When You Are Engulfed in Flames - Book Review

Book: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Author: David Sedaris

David Sedaris's memoir, When You are Engulfed in Flames, is a comical piece that will keep you laughing every chapter. However, if you just focus on the thin, comedic meaning you will miss most of the book.

David Sedaris is a forty-year-old man that tells about his childhood, and his young adult life in a collection of short essays arranged in a non-chronological order. David lives in France with his longtime partner, Hugh.

The title of this book is derived from a chapter where David begins his efforts to quit smoking. He takes a trip to Japan and is amused by the broken english around the hotel room. One example is on a fire safety sign that says:

"When you check in the hotel room. When you find fire. When you are engulfed in flames"

The significance of the title is that sometimes there is nothing you can do about something. When you are engulfed in flames there almost nothing you can do. This could shift the focus into prevention, for him it was quitting smoking.

Numerous chapters have David speaking about death, whether it was to someone really close to him – his mother – or a complete stranger. David realizes that everyone dies sooner or later and that no one escapes it. He learns to acknowledge his mortality and accept it.

Lines I loved:

"Ive often hear cigarettes compared to friends. They can't loan you money, but they are, in a sense, there for you, these mute little comfort merchants always ready to lift your spirits. It's how I now feel about macadamia nuts, and these strange little crackers I've been buying lately."

"I was awoken at dawn by my uncle's hacking, which was mucky and painful-sounding and suggested imminent death."

What I Believe

I believe that some people can be

blinded by their pride.

I believe everyone always has something

on their mind.

I believe that people stay the same,

they pretend to change

to satisfy others.

I believe everyone has something that

they excel at, they just need

to find it.

I believe that the poor can be

some of the most

jubilant,

joyful people.

I believe in taking action,

but destiny will get us where we need to be

eventually.

And I believe that there are some mistakes

that we have to make.

If not, you always wonder...

If not, you wont know

the consequences of it.

WWL6: The Interrogation Room

"Alright, bring him in, we will begin interrogation shortly," a man called out from a small room. The room had no windows, a table, a flickering lamp that emitted a dull, yellowish light, and two plain metal chairs. On the table there was a pen, and three documents.

Three police guards, clad will bullet proof vests and with rifle in hand dragged in a man wearing ragged jeans and a torn shirt. He was of average height, had messy, unwashed hair, and sported an overgrown beard. A shackle rested on his ankle and his hands where held together behind his back by handcuffs.

"He's all yours detective," one of the officers step forward and said as he took another pair of handcuffs out and tied up the man by the wrists to a steel bar on the roof. The detective took a seat near his documents and the prisoner sat at the other chair.

The man was David Antonio Koster, he was lionized as an extremely dangerous man and was the third most wanted man on the face of the Earth. He was apprehended just five months ago at a Spanish hotel and was sent to Madrid's prison. He was going to be arraigned, but the FBI intervened and took over the case. This is the number one suspect of whom it is thought to have lead the conspiracies that are responsible for the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations, and several other calamities overseas.

Ten minutes elapsed before either one of the men spoke a word. The detective was being as meticulous as he could, he knew that his presence placed him in imminent danger, and that if he made one slight mistake this opportunity could go to waste.

There was no air flowing in the room. There were no fans or air vents in the room, so the two were soon sweltered.

The long, heavy silence was at last broken. "Welcome back," the detective said with a smirk.

It was fifteen years ago, when David Koster and Seth Tomson had gone through training camp together. They were friends before a dissension split them up, they hated each other since. They became enemies. They went different ways after that, but Koster had always been looking for a way to get back at him, and now he was in the same room as him. For detective Tomson it was really bizarre to have to interrogate his enemy, but he had looked forward to it all his life.

He wanted to get the most information out of him as he could in order to be able to assimilate it, and be able to know what exactly what happened when when the bomb at Ukraine went off, killing most of the government and sending the country into a state of anarchy.

The Compromise

There was strong dissension between Russia and China in the mid-20th century. The arguments where about a strip of land in North-East China and South-East-Russia.

In the 1960s, both presidents endeavored to end the disputes, but a agreement could not be made. However, as time elapsed, both presidents gave in a little and formed a compromise. The land in dispute was to be split equally into two, North and South, and where given to Russia and China respectively.

The presidents where meticulous in order to make sure the bill was through, and got rid of all the loop holes. Peace spread between both countries, not only between the governments, but also throughout the people. Both presidents where lionized for their accomplishment.

The citizens of Russia's newly acquired land were assimilated into Russia's population.

Three Word Short

There is little known about the Germans who conspired to create a biochemical weapon int the 1970s, at least there is little known to the public.
Deep in the German soil were the test labs where the gases would be tested on chickens, monkeys, and some insects. But why did they create all this in the first place? Germany was bitter after their loss in World War II so they gathered all of the greatest German scientists and thinkers. They eventually apprehended that the best way for the Germans to attack was biochemically, so they initiated research. The weapons where meant to be spread around the the United States capitol, in order to kill the president, sending the country into a state of anarchy.

Decades passed until they figured out the exact amount and type of gases in order to create the weapon. All the scientist and supervisors of the project gathered around to see it in action. A shot was heard and one of the pipes containing the gas began to leak. Very quickly, the gas took away the lives of every person in that bunker, except one. Me.

Compairing J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield

J.D. Salinger (author of The Catcher in the Rye) and Holden Caulfield (protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye) have many unique similarities. Some examples of these similarities include: they both wanted to live reclusively, they were both unsure about their own religious beliefs, they had influential English teachers, and neither did well in school.
J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield both wanted to live reclusively. After the success, controversies, and general attention that involved his main novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger opted to abandon nearly everything and live reclusively. He managed to convince Claire Douglas, who later became his wife, to go along with him. Salinger did not participate in an interview for the last thirty years of his life. In Holden’s case, he wanted to live reclusively but he never achieved it entirely – he was not physically a recluse, but through his thoughts he was one. His desire to physically become a recluse was portrayed through the fantasies that he had. The first one involved taking Sally Hayes with him and living in a cabin next to a forest. The second one was a lot like the first one, with the exceptions that he does not take Sally with him, he pretends to be deaf-mute (in order to not interact with society), and if by any chance he gets married and has kids, he would hide the kids from society and teach them the simple things that they need to know – such as reading and writing – by himself.
The difficulty that J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield have of figuring out their religion is one of their similarities. Salinger’s wife, Claire Douglas, claims that he changed religion quite often. When young, Salinger was taught Judaism but later he found out his parents were not actually Jewish. When an adult, he proceeded to practice many different and rare religions and spiritual beliefs such as Kriya yoga, Christian Science, acupuncture, macrobiotics, and Dianetics. Claire Douglas hypothesized that he changed religions often because “it was to cover the fact that Jerry had just destroyed or junked or couldn't face the quality of, or couldn't face publishing, what he had created." Holden’s struggles to figure out his religion where introduced when he was talking to the nuns. He does not think he is a true Catholic because he never attends church and he hates all of the apostles. However, he has read the Bible, and he does believe in Jesus. Holden’s religious struggles continue even further when he talks about how, for Catholics, it is a mayor difficulty to become friends with someone who is not Catholic like they are.
Another similarity between J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield is that they both had very influential English teachers. For J.D. Salinger it was Whit Burnett. He was the instructor of his writing class at Columbia University. Whit Burnett published one of Salinger’s stories in Story magazine, a magazine that Burnett edited for a long time. Whit Burnett mentored J.D. Salinger for many years, but the connection was lost when Salinger was drafted into World War II. For Holden Caulfield, it was Mr. Antolini. Antolini was one of Holden’s teachers when he attended Elkton Hills. Despite leaving Elkton, he kept Mr. Antolini’s number in his address book. After being kicked out of Pencey, Holden calls Antolini and eventually visits him. He provides him with some sage advice on how he must try harder in school, and how he should begin to measure the size of his brain so that he knows what type of thoughts his brain is capable of processing. Although this appeared to be completely overlooked by Holden when he leaves Mr. Antolini’s apartment, Holden began to think about what Mr. Antolini had advised him when he has second thoughts about leaving the apartment thinking Antolini was a flit.
Lastly, J.D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield both struggled to do well in school. The vast majority of J.D. Salinger’s schools attended (eventually dropped out of) came when he was studying in universities, unlike Holden. Salinger was expelled from one school, attended another, and then graduated from high-school. However, when he was enrolled in university, he dropped out in the spring. He later attended four different universities. Holden has attended four different high-schools up to this point, his academic future in terms of if he will be kicked out of his most recent school, is still unknown. Holden was kicked out of Whooton School, Elkton Hills, and most recently, Pencey Prep. According to Mr. Antolini, one of Holden’s former teachers, Holden is a bright student that is capable of accomplishing good grades in school, but he struggles because he does not try hard enough due to the fact that he is surrounded by “phonies,” which can be traced back to the amount of expensive schools that he has attended because of his parents’ wealth.
J.D. Salinger and his infamous character, Holden Caulfield, have various similarities which include the fact that they both lived reclusively, they both struggled to find out their religion, they both had influential English teachers, and they both switched schools often because they didn’t get good grades. With so many similarities between the character of a novel and the author of the novel, it brings us to believe that Holden Caulfield is not such a fictional character after all....

A Boy's Tirade

I was at that bar, right next to the skating rink, when a young man and a girl walked in. I figured the the girl was his date. I heard how he avidly endeavored to persuade his date to live reclusively with him. He spoke in a despicable, brusque manner. He, as you may have noticed, didn't have a very pleaseant disposition.
His date beseached to stop spontaneously yelling in order to extricate herself from the uncomfortable situation. I quickly conjectured that he was a homeless adult, or he was just another teenager that had ran away from home.
Everyone at the bar heard him as he continued his interminable tirade , but at last it was serene. For quite a while, it was silent, as everyone was turning their attention from the young man, towards their own conversations.
To our surprise, the tirade continued. This time, however, it was concise, but far more demeaning. I began to wonder what a fine young woman like her was doing with a guy like that. Boy, I don't understand this generation.