When You are Engulfed in Flames

by David Sedaris

David Sedaris's remarkable ability to uncover the hilarious absurdity teeming just below the surface of everyday life is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this new book of stories. Sedaris proceeds from bizarre conundrums of daily life ? the etiquette of having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a fellow passenger or how to soundproof your windows with LP covers against neurotic songbirds ? to the most deeply resonant human truths. Taking in the parasitic worm that once lived in his mother-in-law's leg, an encounter with a dingo and the purchase of a human skeleton, and culminating in a brilliant account of his attempt to quit smoking ? in Tokyo ? David Sedaris's sixth story collection is a fresh masterpiece of comic writing.

• ISBN10: 0316143472
• ISBN13: 9780316143479
• Publish Date: 1 July 2008 (first published 3 September 2007)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Little Brown and Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

I love David Sedaris and his new book did not disappoint, and after getting it at Barnes and Noble I began reading it the next day.

My favorite story in the book is about David Sedaris buying a skeleton as a Christmas present for his boyfriend Hugh. He finds not one but two skeletons, an infant and an adult and describes himself contemplating which one to purchase, the infant would be easier to wrap just put it in a dresser drawer and tie a ribbon on it were as the full grown corpse would be more difficult, in the end he decides to go with the adult skeleton later regretting it when the corpse tells him he is going to die.

I know it probably sounds slightly disturbing but it's hysterical to read about him bartering over the price and debating how to wrap the decomposing gift. Maybe I just have a sick and twisted mind but I was crying I was laughing so hard.