When You Are Engulfed in Flames

How it reads

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is narrative nonfiction (humorous personal essays, specifically), and its dominant mood is funny. The humour is the point, not garnish. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in several locations, in the recent past, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, family and class and society. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 323 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.