Book Review: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

I recently received 2 of David Sedaris' books as gifts and have loved reading them.  His works are compilations of stories about his life, mostly everyday happenings that are just hilariously funny.

One of his earlier books is called Me Talk Pretty One Day.  He writes about his family, his boyfriend, and his life as an American living in France.  The funniest part was when his classmates were trying to describe the concept of Easter in broken French to a Moroccan student, who had a hard time believing in a rabbit who brings you chocolate in the middle of the night.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is comprised of more stories about Sedaris' family, his boyfriend, his life in New York, and his life in France.  The New York part described a cabbie who used terms that made me feel embarrassed to read it in a roomful of moms & kids at my daughter's piano lesson. 

Sedaris also describes his relationship with cigarettes and his brief stay in Japan.  While at the pool, he realized that he was the only person with hair on his chest.  "This was bad enough, but to have it on my back as well - I could actually feel myself disgusting people." 

Some literature in Japan that he found amusing: 
-a hotel booklet with the heading "When you are engulfed in flames."
-a gift bag that said "Only imflowing you don't flowing imflowing." 

Don't miss these books--Sedaris will have you laughing out loud.

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