book review--When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

[pennie_dreadful]

 

I came upon this book very accidentally.  I ordered some books from the Literary Guild, and one of my selections was unavailable, so they sent me a free book voucher.  I went to their website to poke around, but I was pressed for time, and so picked the first likely thing to catch my eye.

It's a collection of essays written by a middle aged gay guy who divides his time between New York City and Normandy.  Observations on death, disease, art, drug use and being gay in today's society verseus when he was growing up, and (my favorite) an extra long, day by day account of when he quit smoking in Tokyo.  He has this terrific, self deprecating sense of humor, and he spares no details.  A quick read, but very entertaining, and I'm definately looking up the rest of his books.  I've read up on it (naturally) and the general consensus seems to be that it's not as good as his previous work.  Which if it's the case for me, then I really really need to find his other stuff!

I dreamed that I was getting married to a woman.  I was discussing our plans with someone (don't know who they were, one of those weird dream things) and my dad suddenly came up to us.  I leaned over to the person I was talking to and said, "shhh, don't say a word about the wedding, he doesn't know."  But then my dad said, "I want you to know that I overheard every word of your conversation with Mary (one of my sisters)."  A pause, in which I felt the blood drain from my face (what was I talking about with Mary?).  "It was interesting," he said, and then he walked off.  And then, in the way of dreams, I was suddenly at work, thinking, I'm not a lesbian!  Why am I marrying a woman?!  Why am I marrying anyone?!"

Comments

[aurillia.livejournal.com]

The name "David Sedaris" is always so familiar, yet I've never read anything or seen his books and I wonder whether I'm getting him confused with a movie director, someone like David Mamet perhaps?

I had to laugh at your dream. I've had some disturbing ones along similar lines and they do leave you waking up going WTF? I guess our subconscious mind has a lot fewer inhibitions than our conscious mind does!

[kat-nic.livejournal.com]

Well he's a bestseller, so you've more than likely seen his name somewhere.

I think the dream was just the result of finally getting the book, and realizing the author was gay, and reading it right before bed. When I ordered it I just liked the cover and the fact that it wasn't a novel. He kept making a reference to Hugh but he never actually says at first that Hugh is his boyfriend.