When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is the latest collection of David Sedaris’s sort of autobiographical essays. I would suggest the audio book over the printed one, as the sound of David Sedaris’s voice is something special.

Mel Blanc was one of those men with A Thousand Voices kind of guys, who looked a little small and average when compared to his cartoony talents. David Sedaris has his own personal cartoon voice. David Sedaris has a kind of stereotypical gay voice that is soft and subdued and, I want to say feminine, but that isn’t quite it either. You expect him to look like a cartoon Woody Allen-only not quite so masculine.

I’ve been listen the docile tones of David Sedaris for several years now, he is a regular feature on PBS and his Santaland Dairies a bona fide classic. His stories and his articles only reinforce the notice that he is tiny little wisp of a homosexual, and that if you took the trouble to look up Gay in the dictionary, you’d very like find his photo there.

So I was a bit shocked to see David Sedaris doing a reading on Letterman. He looked like, well, a normal man. So much so that it is jarring to the senses when he opens his mouth and out come the wimpy little trills of David Sedaris. But even more odd is that I hear the familiar and slightly patronizing voice of David Sedaris while I am reading When You Are Engulfed In Flames.

Like all of David’s little essays, these are both funny and profound. David Sedaris is that rare individual that you can both look up to as a great writer and look down upon as a lousy human being. But that is likely just a side effect of his being a great writer. He is so self deprecating that it approaches self loathing. But it is still funny stuff. Still makes you say, well, my family is screwed up but at least not as badly screwed up as his. There is every possibly that if David Sedaris saw this, he would instantly jump to the defense of his family. He can say what he wants, but I can’t. Or maybe not-it’s hard to imagine David Sedaris getting too upset at anyone besides his partner, and even then his rages are all used up on himself.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is a lot of fun, but there are plenty of moments of discomfort as well. In one of his little tales he is hitchhiking. He is picked up by people who believe the bumper sticker-no ass, no grass, no free ride. David Sedaris is a young man at this point, a young gay man. So he is less than thrilled with an old man-at least forty-and his wife pick him and invite him to have oral sex. Later he is picked up by a man, a married man, who also finds David Sedaris a likely oral sex partner. David Sedaris is still a virgin and he has these romantic visions of making love for the first time. He images small talk, and silly things, like know the man’s name, for his first time. Doing it with a stranger in a car doesn’t quite seem the perfect situation. There is something that strikes me odd about this ideal homosexual first time out of a Harlequin Romance-and I am not why.

I don’t know David Sedaris, and the odds are good I never will. As with Steve Martin, I feel like I know him. I could sit down and chat with David Sedaris about such small matters as the meaning of life. But David Sedaris would have no more interest in talking to me than Steve Martin would. They put themselves out there, and yet they are shocked when people think their onstage persona is their Real Self. I do enjoy reading the books, though.

David Sedaris is an amazing writer and performer. When You Are Engulfed in Flames falls right into place with his other works-it’s simply brilliant.