When You Are Engulfed in Flames » (Unabridged)

Starting with his deadpan, disarmingly funny pieces on NPR and continuing with his collections of short fiction and essays, David Sedaris is one of the best, sharpest humorists writing today. His quirky history and family are rich material, but he's also just as hilarious simply satirizing Christmas cards or mocking his own vices.

Once again, David Sedaris brings together a collection of essays so uproariously funny and profoundly moving that his legions of fans will fall for him once more. He tests the limits of love when Hugh lances a boil from his backside, and pushes the boundaries of laziness when, finding the water shut off in his house in Normandy, he looks to the water in a vase of fresh cut flowers to fill the coffee machine. From armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds to the awkwardness of having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a sleeping fellow passenger on a plane, David Sedaris uses life's most bizarre moments to reach new heights in understanding love and fear, family and strangers. Culminating in a brilliantly funny account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking, David Sedaris's sixth essay collection will be avidly anticipated.

The New York Times - Vanessa Grigoriadis

[Sedaris] tallies up the last 25 years, the prime of his life, and isn't impressed by the sum: "How had 9,125 relatively uneventful days passed so quickly," he writes, "and how can I keep it from happening again?" As usual, Sedaris has lots of answers to the first question but not many to the second in this delightful compilation of essays circling the theme of death and dying, with nods to the French countryside, art collecting and feces.

It's Catching 3

Keeping Up 11

The Understudy 20

This Old House 33

Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie? 49

Road Trips 63

What I Learned 73

That's Amore 82

The Monster Mash 109

In the Waiting Room 117

Solution to Saturday's Puzzle 125

Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool 135

Memento Mori 148

All the Beauty You Will Ever Need 158

Town and Country 166

Aerial 176

The Man in the Hut 183

Of Mice and Men 195

April in Paris 205

Crybaby 217

Old Faithful 228

The Smoking Section 240