When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Starred review from April 28, 2008
Sedaris, king of the poignantly absurd, triumphs in this sixth essay collection (after 2004's Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
). There is less focus here on the Sedaris clan as a whole, though the various members make memorable and often hilarious appearances. In “The Understudy,” the Sedaris siblings band together to battle the odious babysitter Mrs. Peacock, while in “Town and Country,” Sedaris and sister Amy discuss what their father would be most offended to find on his daughter's coffee-table (hint: The Joy of Sex
comes in a distant second). Leaving America behind, Sedaris also regales readers with his experiences around the globe, from sitting in a Parisian doctor's office wearing only his underwear in “In the Waiting Room” to warding off birds in the French countryside with record albums in “Aerial.” In the collection's longest essay, “The Smoking Section,” Sedaris recounts his three-month stay in Tokyo, where he successfully quits smoking and unsuccessfully attempts to learn Japanese. Sedaris records in “Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?” his more glaring mistakes in life, but he should be satisfied with the knowledge that this latest endeavor is anything but.

April 15, 2008
With essay collectionssuch asNaked (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Sedaris kicked the door down for the quirky memoir genre and left it open for writers like Augusten Burroughs and Jeannette Walls to moseyon through.Sometimesthe originators of a certain trend in literature are surpassed by their own disciplesbut, this is Sedaris were talking about.When it comes to fashioning the sardonic wisecrack, the humiliating circumstance, and the absurdist fantasy, theres nobody better. Unfortunately, being in a league of your own often means competing with yourself.This latest collection of 22 essays provesthat not onlydoes Sedaris stillhave it, buthes also getting better. True, the terrain is familiar. The essays Old Faithful and Thats Amore again feature Sedaris overly competent boyfriend, Hugh. And nutty sister Amycan be found leafing through bestial pornography in Town and Country. Present also are Sedaris favored topics: death, compulsion, unwanted sexual advances, corporal decay, and more death. Nevertheless, Sedaris best stuff will stillafter all this timemove, surprise, and entertain.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

Starred review from June 30, 2008
Sedaris's sparkling essays always shimmer more brightly when read aloud by the author. And his expert timing, mimicry and droll asides are never more polished than during live performances in front of an audience. Happily, four of the 22 pieces are live recordings, and listeners can hear Sedaris's energy increase from the roaring, rolling laughter of the appreciative audience. Sedaris's studio recording of his 10-page “Of Mice and Men” runs 16 minutes, while the live recording of “Town and Country,” which runs the same length in print, expands to 22 minutes thanks to an audience that often doesn't let him finish a sentence without making him pause for laughter to subside. The studio recordings usually begin with an acoustic bass and brief sound effect (a buzzing fly, the lighting of a cigarette, the clinking of ice in a drink, etc.). Sedaris's brilliant magnum opus, “The Smoking Section” (about his successful trip to Tokyo is quit smoking) stretches across the final two CDs. A Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 28).