When You Are Engulfed in Flames

By: David Sedaris

Published by Little, Brown, 2009-06-02

"David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," (<i>The Christian Science Monitor</i>) is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this remarkable new book. <br>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" (<i>Seattle Times</i>). <br><br>Praise for When You Are Engulfed in Flames:<br><br>"Older, wiser, smarter and meaner, Sedaris...defies the odds once again by delivering an intelligent take on the banalities of an absurd life." --<i>Kirkus Reviews</i><br><br>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." --<i>Booklist</i><br><br>Table of Contents:<br><br>It's Catching<br>Keeping Up<br>The Understudy<br>This Old House<br>Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?<br>Road Trips<br>What I Learned<br>That's Amore<br>The Monster Mash<br>In the Waiting Room<br>Solutions to Saturday's Puzzle<br>Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool<br>Memento Mori<br>All the Beauty You Will Ever Need<br>Town and Country<br>Aerial<br>The Man in the Hut<br>Of Mice and Men<br>April in Paris<br>Crybaby<br>Old Faithful<br>The Smoking Section<br><br><br><br>