David Sedaris, When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Last night I finished David Sedaris's most recent book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

Mostly because Me Talk Pretty One Day reduced my aunt and me to tears when we read it out loud in Italy one summer, and because I got to hear him read in Omaha five or six years ago (and now hear his stories in my head as if he were reading them out loud), I buy and read all his books (albeit rather late, in this case) despite being less impressed with them. Probably the humor is quieter and more mature, but I can't help feeling like he's not quite as funny as he used to be, or at least that the novelty has worn off.

This is not to say that When You Are Engulfed didn't have its laugh-out-loud moments. The final chapter, "The Smoking Section," was definitely my favorite, even though I have no experience with smoking or quitting.* Perhaps I simply find him at his funniest when he's writing about the difficulty of learning a language?

Actually, the final section was so funny that it kind of redeemed the rest of the book for me, which I felt started quite slowly. (I did, however, finish the book in under two weeks, while reading two others; short stories--and in Sedaris's case, often quite short--do slide down awfully easily.)

I'd recommend the book for established fans who want the usual nicely-packaged, if somewhat less hilarious, morsels of Sedaris wit. If you've never read him before, I highly suggest starting with Me Talk Pretty and moving on from there if you feel so inspired.

*It occurs to me that my life might be better if I did have more experience with quitting things, generally.