When Memoir is No Longer Funny: My Review of When You Are Engulfed in Flames

I bought David Sedaris’ new book, When You are Engulfed in Flames, after hearing him talk about it on NPR. I generally like Sedaris’ work and while I was unimpressed with my last purchase of his work, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, I was excited to hear him talk about the new book and he named it after his time living in Tokyo so I thought that stories about his time there would make up the majority of the book.

I was wrong. The book does include a decent essay on his experiences in Japan at the end, but the majority of the book is his typical ramblings about his life and they seem to be getting progressively darker. I don’t know if it his age or mine, but I enjoy Sedaris’ musings on life less than I used to. He seems to be more crotchety in this new book and this is a person who was crotchety from birth. He just doesn’t seem to see good or fun in the world the way he used to and it makes the essays more laborious to read.

I would say that his take on Japan is worth getting the book from the library, but just read the end. Although I found his section on Japan intriguing it was still lacking the depth and carefully thoughtful observation that was present in his earlier work. There is simply nothing memorable about these stories. I can still visualize parts of his book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, but Engulfed in Flames doesn’t have the graphically funny descriptions of events that really stay with a reader. When I was finished with the book it was simply put down. I felt no loss of beloved characters or remaining chuckles as was my experience of his previous work.

Maybe it was the advent of Alison Bechdel’s amazingly humorous and engaging memoir, Fun Home, that has me seeing memoir differently or maybe it’s just me, but I have talked with friends who agree that Sedaris has lost his touch, for this book at least. It seems like the loss of a friend when an author becomes less necessary, less of a required read. I will miss the idea of Sedaris’ work, but for now, that is all I will miss.