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1-Page Summary of When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Overall Summary

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is a compilation of essays by David Sedaris. It’s his sixth book, and it contains many different stories from his life that are all connected to each other because they’re about family, sexuality, travel and the modern world. He writes with irony and humour about the difficulties of sustaining familial relationships, as well as the complexity of sexuality. The collection became very popular because it was so hard to classify together – just like today’s society!

Sedaris writes about his childhood in the early 1970s. He was born into a middle-class family and had six siblings. His parents were both struggling with marital problems and substance abuse, which made it difficult to get attention from them or their children. The only way he could escape was by reading books, which helped him make sense of the world around him. Sedaris is now happily partnered to his longtime boyfriend Hugh, who helps him keep track of things like travel plans when they go on trips together; otherwise Sedaris would be completely lost without him. In other stories in this collection, Sedaris reflects on his sexuality as well as how he came out publicly at a time when being gay wasn’t accepted very much (the 1960s).

Some of Sedaris’ stories are self-deprecating, such as “Buddy, Can You Spare a Tie?”, which is about his fashion mistakes. He also talks about his obsessions in other stories and how they affect him. One story that focuses on this is “The Monster Mash”, which describes how he became obsessed with death after visiting a morgue. Another one of these stories is called “Memento Mori”, which tells the tale of when he bought a human skeleton for Hugh to use as an art model. In another story, “Solution to Saturday’s Puzzle”, Sedaris recalls the time he had trouble talking to people while flying because they were trying to make small talk with him and it made him uncomfortable; however, despite all this awkwardness, he still managed to get through the situation without any major problems.

Sedaris tells a few stories in When You Are Engulfed in Flames. One of them, “Town and Country”, is about a rich couple who are much like the poor taxi driver Sedaris met before. In another story, “All the Beauty You Will Ever Need”, he writes about an isolated North Carolina couple fascinated by gay sex. However, all these stories add to his life story with creativity and humor.