Sedaris is my favorite humor writer, and his latest does not disappoint. I've read all his books (some several times) and feel like I know his father, mother (now deceased), and siblings. He is brilliant at capturing the nuances of everyday life and turning them into hilarious commentary for his grateful reader. I simply adore him.

I enjoyed this book far more than "Dress Your Family...". The stories were fresh and exemplative of this fine writer as he relates his bits of realism with both humor and emmotion. David Sedaris has made me laugh and cry. I am already looking forward to his next book! Until then I will re-read the others!

David Sedaris is our favorite author, and as always, his latest book is no dissapointment!

I really enjoyed this book, it was a quick read and made me laugh out loud many times. I have read all of David Sedaris' books and this meets the expectations that the others did...AWESOME:)

This collection of short stories is about the only thing, these days, that causes me to laugh out loud. Thanks, I needed that.

True (or perhaps trueish) to form, Sedaris will have you laughing out loud at his latest book. My favorite part was about the StadiumPal, external catheter.

Ok, so Some people loved this book, some hated it and as a huge Sedaris fan I fall closer to the "loved it" end of the spectrum. It has been a fun, if twisted summer read and I have laughed out loud several times. OK, the twist? Not as funny as some of his books (I still read Me Talk Pretty One Day anytime I need cheering up or feel like hurting myself laughing) but not quite as twisted as some of his other works, this is perhaps a slightly more mature Sedaris. Still totally worth the read and just a light summer read for those that are not really into chick lit or testosterone driven novels.

Somewhere out there is a bumpersticker that reads "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that I still find worth the effort to find and get.....but for this particular collection of essays I'll favor "You may not come over and play today." And the reason is both I was reading this while setting a stunning 6 hour bubble bath marathon plus calypso tune fest record this evening and because, truthfully when I read David Sedaris I get acutely aware that some people watch everything you do for future reference. And I'd not do well on the observation rack....so, no, I'm watching very carefully who is sitting in the airplane seat next to me and what especially where I put my hand in the darkened movie theater. No more screw ups.

This is a really fetching essay collection, I don't think I could ever weave a tail-ummm-end carbuncle or a pasta fagiole into a work with even a tiny speck of the talent he has. And it must say something of the 1st grade teacher in me that might just have to, in a pinch juggle vomiting, splinters, a 5-step lesson plan and observation while staring daggers at the kid we all know holds the class hostage to his "condition", it's just something of my love of this kind of story, I can't resist. He worms his way in, through Guinea or carcass, to just evoke a laugh. And an occasional "for God's sake."

Each of these essays seemed wonderful. I could tell you my favorites but I'd have to go back upstairs and get the book , look them up, my memory that good, and, just at the moment, that's a lot of effort and who wants "spoilers" anyway.

Sedaris and who saw him first is the game I want to play with everyone here at the moment. My claim goes to the 90's, later, pre 911 for sure, I think my girls would be in the years of dance studio five days a week, four to five classes each a day when I had no apparent light at the end of the tunnel, that I first fell under his spell. I was driving back home on the 5th leg of the rotation when I heard a piece on the Macy's Elf. Having been a clown, a relentlessly unfunny one, in balloon deliveries in one of my illustrious college jobs, this essay he read to the season, was so funny I thought...well something like I wish I could hear that again. If I'd have thought about it I'd have realized I could, in that public radio, NPR, tends to repeat itself but the next time I heard a piece on Billie Holiday that was greater, same thing going on, dance driver( Tiny Dancer the Elton tune sung to self that decade). Then my mom-in-law visited, and seeing a book I got of his out for her reading pleasure she commented that "everyone in New York knows his work." Well, excuse me, I'm a dance studio in Oxnard's best customer and we just have to try way harder to impress.

And so there you have it. A fan, an early but not vintage one, all of New York getting there first.

Another great essay collection, some more sobering ones that have a depth of having done this awhile, some with such tender affection for his boyfriend (is this the term?) Hugh, some ordinary life with a lozenger, but when I like them the most is him telling of his mom (mine would have such interesting discussions with her, on art and what they gave selflessly, endlessly unappreciated, sacrificed all to their kids while puffing away on the two minute leash of their cigarettes) His story of the babysitter that employs the monkey fingers is just like home to me. We had the unique babysitter stories too, one of the parents frivolously leaving us on a weekend off to a Virginia funeral for actually a murdered baby cousin (a 6 hour drive 15 hours over the roads that were followed in the 60's when one supposes gas was cheap), while the backwoods went ablaze, our sitter was that weekend for some reason even more ridiculously awful a no show and the firemen told me, yelled, to "evacuate." How does a nine year old do that with a 4 year old in toe, on foot, to where? In an age when making a phone call was equated with the Last Supper, not something you do on a dime, I sat to think the thinks of the ages. To the question, " So where are your parents?" I had the quick wit to reply, "They'll be home soon." And then hid us in wet blankets in the basement for a day, thinking that really was the best solution. Ah good memories. I really do go back to my growing up here reading like nothing else. Very Cathartic.
And then of course the kinds of pickles he tells about, these I love the most, what one gets into accepting simple multi-state midnight rides or surviving in another language out of country, what he observes, collects and recounts is just such good writing. Yes, he makes it look easy, sweat or no.

I did not drop the book in the bath, nor overly douse it with water, a surprise, so I can pass it on to a daughter tonight that will enjoy it and then send it past the nose of the other who will find it lame and crass and a few things that indicate she has been chauffeured around in a van and pedicured, while the rest of us were out running and dragging, driving, sacrificing..... something....to the home we'd rather not look at too closely here. For that we have Sedaris.

You'll just have to go get this new book and see if it isn't right for you and yours, recalling who got there first.

I was introduced to David Sedaris when a relative of mine was in a coma for 5 months. I was told that someone was coming to the hospital, sitting beside the bed and reading from the "Chicken Soup" series of books. I was horrified as I'd been told that a person in a coma can still hear and could not fathom the torture my loved one must be in - unable to move or communicate and being subjected to a torture akin to mental water boarding. Immediately I put the word out for some other essay series that I could be read to him that would nullify the damage being done by this well intentioned person. David Sedaris was suggested several times and this is how I met him (literarily speaking).
I have "Engulfed" in the audio version that's read by the author. My favorites from Sedaris are always when he relates tales about his boyhood and goofy family. There's plenty to be found here. In this compilation I found the new bike essay interesting, the crotchety lady neighbor hilarious, but the whole smoking cessation portion was so close to home that it was a bit unnerving. He went to Japan, I went to Mexico. It worked for him, not for me...
I highly recomend this book - you can never go wrong with Sedaris (even if your in a coma)...bg

Lovely monograph with plenty of images of P & G best work. Great price and totally worth the money. Also my book came slightly damaged but Amazon immediately sent out a replacement. Awesome customer service I am really pleased.

I love David Sedaris. 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' is one of the funniest books (if not the funniest) I've ever read. 'Naked' is also fantastic. I liked 'Dress Your Children in Corduroy and Denim' as well, so when I saw that Sedaris had a new book coming out, I ordered it from Amazon immediately.

I'm sorry, I wanted to like this book. Furthermore, I expected to like it. But, while a few stories elicited a chuckle, for the most part is was not very funny. And the last section of the book was kind of all over the place and could have used more editing, I think.

I still love David Sedaris, I will still read every book he comes out with, but this one is just not my favorite.

In an interview with David Sedaris on the book's website the interviewer asks Mr. Sedaris, "How do you describe yourself as an author to someone who has never read your books before?" Mr. Sedaris answers quite simply, "Do you know what narcissist means?"

I am one of these well-read individuals who have never read a David Sedaris book. I received When in Engulfed in Flames to review around my birthday and knew instinctively I was receiving a gift. I quickly learned two things about this gifted author's books. Number one: be careful about reading them in public because some of his essays will make you laugh out loud so hard you will embarrass yourself. Number two: you don't have to finish this book in one sitting. Savor the writing and read one every few days or simply at your own pace.

I did have to enlist a few friends who are David Sedaris junkies and get a quick update on his family and friends. I knew Amy Sedaris was his sister but didn't know that Hugh was his partner. My friend gave me a quick rundown of his family, where David has been living and a quick analysis of his mother and father. That was all I needed to be instantly hooked and part of an elite group of David Sedaris followers.

There were some essays I found tedious such as "That's Amore." This essay tells the story of the love/hate relationship between David and his elderly neighbor Helen. At 27 pages long, I found myself saying out loud, "I've heard enough." He is so quick witted you want to stop him before he gets unfunny.

The essay in his book that literally brought me to tears was, "The Understudy." Back in the day, parents would go out of town and leave their children with practically strangers. Nowadays we do FBI background checks before leaving a kid with a babysitter while we run to Target. Sedaris describes this experience of being left with a stranger while his parents were on vacation with such humor and absurdity you are left with the sensation of: did that really happen. Yes of course it did and that is why this book is so funny.

Armchair Interviews says: Sly and quiet humor you expect from Sedaris.

By now, David Sedaris is a household name for anyone who listens to "This American Life" on NPR or reads the New Yorker religiously. I first came upon the author when my cousin read me his SantaLand Diaries. Because I do not enjoy being read to aloud, I would look over her shoulder and silently read along (which turned out to be a bit ahead), and then wait for her to get to the punchlines so that I could laugh out loud at the correct moments. The laughing out loud wasn't hard to do, but the waiting for my cousin to get there was. It was the funniest thing I had read in a good long while. I have never heard "This American Life," but I have since read many of his essays, both in his previous works of collected essays and those that have been published in the New Yorker.

WHILE YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES is Sedaris's sixth book, and it opens with a bang but slowly loses steam until the long essay at the end. "The Smoking Session" chronicles his quest to stop smoking after his mother dies of lung cancer. It starts off in traditional essay fashion and then concludes with diary entries --- dates and all --- for each day he is in Tokyo kicking the habit. Perhaps because addiction is such a powerful and personal topic, this is the funniest, the most intimate and the most human of the essays here.

This is not to say that the others are devoid of humor, intimacy or humanness, for to lack such things would be completely un-Sedaris-like. But in "The Smoking Section," where he reminisces about previously quitting drugs and alcohol, along with the present cigarettes, he is back to being Sedaris at his finest. It is almost as if this small section is the book itself and the rest of the stories are filler --- good on their own but a bit tedious side by side in book format. This may be due to the fact that many were first published elsewhere, thus they lack thematic continuity.

These essays, however, are still worthy of merit. Those that originally appeared in the New Yorker are by far the best of that bunch, and the rest are interesting for anyone already familiar with Sedaris --- for each story is one more puzzle piece into the life of the man we feel we know. Taken as a whole, they bring comedy to everyday life and a narrative to everyday experiences. He writes of his family, his schooldays, his travels, his relationships, and all other phases of life both important and trivial --- and the trivial is made significant by its insight and irony. Sedaris kept journals before becoming a writer in the professional sense of the word, and he has truly turned his personal hobby into a unique literary endeavor that appears effortless and without fault.

In WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES, like all previous works of his that I have read, his homosexuality doesn't come into play until the middle of the book. In this way he is a writer who just happens to be gay instead of a "Gay Writer." As a minority writer and an advocate for gay rights, I find it refreshing that his sexuality is treated no differently than that of anyone else. Sedaris writes of his life with his boyfriend Hugh and focuses as much on their day-to-day existence as a couple as on the fact that they are two males in love. He has his coming-out stories and his in-the-closet stories, but all these are treated as no more or no less important than everything else he writes about. The result is literature that can be read by gay males but is not written specifically for gay males, and this seems to create a sense of normalcy that homosexuals of both genders often lack in this hyper homo-aware generation, which is at once friendly and phobic.

Sedaris --- Greek, middle-class, gay, and with his own set of neuroses --- is an individual to whom we can all relate --- if not in specifics, at least in the sense of a self-conscious, second-guessing, blundering and selfish existence. He tries to be nothing other than what he is --- a human being. And for this we can't help but love him.

--- Reviewed by Shannon Luders-Manuel

I knew it was a bad sign that I had made it to almost page 100 without laughing aloud - and barely even cracking a smile. That has never happened to me with any of Sedaris' other books. I was crying (in public) when I read 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' from laughing so hard. Not so much here.

Finally, there got to be some moments of that, but not many....and never to the tears in the eye stage. I refer to him being on a plane with a woman sitting beside him as the highlight of the passages.

I found with this and his last book - he writes less and less about his family, which were such perfect fodder for his earlier works. Maybe living abroad keeps those encounters less frequent - or maybe he or they just don't want them for public use.

The Smoking Section was ok - but I wasn't really in the mood to read his day to day diary, let alone on the topic of stopping smoking or travels in Japan.

All being said, Sedaris' writing seems a bit more focused and tighter, which isn't a bad thing. But sometimes it was the perceived ramblings that made things humourous.

For those looking to read, I would wait for paperback. Probably not worth the hardback price.

David Sedaris delivers in his latest compilation of memoirs. Mature, mellow, but still neurotic ~ just the way we like his stories!

I have long been a fan of David Sedaris. I've heard him on NPR, seen him at concerts and followed his career. Although the stories in this book are wonderful and would normally be worthy of a five star review, I am rating this book three stars because I read some of these stories in prior collections.
I feel ripped off whenever this happens. Sedaris is getting extra money from his already loyal fan, when he could have supplied all new material for this publication.
Really bad form...

this book is hilarious. i brought it on vacation to seattle and read it in bed while i was waiting for my husband to get up from a nap. i had to get out of bed and sit in a chair because i was shaking the bed from laughing so hard.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames isn't very funny, and Sedaris doesn't really want it to be. Certainly, I laughed a few times, but the quality of Sedaris' humor has changed; he relies heavily on scatological jokes and much less on wit and child-like observation. But when the theme of your book is death and dying, scatological humor rings the truest. After all, When You Are Engulfed in Flames is Sedaris' midlife crisis, on paper, and available for purchase at most bookstores.

Of course, then, this alters the focus of the book. Indeed, all of Sedaris' books are essentially about him, but When You Are Engulfed in Flames is much, much more about him. In Naked, Sedaris' fleshes out the character and human qualities on his mother. In Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris successfully creates characters for his father, his boyfriend, his grandmother, his brother, and at least two of his sisters. As magnanimous as Sedaris is in those two books, his writing could still be read as self-centered. But it's only in When You Are Engulfed in Flames when he populates too many essays with random, undeveloped characters, which forces the focus on him, and he makes that peculiar turn into selfishness and forgets the reader. This is most evident in the last 80+ pages of the book when Sedaris subjects the reader to his diary as he tries to quit smoking.

The only stories I really liked were "Keeping Up" and "That's Amore," the latter of which is a wonderful blend of the mournful midlife crisis tone that Sedaris wants to explore, and it's also touching and funny. The rest of the essays do not have such careful crafting. I recommend all of Sedaris' other books, but I would pass on When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

This isn't as funny as most people claim. There was some racial undertones. Like when the drug dealer's wife called the remote control the N word. In his fallacy, David wanted to explain the difference between African Americans and a remote control to her. She never called black people the N word. She called the remote control that. Also black people just aren't people in this book. they are 'black' people. I can't understand why American writers tend to make that dinstinction. you can't just be human. you have to be black. Other than that, I still didn't find it very funny. maybe he's just old. I prefer Augusten Burroughs.

I must admit that this is the first David Sedaris book I've read, and I hope it won't be my last...or his last, now that he has given up smoking. "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" is a warm mix of syntax and prose, moving at just the right speed to absorb every nuance of his observations. When one is finished it might occur that Sedaris would be a nice dinner companion, though I suspect the reader would probably get to know him better in print than over a meal.

This is a book of comparisons and the author likes the word "like". It could be his favorite word but every simile he uses has a humorous tone meant to educate the reader in diverse ways. It's hard to classify David Sedaris at mid-life...he's not as neurotic (but no less perspicacious!) as Woody Allen but a bit more overstated than, say, Bob Newhart. A gay Ernest Hemingway? Well, not quite, but at least there was booze and smoking material surrounding each writer.

Every chapter in Sedaris's book is engaging but his final one (and by far the longest) deals with his giving up cigarettes as he roams the cities of Japan. I would imagine that if you're relinquishing a habit or an addiction, writing about it must be helpful. This is a wonderfully constructed book and I highly recommend "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" for the author's wit, insight and terrific narrative style.

David Sedaris has cost me a lot of money, all well spent, ever since the first time I heard him on This American Life. Subscription to The New Yorker, all his books, XM Radio so I could hear This American Life 7 days a week, tickets to see him perform live.....All worth the expense to be entertained and the stories I still snicker about when I think of them after witnessing another mundane task he has otherwise turned into an hilarious account.

I still prefer Me Talk Pretty One Day, but Sedaris' discussion of how he quit smoking made the book completely worth reading.

Great new book from David Sedaris, very entertaining. A good time laughing out loud!

I puchased the audio book narrated by the author, himself.

I had never read or even heard of Mr. Sedaris before.

If I had to capsulize this book in a sentence, I would call it "Rambling musings of an aging, self-loathing 'queen'." (And I don't the last word to be pejorative or homophobic in the least.) Some of the shorter vignettes are quite droll and mildly diverting. In the main, though, I found the autobiographical tales to be dull and a bit depressing. The longest of the essays, called "Smoking Section" is practically a daily log. It goes on far too long and failed utterly to hold this listener's interest. Even the two or three essays recorded before live audiences, where they evoked audible laughter, did not make me laugh out loud.

I think I'll go to the library and try to find one of Mr. Sedaris's older books -- the ones the some other reviewers promise to be actully funny. Maybe his writing was more interesting when he was drunk and/or stoned.

I may be being a bit over-critical. Any work that piques my interest enough to look for something by the same author can't be entirely unsuccessful.

I truly enjoyed this entire book! It is quite similar to his previous works, mostly "Me Talk Pretty One Day", but similar in the best ways.

Here you will find essays as funny as anything Sedaris has ever written. Unfortunately you will also find some of the most self-indulgent. When Sedaris writes of relationships -- with family and friends and lovers -- we can relate. He takes the ordinary and stretches it to the absurd, often tapping into secret feelings and emotions we thought only we had, and that makes us laugh at him and ourselves. But when Sedaris takes several months off to quit smoking and rents an apartment in Tokyo, as he does for about the last third of the book, he loses something. It's not that he has to smoke and be high to be funny (he doesn't), it's that most of us don't have the time or the dough for such extravagant vacations. We have jobs and we have bills. When Sedaris becomes not an exaggerated one of us, but a neurotic twit with so much money and fame he can slap his name on the cover of anything and know we will buy it, it is hard not to feel a bit duped. The last section of the book is mostly a collection of paragraphs, not essays. It feels lazy. It's hard to imagine anyone outside of his loyal fans (I consider myself one) finding any pleasure here. In the beginning the Sedaris wit says, "Look at us. Aren't we funny." Here, Sedaris is simply saying, "Look at me. Look at me." The joke is growing stale. I am reminded of Picasso, who in his last years would scribble on paper, sign his name, and laugh all the way to the bank. "I am so brilliant, I deserve this."

I love David Sedaris. I think he is funny and quirky and smart and clever. That said, I didn't love this book. Many of the stories in it were recycled - they were still funny, but I was looking forward to new stuff. Definitely get the book for your collection - the story about his quitting smoking is worth the price of admission, but don't expect all new tales.

Okay, so it's funny. (ish). There were probably a total of six pages that gave me the kind of squirt milk out of your nose laugh that I love. The rest were just mild chuckles that were spread further along than usual with a Sedaris book. i can't say I found it disappointing, I just wanted to bellyache a bit more. The only conclusion I can come up with after finishing the final longest essay about him quitting smoking, is that like everyone else he's growing older, maturing, and feeling a sense of responsibility. While this made for a sweet and somewhat poignant conclusion, I couldn't help but feel like some of his comedic acid was mellowing with age.

Sedaris has a talent not only for being hysterically witty, but also for poignancy. Each of his stories in this volume is a perfect package. He's especially mastered his endings; they blew me away, one after the next after the next. Each in a different way. I was fairly astounded that he was able to pull it off in every single story, making his neat little endings pack a punch each time. I feel for the people who don't understand Sedaris' wit and genius, because you're missing out on some universal humor here. He's brilliant.

I had just gotten back from a weekend spent in hippie-town, doing the massage thing. I picked up this book and was relieved that something so wrong could be so right. I spent the next few days picking the book up when I could.

David Sedaris can have the "dark humor" moments, but there are also quite a few times where I'm really struck by his kind side.

I love David Sedaris. Everytime I read his material, I honestly and full-heartedly laugh out loud. The manner in which he introduces his subject at hand and the intricacy in which he connects completely diverse topics to the main story without missing a beat is proof of a true comic genius. His experiences are at times raunchy, ludicrous, and over the top without ever overriding the basic human touch and need to be listened to and understood. His journeys make the reader think about their own lives, while at the same time becoming a bit voyeuristic into his life. He often writes of his family, his boyfriend, Hal, and misgivings of his life in such a way as that the reader feels part of their lives as well. Sedaris is truly one of the best writers I have come across, and one I continue to read. Besides the late George Carlin, David Sedaris is one of the only people to make me laugh out loud with every story, escapade and turn of the page. I always look forward to reading his work and enjoy him more and more with every story.

I am a huge David Sedaris fan, and having said that I was prepared to be laughing my you-know-what off with every turn of the page. I had eagerly awaited the publication of this book as my summer reading treat. As I began to read, I was slightly disappointed because (as others have mentioned) this is not the side-splitter I was expecting. However, I finished the book and ended up really enjoying it for what it is---a collectiton of essays from a neroutic, obsesive former smoker and alcoholic. (And I mean all of those in the very best way possible!) Sedaris' observations are interesting, peppered with clever analogies and occasionally downright hilarious. Reading this reminded me of the kooky conversations we all have in our heads at times, and it made me want take a trip with Sedaris just to have him narriate for me! It is definitely worth the read!

This book is excellent! For everyone that couldn't get past chapter three-- i recommend actually Reading the book. Mr. Sedaris's delightful sense of humor shines throughout.

p.s. avoid if you do not appreciate subtlety...feel free to use the word "dull"

David Sedaris somehow knows how to reach back again and again into his personal life and give the reader a public performance that never fails to please. Sitting with Engulfed in Flames has to be like sitting in the den listening to the author craft his experience, word by precise word, until you are on your own carpet with Sedaris's prose poking you in the ribs until you pass out from laughing. His brilliant take on family, his twist on reality, his grasp on just the right phrasem his turning the intimate into the shared -- all of it works like a crazy quilt that engulfs the reader not in flames, but in anti-sedating hysterics even about one's own weird and painful family memories.

I purchased this based on the reviews. I thought it would be a collection of humorous short stories. I was wrong, I have still not gotten the urge to chuckle for any of the stories...... A waste of money. Try reading Tim Cahill for some good adventurous short stories that WILL make you laugh.

After the long wait for a new David Sedaris book, this was (for the most part) not a disappointment. The humor and whackiness are all there, as you'd expect, as well as the collection of misfits and misadventures. However, something felt missing and I had a hard time putting my finger on it...finally, I realized - the whole book has a disjointed feel to it, there's no cohesiveness which makes it read like a collection of random happenings. Which isn't necessarily bad, but all of Sedaris' other books had that, which gave them more depth in the long run.

However, this is a minor criticism and the book is very entertaining regardless. I would recommend it to anybody who has enjoyed Sedaris' previous works.

I liked this book, although it is a bit different from some of his others. I heard him read a few of these stories while he was on tour a couple of years ago and was delighted to be able to get them on audio. I bought the book, but prefer to listen to the CD because his delivery adds a great deal to the story. The short essay about beating the nine year old swimming is some of his best material. I found myself laughing out loud several times.
While the format is different, it is still entertaining and funny. Those who find it to be "pornography" should stick to Christian lit.

Reading a book by David Sedaris is like reading a column by Garrison Keillor--mostly quite boring. Both are good when they are live reading their material because it is all in the delivery.

Well, I really looked forward to this book as I read Sedaris's other books and did laugh out loud a lot. This one is different. It seems as though the author got a bit lazy and really did just write down everything that went through his head. This is what you do to get ideas for a book, not what you do to write a book. The stories are not particularly funny and in some cases Mr. Sedaris comes close to pornography (two women in a bedroom with a horse), for example. I won't go into detail. The scene is not pretty. I think Mr. Sedaris has lost his touch. If I could return this book, I would. I refuse to donate it to the library as I wouldn't want to reduce the intelligence of the local community.

This was my first book by David Sedaris and it did not disappoint. This book is humorous, Sedaris has a great outlook on life. I especially enjoyed the piece called "That's Amore." The old lady in that story is quite a character, read it and find out what I am talking about. Wrapping my review up, I'll end it by saying that I will be reading more from David Sedaris and that "When You Are Engulfed In Flames" deserves two thumbs up.

My friends and I were hooked on Sedaris' books since Me Talk Pretty One Day, and I could not read many of the essays aloud to them because I kept cracking up in the middle. Though some of his stories are partly on the sentimental side whether they mean to be or not, much like his previous book, I found that I could not put this down. I admit I was disappointed when I saw that there were only 12 or so essays listed in the table of contents; but that was the only disappointment.
I highly recommend this book!

I loved this book and I adore the writing of D. Sedaris. I could barely put this book down. The stories are rich and full of delicious comedy and candor. I am looking forward to the next masterpiece from Mr. Sedaris.

I am one page from finishing the book so I think it's ok that I am breaking down and reviewing this. I am surprised that so many people didn't enjoy it, but there have been plenty of books that are described as "Hilarious!" and that contain "Side splitting humor at it's best!" that I wanted to flog the author with. Such is life. I savored every page and as usual, he made me laugh out loud...which really isn't easy to do. For this, I would give him my bright yellow shoe horn (if you read the book, you'll get it).

Very disappointed in this book, I was swayed by the good reviews I read. I now question their authenticity. I have to admit I only read the first 3 stories, but as other reviewers mentioned I didn't even chuckle. As I was reading I kept wondering when I would get to the good stuff and then started to feel as I had been duped. I'm not bothering reading the rest.

First book I ever read by David Sedaris and I'm hooked! Read this book in 2-3 days and laughed out loud many, many times! My favorite essay in the book is about the skeleton he bought Hugh in Paris! Absolutely hilarious!
Buy this book!

I LOVE everything else Sedaris has written but this book was just bad.
It reads like a very boring diary - not funny and at times fall asleep boring.
I really hope this is just a blip on the radar as his other books have all been fantastic, fun to read and insightful.

Avid readers of The New Yorker may be disappointed to find most of the stories here are reprints from past issues of the magazine. That's why it's a good thing that David Sedaris' essays hold up to repeated readings. The intentionally awkward title of the renowned humorist's latest collection of stories - 22 in total - comes from a list of fire escape instructions he found in his Japanese hotel room, a country to which he had traveled to stop smoking. His adventure is detailed in one of his more thoughtful accounts, "The Smoking Section", a near-novella at 83 pages. In typical form, Sedaris describes his addiction to candid zingers, but he becomes more contemplative once he does stop smoking and journeys to Tokyo to find his comic muse again, whether it's attending a language class, reading labels at the supermarket, or scraping the fecal matter off his shoe. The essay turns serious in Hiroshima where he visits the Peace Museum, which I agree is a tortuous exhibit to see for the visual devastation you see after the A-bomb hit the city. The net effect of his approach enhances the depth of his storytelling even if the laughs are not as forthcoming.

Aside from his smoke-enders story, some of the others run longer than the author's usual length. A good example is "That's Amore", a twenty-plus-page story he shares about a particularly cranky New York neighbor named Helen. There are laughs to be found, especially as he searches for her dentures in the shrubs below her window. However, he delves more deeply into the details of this surprising friendship rather than reaching for the next funny anecdote, and the story becomes more poignant than funny when the elderly Helen falls ill. A more familiar Sedaris can be found in "Solution to Saturday's Puzzle" in which he describes a flight to Raleigh on which he encounters a most difficult passenger who is the very definition of high maintenance. He makes a familiar situation purely his own, and as someone who regales in his acute observations of the human condition at its worst, Sedaris takes special delight in tormenting his fellow flyer no matter how inadvertently.

The rest of his essays are more typical of what we expect from Sedaris, running the gamut from his parents' efforts to become art collectors in "Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool" to life in the French countryside with his partner of nine years, set designer Hugh Hamrick. Hugh figures prominently in "Keeping Up", which exposes the author's innate haplessness in social situations and how he appreciates his partner even more as someone he truly cannot live without. I also particularly liked "Crybaby", a brief account of another airplane trip in which the author meets a grieving widower, watches a Chris Rock movie and is suddenly reminded of his own childhood forty years ago. Other episodes have him buying drugs in a mobile home in rural North Carolina, recalling a nasty babysitter named Mrs. Peacock who made children scratch her back with a plastic monkey hand; buying Hugh a human skeleton for Christmas, and responding to old people who don't act their age but still feel entitled to have his seat on the bus. Not as seamless or laugh-out-loud as Me Talk Pretty One Day, my personal favorite of his collections, this book shows a mellower Sedaris still good for a sharp quip but looking a little further past his next line.

No new ground is broken in these stories--many of which I found rather dull and unappealing.

I always worry that David Sedaris is going to run out of great stories, but by some miracle, he doesn't. I'm listening to this book (got it at audible.com) on my ipod while walking in the morning. I must look like an idiot grinning and laughing every block or two. I do recommend the audio version--Sedaris has a great, comedic voice. You'll enjoy the fact that Sedaris lets us in on the plain realities of his life (going to Princeton, his relationship with Hugh, etc.) a bit more than in earlier collections. Don't know what's bugging other reviewers. I give the book at A+.

As a long-time Sedaris fan, I was happy to see David had published a new book. No one writes sarcasm better than Sedaris and this book has some of his best essays and short stories.