"You are going to die," says Hugh's sketal gift. Photo: Oszalal/Wiki
I can’t believe with all the reviews I’ve written on When You Are Engulfed in Flames, I’m only halfway finished reading this book. Of course, that may have something to do with the puffiness of my volume due to the fact that my mother spilled a glass full of water of my cover’s smoking man. He looks a little like my friend in the photo here, although more jovial and infused with nicotine. This fellow pictured here is much closer to the memento Sedaris bought his partner, Hugh, for Christmas. Hence, we quickly segway into the:
Gist of the Story
Sedaris is a gift-giver. Or a gift-shopper. I couldn’t figure out which one he was more of. And, being that a bought gift usually turns into a given gift, this makes all things equal. However, I truly believe that Sedaris is more of a gift-shopper, which means he likes to buy gifts that he himself would like to keep. And, if he is anything like me, he probably does keep more gifts for himself than he actually gives away.
That’s just a guess, though.
Sedaris professes to keep a notebook of Hugh’s slight mentions of something he would like to own, so that, on special occasions, Sedaris can surprise him by ‘remembering.’ Hugh, being the wonderful and ingenious Hugh he is, wanted a skeleton. A difficult search for Sedaris ensues. In the end, he comes out victorious and Hugh is presented with a life sized 100-year old wired skeleton for Christmas (just what I’ve always wanted! A dead person!). Hugh moves it into the bedroom where the corpse quickly sheds itself of an index finger. Hilarity ensues.
The best part of this short tale is the last bit with Sedaris believes the skeleton is giving Sedaris insistent messages about his inevitable death. “You are going to die,” the skeleton seems to say…and say and say. Can Sedaris change the skeleton’s message? Maybe, and just enough to make us laugh.
First Lines, Last Words
For the past fifteen years or so, I’ve made it a habit to carry a small notebook in my front pocket.
And I put away the vacuum cleaner, thinking, Well, that’s a start.
Quotable
It’s the things you don’t buy that stay with you the longest.
Book Rating
I’ll be tallying scores on When You Are Engulfed in Flames as a complete book. See my book ratings chart for more info.
My name is Britty and I'm chief bottle-washer at this site. I'm a book-lover, student and freelance writer when I'm not being a mom of three and wife of one.
