Born in the 1960s into a middle-class family in North Carolina, his voice was overwhelmed by his parents’ marital and substance abuse troubles, and his five other siblings’ equally urgent needs. Many of Sedaris’s stories are taken from childhood he views the absurdity and frustration he felt then as formative to how he perceives the world. For its hyperbolic yet poignant connections to contemporary life, the collection met with both critical and commercial success in North America and Europe. At the same time, the stories are practically impossible to classify together. Key themes in the book include the difficulty of sustaining familial relationships, the complexity of sexuality, international travel, and the unpredictability of the modern world. His sixth such collection, it traverses many years of Sedaris’ life, infusing his experiences with his signature eccentricity, irony, and charming absurdity.

And the ambulance was engulfed in flames before firemen caught up with it.When You Are Engulfed in Flames is a 2008 compilation of humorous essays by American author David Sedaris.

They reached safety seconds before the cafe was engulfed in flames.

The family had tickets for a section of the plane engulfed in flames.

Coast Guard boats arrived to find the boat engulfed in flames.

And I lay where I fell, fighting to hold back the tears which threatened to engulf me.

The realisation left him with a feeling of anguish so great that it threatened to engulf him.

The medium is the message because the message, the culture and ideology of consumerism, has engulfed the medium.Civil war has completely engulfed the country.She would willingly have engulfed the baby.These engulfed some older villages, such as Gosforth, which are now smaller shopping centres within the conurbation.Global warming will cause the seas to rise, engulfing islands and flooding coastal areas.Fear engulfed him as he approached the microphone.Her self-criticism of the paternalistic atmosphere which she allowed to engulf her in her early insecurity is devastating.

He comes across in large, energetic, engulfing, captivating waves, at once friendly and disturbing.

Isolated houses occasionally disappear, engulfed by the vortex of quarries.

→ See Verb table Examples from the Corpus engulf From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English engulf en‧gulf / ɪnˈɡʌlf / verb 1 FEEL HAPPY/FRIGHTENED/BORED ETC if an unpleasant feeling engulfs you, you feel it very strongly despair so great it threatened to engulf him 2 AROUND/ROUND to completely surround or cover something The building was engulfed in flames.

When you were engulfed in flames