"When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris

"When You Are Engulfed in Flames"
by David Sedaris
Narrated by David Sedaris
Produced by Hachette Audio
approx. 9 hours


First let me say, I just love David Sedaris. Okay that said, I may be a little biased but his stories are just so funny and so well written, they make for a perfect humorous audio book source, especially when read by the author. Some of these are even recordings from his lecture tours so you get the fun audience reaction on some of the stories.

Sedaris has a way with finding the humor in the normal everyday happenings, from lancing a boil to rude neighbors to quitting smoking. Every one of the stories in this book had a little bit of a humorous witty twist that made want to go back and listen to the story again to fully analyze how he came to his final point.

Most of the stories in this book seemed to center around his partner Hugh where in his previous books David's family were the source of the the humor. Many of the stories in this book had the laugh out loud moments but some had some very poignant moments and still some had a great combination of both. The written stories when heard really felt as if he were telling you the story just then, kind of a train of thought type process that moved the story and made it so you have to listen and that you know something good is coming up.

One of the stories talks about when he's going away to Princeton and how proud his parents are. Sedaris then throws the listener a curve ball when he tells his father he's majoring in "Patricide." David's mom gets jealous and asks "I'm not good enough for you?" He then replies that he'll look into a double major. After some time at Princeton he becomes a writer and his parents ask, "What are you trying to do, kill us?"

Another very funny story happens when he's on a plane heading for the U.S. for one of his lecture tours and he is shamed by his own clothing when a very well dressed couple sit next to him. But his shame is soon turned to laugh out loud fun when the elderly couple begin using the "f"-word and the "s"-word in very creative ways.

The latter part of the book is about his and Hugh's trip to Japan. The purpose of the trip, to stop smoking. The whole stranger in a strange land idea reaches hilarious heights as he tries new food, tries to learn the language, and all while quitting smoking.

Once again Sedaris delivers fun while pointing out the realism of life in "When You are Engulfed in Flames"