In our present culture, we sometimes write "LOL" meaning laugh out loud to recognize something is funny, but this is usually just a smile or an acknowledgment of a humorous situation. I can sincerely type LOL, or even ROFL, or LSHIS (laughed so hard I snorted). This is funny. Sedaris has a rare gift of relating a hilarious story or by simply telling a commonplace occurrence in a funny way. So why just three stars? In between the laughs is the not altogether likable persona of Sedaris. He may imp...

Here's my take on Sedaris, or maybe my take on Sedaris before I listened to this book: Naked is easily his best work because it's his most thorough, his most unencumbered by his own fame. If we were to compare his oeuvre to MTV's The Real World, Naked is the original New York season (despite not being Sedaris's first book). In New York, the cast members were people already living in the city (with the Alabama exception) and trying to make a living; the whole "be on TV" part of it was something

Yep, pogo-stick time! Leave it to Sedaris to send me bouncing!Okay. Imagine this: You end up in a waiting room in France in just your underwear, all because you uttered “I agree” in French. Or, how about if you coughed so hard a lozenge flew from your mouth onto the lap of a nasty passenger sitting next to you on a plane? Seriously, these things happened to Sedaris, and man can he make every little detail hilarious. I’m grinning just thinking of the pickles he had to wriggle out of! Sedaris is m...

3.5 or maybe 4 - rounding up because I was entertained. Not my favorite Sedaris. This one seemed to be darker and more serious than the others of his I have read (includes some artsy filler stories). There were some of the usual amusing tales - most of which in this book took place in France or on an airplane. The last 1/3 of the book (or so) was a cross between what it is like to live in Japan and being a smoker from start to finish. I don't think I would recommend that someone start here if th...

When You Are Engulfed in Flames continues David Sedaris' cataloguing of the awkward moments of his life in humorous, memoir-like essays. Herein are more of his usual daily-life topics: getting to know the neighbors (I.E. the local child molester), his fascination with creepy shit, the annoying people that enter his life, relationship issues (poor Hugh comes in for it in this one!), his pet spider and a mish-mash of other stuff.Sedaris is very open about his personal issues. He has some OCDs and

When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris and narrated by author is a book I picked up from the library. I enjoyed this book so much! The first story had me laughing so much!!! He has a way of telling a basic story but making it extraordinary and either heartwarming, thought provoking, or hilarious! I could relate to many of his characters! I think I have seem them all he listed. Love his books!

Oh, David Sedaris. I'll always love him for rescuing me from the bog-of-eternal-stench which is A Little Life. I survived my weeks-long recovery from that epic torture session by reading Sedaris' hilarious Me Talk Pretty One Day. He earned lifelong gratitude from me, reminding me books don't have to include dozens of sexual assaults, or a multitude of self harm shower scenes, in order to be great. They can actually make you LAUGH. OUT LOUD. IN PUBLIC. Or, in my car, in endless Montreal traffic,

When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David SedarisCollection of essays so uproariously funny and profoundly moving that his legions of fans will fall for him once more. Sedaris 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 songb...

“How different life looks when people behave themselves.”"When You are Engulfed in Flames" is a more mature and serious work from Mr. Sedaris. Just like the rest of us, he is growing up. Death, the comfort and security of old relationships, and the humility of age are all thematic elements in this text. However, that is not to say that Sedaris has lost his inimitable sense of style and humor. “Flames” is a seriously funny book, but it has more pages between the laugh out loud antics of some of S...

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/The funniest collection by David Sedaris that I’ve read so far. There just aren’t words to express how happy these books make me. Sedaris is by far my favorite humorist/essayist/columnist/whatever-ist you want to call him. His writing can turn my frown upside down and always leaves me laughing like a lunatic. My infatuation actually began with another Sedaris – David’s sister Amy. Anyone who looks like this: But prefers to get paid

Eh.That’s my review: eh.With maybe a shoulder shrug.Someone better read than I recently remarked something to the effect of, “Once you’ve read one David Sedaris book, haven’t you read them all?”Yes.And Kurt Vonnegut.And several others. But that’s neither here nor there.Sedaris’s recent book makes such a dismissive comment truer than ever. For readers familiar with Holidays on Ice, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and Me Talk Pretty One Day, there is little Funny and Original to enjoy fro...

When you are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris was a much needed reprieve from a miserable previous book. I was after something to lighten the mood and make me laugh. Well, Sedaris did the trick – I downloaded it onto my Kindle around 10pm, sullen, miserable and crestfallen. Halfway through the first chapter of my new book, I was laughing out loud. ”It was just a Guinea Worm, people get them all the time” Hugh’s (David’s Boyfriend) Mother explained regarding a worm she previously had growing o...

I find humor particularly difficult to review. Even if I like a work, what sparks my smile may leave you cold. So much depends upon a shared sensibility - which is, in actuality, the bedrock of the craft.The art of comedy lies, for the most part, in guiding a mind to merge with yours for a moment to rejoice in the ridiculousness of reality. It's not enough to know what's funny, not if you plan to take this act on the road. Because as much as an audience may want - or even need - to get the joke,...

Dear Mr. Sedaris,First off, I understand that you live in France. With your boyfriend. In France. Where they speak French, because it's France. Thank you for reminding me you live in France, with your boyfriend, where they speak French, with funny French accents, and funny funny French words, with their French ways, every ten to twelve pages. Else I might have forgotten you live in . . . wait, where was it again?No, seriously, I'm glad you have an army of NPR-head fans to squirm with delight at

In my binge listening to Sedaris lately, looking for laughs and something to lighten my day I didn't find this selection of essays as humorous as the 3 previous books. I even went through it a second time to be sure. There were definitely some funny moments and some chuckles to be had and the trademark Sedaris take on people and awkward situations. But there were more than the usual number of characters in this selection that were acerbic and unlikable and some of the essays just fell flat for m...