When You Are Engulfed in Flames

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is a collection of essays by bestselling American humorist David Sedaris. It was released on June 3, 2008.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames
First edition cover
AuthorDavid Sedaris
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreEssay collection
PublisherLittle, Brown and Company
Publication date
June 3, 2008
Media typePrint (hardcover), audiobook
Pages323 pp (first edition, hardcover)
ISBN0-316-14347-2 (first edition, hardcover)
OCLC183392234
814/.54 22
LC ClassPS3569.E314 W48 2008
Preceded byDress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim 
Followed bySquirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary 

Synopsis

Sedaris's sixth book assembles essays on various situations such as trying to make coffee when the water is shut off, associations in the French countryside, buying drugs in a mobile home in rural North Carolina, having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a fellow passenger on a plane, armoring windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds, lancing a boil from another's backside, and venturing to Japan to quit smoking. Little, Brown and Company issued a first-run hardcover release of 100,000 copies.

Television appearances

Sedaris was a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central on June 3, 2008. During the interview he recommended moving to Hiroshima, Japan for three months to stop smoking. This smoking cessation method, which cost the author $23,000, is the subject of the last essay of his book. He also described the genesis for the name of his book. It was the name of a chapter in a book he found in a hotel room in Hiroshima, Japan. He also appeared on The Late Show on CBS, with David Letterman.

Cover art
Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette, oil on canvas, 1885, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

The first-edition cover was designed by Chip Kidd. It features an early painting by Vincent van Gogh.[1]

Contents

(Check Numeration)

  1. It's Catching - A work on Hugh and his mom
  2. Keeping Up - David trying to keep up with Hugh, who walks too fast
  3. The Understudy - Memories of a bad white trash babysitter.
  4. This Old House - David moves into a boarding house.
  5. Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie? - David's recollections on various bad clothes and "accessories"
  6. Road Trips - Being picked up by a driver who wants a blow job.
  7. What I Learned - Talking about Princeton
  8. That's Amore - A rude neighbor named Helen
  9. The Monster Mash - David's fascination with corpses.
  10. In the Waiting Room - Language barriers and the consequences
  11. Solution to Saturday's Puzzle - David's throat lozenge falls onto a bitchy airplane seatmate
  12. Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool - His parents collecting art
  13. Memento Mori - Buying a skeleton for Hugh
  14. All the Beauty You Will Ever Need - Making coffee without water and his relationship with Hugh
  15. Town and Country - A cabbie in New York who talks about his sex life
  16. Aerial - Using album covers to scare away birds
  17. The Man in the Hut - A neighbor in France who was sent to prison for molesting his wife's grandchildren
  18. Of Mice and Men - About icebreaker conversations
  19. April in Paris - About interacting with animals and David's recollections of a spider
  20. Crybaby - David sits next to a grieving man on a plane.
  21. Old Faithful - Hugh lances a boil on David's backside
  22. The Smoking Section - David tries to stop smoking in Japan
gollark: Me too!
gollark: The way the raffle works now is that you can just claim your prize during the month.
gollark: The chances are slightly better than *that*.
gollark: (I mean, it's ridiculously unlikely, but you know)
gollark: If I get one I'll call it "I Still Want Market Prizes".

References
  1. "Early Paintings by Vincent van Gogh". HowStuffWorks.


Preceded by
What Happened
by Scott McClellan		 #1 New York Times Best Seller Non-Fiction
June 22, 2008 – July 27, 2008		 Succeeded by
The Obama Nation
by Jerome Corsi


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