When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Last updated
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
EngulfedSedaris.jpg
First edition cover
Author David Sedaris
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Essay collection
Publisher Little, Brown and Company
Publication date
June 3, 2008
Media typePrint (hardcover), audiobook
Pages323 pp (first edition, hardcover)
ISBN 0-316-14347-2 (first edition, hardcover)
OCLC 183392234
814/.54 22
LC Class PS3569.E314 W48 2008
Preceded by Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim  
Followed by Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary  

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

Contents

Sedaris's sixth book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames 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. The book was a commercial success, topping The New York Times Best Seller list for eight weeks.

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. He also appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman on July 18, 2008.

Cover art

Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette, oil on canvas, 1885, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam Vincent van Gogh - Head of a skeleton with a burning cigarette - Google Art Project.jpg
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 Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette , an early painting by Vincent van Gogh. [1]

Contents

  1. It's Catching – A work on Sedaris's partner Hugh and his mother
  2. Keeping Up – Sedaris trying to keep up with Hugh, who walks too fast
  3. The Understudy – Memories of a bad white trash babysitter.
  4. This Old House – Sedaris moves into a boarding house.
  5. Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie? – Sedaris'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 – Sedaris's fascination with corpses.
  10. In the Waiting Room – Language barriers and the consequences
  11. Solution to Saturday's Puzzle – Sedaris's throat lozenge falls onto a bitchy airplane seatmate
  12. Adult Figures Charging Toward a Concrete Toadstool – Sedaris's 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 Sedaris's recollections of a spider
  20. Crybaby – Sedaris sits next to a grieving man on a plane.
  21. Old Faithful – Hugh lances a boil on Sedaris's backside
  22. The Smoking Section – Sedaris tries to stop smoking in Japan

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vincent van Gogh</span> Dutch painter (1853–1890)

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold, symbolic colours, and dramatic, impulsive and highly expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. Only one of his paintings was known by name to have been sold during his lifetime. Van Gogh became famous after his suicide at age 37, which followed years of poverty and mental illness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Sedaris</span> American humorist and author (born 1956)

David Raymond Sedaris is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "Santaland Diaries". He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next book, Naked (1997), became his first of a series of New York Times Bestsellers, and his 2000 collection Me Talk Pretty One Day won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

<i>Me Talk Pretty One Day</i> 2000 essay collection by David Sedaris

Me Talk Pretty One Day, published in 2000, is a bestselling collection of essays by American humorist David Sedaris. The book is separated into two parts. The first part consists of essays about Sedaris’s life before his move to Normandy, France, including his upbringing in suburban Raleigh, North Carolina, his time working odd jobs in New York City, and a visit to New York from a childhood friend and her bumpkinish girlfriend. The second section, "Deux", tells of Sedaris’s move to Normandy with his partner Hugh, often drawing humor from his efforts to live in France without speaking French and his frustrated attempts to learn it. Prior to publication, several of the essays were read by the author on the Public Radio International program, This American Life.

<i>Sunflowers</i> (Van Gogh series) Series of paintings by Vincent van Gogh

Sunflowers is the title of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The first series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, made a year later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase. In the artist's mind, both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions. About eight months later, Van Gogh hoped to welcome and impress Gauguin again with Sunflowers, now part of the painted Décoration for the Yellow House that he prepared for the guestroom of his home in Arles, where Gauguin was supposed to stay. After Gauguin's departure, Van Gogh imagined the two major versions as wings of the Berceuse Triptych, and finally, he included them in his Les XX in Bruxelles exhibit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vincent van Gogh chronology</span>

This is a chronology of the artist Vincent van Gogh. It is based as far as possible on Van Gogh's correspondence. However, it has only been possible to construct the chronology by drawing on additional sources. Most of his letters are not dated and it was only in 1973 that a sufficient dating was established by Jan Hulsker, subsequently revised by Ronald Pickvance and marginally corrected by others. Many other relevant dates in the chronology derive from the biographies of his brother Theo, his uncle and godfather Cent, his friends Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gashadokuro</span> Japanese mythical creatures

Gashadokuro are mythical creatures in modern Japanese mythology.

The fame of Vincent van Gogh began to spread in France and Belgium during the last year of his life, and in the years after his death in the Netherlands and Germany. His friendship with his younger brother Theo was documented in numerous letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards. The letters were published in three volumes in 1914 by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, Theo's widow, who also generously supported most of the early Van Gogh exhibitions with loans from the artist's estate. Publication of the letters helped spread the compelling mystique of Vincent van Gogh, the intense and dedicated painter who died young, throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

<i>At Eternitys Gate</i> Oil painting by Vincent van Gogh

Sorrowing Old Man (At Eternity's Gate) is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he made in 1890 in Saint-Rémy de Provence based on an early lithograph. The painting was completed in early May at a time when he was convalescing from a severe relapse in his health some two months before his death, which is generally accepted as a suicide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auberge Ravoux</span> Historic landmark in French village of Auvers-sur-Oise

The Auberge Ravoux is a French historic landmark located in the heart of the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. It is known as the House of Van Gogh because the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh spent the last 70 days of his life as a lodger at the auberge. During his stay at Auvers, Van Gogh created more than 80 paintings and 64 sketches before shooting himself in the chest on 27 July 1890 and dying two days later on 29 July 1890. The auberge (inn) has been restored as a museum and tourist attraction. The room where Van Gogh lived and died has been restored and can be viewed by the public.

<i>Landscape with Snow</i> Painting by Vincent van Gogh

Landscape with Snow is a painting by Vincent van Gogh in 1888, believed to be one of the first paintings that he made in Arles. It is one of at least ten 1882 to 1889 oil and watercolor van Gogh paintings of a snowy landscape. The painting reflects the La Crau plains set against Montmajour and hills along the horizon.

<i>Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin</i>

Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1887. Agostina Segatori owned the Café du Tambourin that Van Gogh knew intimately. It was a gathering spot for Parisian artists, a place where their work was exhibited. Van Gogh, unable to pay in cash for his meals, exchanged paintings for his fare. The paintings then adorned the restaurant. He held a special exhibit of his Japanese prints in the café as well. His connection with Agostina and the cafe came to a sad end when she went bankrupt and van Gogh's paintings were confiscated by creditors. This painting, however, demonstrates an artistic discovery that culminated in his unique, creative style not quite on the brink of being understood and revered.

<i>Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses</i> 1890 painting by Vincent van Gogh

Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses was painted in 1890 by Vincent van Gogh in Saint-Rémy. At the time the work was painted Van Gogh was readying himself to leave the Saint-Rémy asylum for the quiet town of Auvers-sur-Oise outside of Paris. This and the similarly-dated Pink Roses reflect the optimism Van Gogh felt at that time about his future, both in his choice of flowers as a subject and the colors used. The painting is owned by the National Gallery of Art of Washington, D.C.

<i>Paintings of Children</i> (Van Gogh series) Series of paintings by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh enjoyed making Paintings of Children. He once said that it's the only thing that "excites me to the depths of my soul, and which makes me feel the infinite more than anything else." Painting children, in particular represented rebirth and the infinite. Over his career Van Gogh did not make many paintings of children, but those he completed were special to him. During the ten years of Van Gogh's career as a painter, from 1881 to 1890, his work changed and grew richer, particularly in how he used color and techniques symbolically or evocatively.

<i>Almond Blossoms</i> Group of paintings by Vincent van Gogh

Almond Blossoms is a group of several paintings made in 1888 and 1890 by Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Saint-Rémy, southern France of blossoming almond trees. Flowering trees were special to van Gogh. They represented awakening and hope. He enjoyed them aesthetically and found joy in painting flowering trees. The works reflect the influence of Impressionism, Divisionism, and Japanese woodcuts. Almond Blossom was made to celebrate the birth of his nephew and namesake, son of his brother Theo and sister-in-law Jo.

<i>Seine</i> (Van Gogh series) Painting series by Vincent van Gogh

Seine (paintings) is the subject and location of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made in 1887. The Seine has been an integral part of Parisian life for centuries for commerce, travel and entertainment. Here van Gogh primarily captures the respite and relief from city life found in nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris)</span>

Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris) is the subject of many drawings, sketches and paintings by Vincent van Gogh in 1886 and 1887 after he moved to Montmartre in Paris from the Netherlands. While in Paris, Van Gogh transformed the subjects, color and techniques that he used in creating still life paintings.

The events that befell the early paintings and drawings by Vincent van Gogh in the period prior to the posthumous recognition of Vincent van Gogh as an innovative artist show how the appreciation of his legacy changed his reputation in a relatively short time.

<i>Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg</i>

Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg is a watercolor by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh that he made in January 1882, shortly after taking up residence in The Hague.

<i>Head in Flames</i> Novel by Lance Olsen

Head in Flames is a postmodern novel by Lance Olsen, published by Chiasmus Press in 2009.

<i>Landscape at Auvers in the Rain</i> 1890 painting by Vincent van Gogh

Landscape at Auvers in the Rain is an oil painting on canvas by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh.

References

  1. "Early Paintings by Vincent van Gogh". HowStuffWorks. 28 August 2007.


Preceded by #1 New York Times Best Seller Non-Fiction
June 22, 2008 – July 27, 2008
Succeeded by