I’ve read a few of Sedaris’ essay collections before, so Engulfed in Flames wasn’t entirely fresh. His schtick is to write humorous essays about his family, a clan from Raleigh, North Carolina, and his boyfriend.
I laughed frequently, but not too hard. Sedaris elicits New Yorker-style laughs, not belly guffaws. The remarkable thing about some of his essays about his childhood is just how much he remembers – in large part aided by diaries that he kept regularly throughout his life. Everything is an on-ramp to some ironic quip with Sedaris, but so long as it works, why not? His eye for detail is among the best.
I’d feel as if I should write more about this book, but there just wasn’t much in this book for my brain to chew on. Intellectually, this went down like a smoothie.
