When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

As I read When You Are Engulfed in Flames I thought about what I could say about this hilarious book of essays in my review. The key point I wanted to make is this: David Sedaris has a way of making the everyday things that happen in our lives comical.

Wait! Why is that my prevailing thought? When is the everyday shopping for a human skeleton and then trying to figure out how to gift wrap it? Or finding yourself in your underwear in the waiting room of the doctor's office? David Sedaris has a gift of relating to you through his own bizarre experiences and then making you laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

In St. Louis the bow tie was characterized as "very Charlie McCarthy," while in Chicago a young man defined it as "the pierced eyebrow of the Republican party." This sent the bow tie back into my suitcase, where it begged forgiveness...

It sometimes helps to remind myself that not everyone is like me. Not everyone writes things down in a notebook and then transcribes them into a diary. Fewer still will take that diary, clean it up a bit, and read it in front of an audience.

"Maybe the recorded birds are saying something about free food," he suggested, but to me the message seemed much darker: a call to anarchy, or possibly even murder.

Check it out!

P.S. This book counts as my Book with Fire (or Equivalent) in the Title for the What's In a Name Challenge.