some of it is moving, and the tale of a trip to visit the memorial to victims of the atomic bomb blast is harrowing. A theme running through the book is Sedaris' attempt to quit smoking, and he relates this experience as only he can. This might not be the best book for first-time Sedaris readers/listeners, but established fans will enjoy it.
 Love the half I received - ony 4 of 8 discs in pack July 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
We have loved listening to the discs, but the second package of sleeves is empty. We didn't notice it until this morning when we looked for disc 5. You can't imagine our dissappointment. This set has made us chuckle constantly while listening and throughout the day when something reminds us of the stories.
PLEASE send the second set of discs.
Thank you-
Barbara
Funny and moving stuff July 24, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
One of the things I love most about David Sedaris's work is that one essay can send me running to the bathroom because I'm laughing so hard and the next can move me to tears. Not every essay has had much meaning for me but the majority are far better written than most of what passes for "literature" and best sellers these days. No one else has captured family moments, both poignant and hysterically funny, as well as Mr. Sedaris and I can't wait to see and hear him read his work aloud the next time he is in Ohio.
Laugh out Loud July 24, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I started reading this book at work and actually laughed out loud. I kept passing it around to read certain parts. I love David Sedaris!
 Was this supposed to be funny? July 24, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
My mind must work differently than some of the other reviewers! I just didn't find much humor in this book and by midway through I was considering not even finishing it...which is a no-no for me. I was getting tired of his self-indulgence.
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