When You are Engulfed in Flames David Sedaris's new book keeps readers laughing as he takes them through his childhood babysitter nightmares, to young adult drug culture, to France and finally his tale of smoking from his youth until he recently moved to Japan temporarily to kick the habit. He tells how smoking changed his persona from a cowering young man to confidence with tough looking strangers. Here is a selection."It was odd. I'd always heard how clean Canada was, how peaceful, but perhaps people had been talking about a different part, the middle maybe, or those rocky islands off the eastern coast. Here it was just one creepy drunk after another. The ones who were passed out I didn't mind so much, but those on their way to passing out--those who would still totter and flail their arms--made me afraid for my life. Take this guy who approached me after I left the store, this guy with a long black braid. It wasn't the gentle, ropy kind you'd have if you played the flute, but something more akin to a bullwhip: a prison braid, I told myself. A month earlier I might have simply cowered, but now I put a cigarette in my mouth, the way one might if he were about to be executed. This man was going to rob me, then lash me with his braid and set me on fire--but no. 'Give me one of those,' he said, and pointed to the pack I was holding. I handed him a Viceroy, and when he thanked me, I smiled and thanked him back."
Sedaris keeps the laughs going throughout the book. His prose is never boring, stale, or stereotypical. Read it and surprise yourself by laughing out loud.
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