‘ve listened to David Sedaris many times on NPR. He’s the Jewish gag guy, a sad sack replacement for the crashed-n-burned Woody Allen. And he’s funny and observational. When you are Engulfed in Flames is his collection of short stories of his life.

I really enjoyed his piece on The Smoking Section – here, Sedaris talks about smoking, how he started, and all the times he tried to quit. Interestingly, he and his partner moved to Tokyo for three months, as if the change of scenery would help. He even takes a class in Japanese and manages to finish dead last. Even the woman he had no respect for ends up helping him, and the teachers are apologetically supportive (which sounds very Japanese, when you think about it).

Another good one was The Man in the Hut, a tale of a creepy neighbor living across the street in Normandy who David does a simple act of fellowship for and gets leached by the guy. In This Old House, he’s recounting living in a sad little boarding house.

Really, it’s been a month or two since I read it and, in flipping back through it, remembered a couple of the stories and laughed as I reread parts of others. So I guess if I could give this book any recommendation at all, it was that I found it – if not memorable – amusing the second time around. Worth a read if you see it someplace. Made me smile.

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