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Rating:  -
This was my first David Sedaris book, I know I've read at least one other article, and I may have read others (but I never paid attention to who the author was). I've read, and heard, that I needed to read some of his other works. The uniqueness of the cover art on his many books makes it easy to remember that his books are all around the bookstores.
So I gave it a try with When You Are Engulfed in Flames.
I enjoyed it, and was surprised later to read that many loyal fans considered this collection of essays a let-down. In particular, I liked his long treatise on his efforts to give up smoking during a long visit to Japan:
[In regards to depictions of smoking in high school textbooks,] Sedaris wrote, "It seems crazy to cut smoking mothers out of textbooks, but within a few years they won't be allowed in movies either. A woman can throw her newborn child from the roof of a high-rise building. She can then retrieve the body and stomp on it while shooting into the windows of a day care center, but to celebrate these murders by lighting a cigarette is to send a harmful message. There are, after all, young people watching, and we wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea" (p. 250-251). Ouch!
But there's a humor there as well that can't help but make you chuckle: "I peeled away my [nicotine] patch last night and was disgusted by the cruddy shadow it left. It feels like I've been wearing a bumper sticker, so instead of replacing the one I took off, I think I'll just go without and see what happens. As for my three hundred dollars' worth of lozenges, I still haven't opened them, and don't think I'm going to. What I've been doing instead is rolling index cards into little tubes. I put one in my mouth when I sit down to write, and then I slowly chew it to a paste and swallow it. I'm now up to six a day and am wondering if I should switch to a lighter, unlined brand" (p. 276). I'm chuckling even as I type this!
There's enough here that I want more. Time to look for one of those distinctive covers!
Rating:  -
David has always been funny, but this CD seemed not just funny but insightful and sensitive. He's brillant and human and generous to share his observations with us. I purchased the CD because his inflections and voice imitations provide an extra layer of hilarity. I just hope I don't sit next to him on an airplane!
Rating: -
Loved this book - absolutely priceless!
The other parents at my son's Tae Kwan Do studio still look at me funny.... ("There's that woman who sits in the corner reading and bursts into laughter every few minutes...").
Ah. Little do they know the wonderful reason...
This book and "Naked" are the only two Sedaris books I've read thusfar; looking forward to reading all of his books.
Sedaris is quite gifted at mining humor from the dry and mundane "everyday" happenings of life.
(I'm quite sure I'll never forget Mrs. Peacock, her "margarine hair" or her forced back scratches. (Gives me the willies just thinking about it...!)
Rating: -
Probably my least favourite David Sedaris book that I've read but it's still pretty fantastic. Some of the stories are proper laugh-out-loud affairs while others are oddly touching. The last piece, about giving up cigs, feels overly long but stays with you. Sedaris could write pretty much anything and I'd read it. Definitely worth the read but if a gift for a Sedaris newcomer perhaps go for Naked instead.
Rating: -
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3F28BJY8G4FOR Less than two minutes of general impressions from an NPR listener. The reviewer has never read any of Sedaris's other works and had no prior knowledge of the book's plot or premise.
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