A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

published	February 13th 2001 by Vintage
first published	2000
binding	Paperback
isbn	0375725784 (isbn13: 9780375725784)
pages	496
description	Dave Eggers is a terrifically talented writer; don't hold his cleverness against him. What to make of a book called A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Based on a True Story?...more [close] Dave Eggers is a terrifically talented writer; don't hold his cleverness against him. What to make of a book called A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Based on a True Story? For starters, there's a good bit of staggering genius before you even get to the true story, including a preface, a list of "Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of This Book," and a 20-page acknowledgements section complete with special mail-in offer, flow chart of the book's themes, and a lovely pen-and-ink drawing of a stapler (helpfully labeled "Here is a drawing of a stapler:"). But on to the true story. At the age of 22, Eggers became both an orphan and a "single mother" when his parents died within five months of one another of unrelated cancers. In the ensuing sibling division of labor, Dave is appointed unofficial guardian of his 8-year-old brother, Christopher. The two live together in semi-squalor, decaying food and sports equipment scattered about, while Eggers worries obsessively about child-welfare authorities, molesting babysitters, and his own health. His child-rearing strategy swings between making his brother's upbringing manically fun and performing bizarre developmental experiments on him. (Case in point: his idea of suitable bedtime reading is John Hersey's Hiroshima.) The book is also, perhaps less successfully, about being young and hip and out to conquer the world (in an ironic, media-savvy, Gen-X way, naturally). In the early '90s, Eggers was one of the founders of the very funny Might Magazine, and he spends a fair amount of time here on Might, the hipster culture of San Francisco's South Park, and his own efforts to get on to MTV's Real World. This sort of thing doesn't age very well--but then, Eggers knows that. There's no criticism you can come up with that he hasn't put into A.H.W.O.S.G. already. "The book thereafter is kind of uneven," he tells us regarding the contents after page 109, and while that's true, it's still uneven in a way that is funny and heartfelt and interesting. All this self-consciousness could have become unbearably arch. It's a testament to Eggers's skill as a writer--and to the heartbreaking particulars of his story--that it doesn't. Currently the editor of the footnote-and-marginalia-intensive journal McSweeney's (the last issue featured an entire story by David Foster Wallace printed tinily on its spine), Eggers comes from the most media-saturated generation in history--so much so that he can't feel an emotion without the sense that it's already been felt for him. What may seem like postmodern noodling is really just Eggers writing about pain in the only honest way available to him. Oddly enough, the effect is one of complete sincerity, and--especially in its concluding pages--this memoir as metafiction is affecting beyond all rational explanation. --Mary Park [close]
date added	12-07-06 edit book

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Amber rated it:

01/23/08

Read in January, 2008

Ok, I haven't quite finished reading this book, but with a handfull of pages left and too much of my time spent on it already, I think I'm ready to write the review, hurry through the last of it, and close this chapter of my all too bookish life.

The problem with the story is not that I find it at all unbelievable. I've met lots of people with action-packed, unhappy, and generally tumultous lives that make me feel like a moss-ridden stone at the age of 23. Whatever.

The problem is that...more Ok, I haven't quite finished reading this book, but with a handfull of pages left and too much of my time spent on it already, I think I'm ready to write the review, hurry through the last of it, and close this chapter of my all too bookish life.

The problem with the story is not that I find it at all unbelievable. I've met lots of people with action-packed, unhappy, and generally tumultous lives that make me feel like a moss-ridden stone at the age of 23. Whatever.

The problem is that I don't feel any empathy for the narrator whatsoever. I think that if both my parents were to die of cancer, leaving me with a brother to take care of and weirdo friends who like to get tangled up in tragedies and suicide atttempts and siblings that are about as helpful and compelling as pieces of wax fruit, I'd maybe be at least a little...well...downbeat? Contemplative, even? Not Eggers. Everything is funny, laughable, potential for self-effacing satire. Is this a human being? It's like he re-wrote his life into an after school sitcom. The book should have come with a laugh track.

The self-effacement is the single most irritating thing about this book, and perhaps why I kept finding myself hating the narrator. Here I am, reading this biographical tome titled - sarcastically - "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," being sent mixed signals by an author who seems to think I'm a fool for wasting time on the novel he wrote but can't stop mocking. So, is this a bunch of crap? Is the author bluffing? Is this just a sick set-up, reminiscent of his prank to fake a celebrity's death in order to mock the fools who would bother to care? I don't think it is, and here's why: Dave Eggers is an unmistakable egoist. The thing is, I'm really not all that impressed by his life or his decisions. They are...well...not all that impressive. Not horrible, but not admirable either. Dressed up in pretentious storywriting with the occasional flash of humor, the emperor really isn't wearing much at all....less

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Meredith rated it:

02/04/08

recommended to Meredith by: Olga
recommends it for: anyone

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eggers has created something raw, graphic, gritty, something real and it is an emotional sometimes painful read. It is the way in which he deals with grief that appeals to me most. His crazy stream of consciousness writing style is so refreshingly real. At times it seems you are reading his thoughts, unedited. Instead of wallowing in grief for the entire novel he refuses to confront his emotions and whirls around like a frisbee comically avoiding the world. ...more I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eggers has created something raw, graphic, gritty, something real and it is an emotional sometimes painful read. It is the way in which he deals with grief that appeals to me most. His crazy stream of consciousness writing style is so refreshingly real. At times it seems you are reading his thoughts, unedited. Instead of wallowing in grief for the entire novel he refuses to confront his emotions and whirls around like a frisbee comically avoiding the world.

What got to me about this book was that while I read about his life after his parents' death, while I laughed at his jokes and listened to his rants, while I tried to make sense of his rambles and his pointless thoughts mentioned it seemed only to avoid thinking of anything important...I could still sense the emotions he was trying to hide.

I myself will grow cynical while saddened. Humor can be a great way to cope with grief. When I lost my grandfather and then was unable to attend his funeral, I cried at first...then I laughed until I was crying again. It all seemed so absurd. That I could get on the plane and yet one small weather issue prevented me from saying goodbye to someone so dear to me...Over the next few days I tried to not think about his death, tried to fill my mind with thoughts about anything else, tried to engage myself in other activities, I laughed, I joked with friends...I didn't want to cope with the grief. I ranted about how much life sucked, or what I saw was wrong with this fucked up world. And then once everyone left me to myself I cried. I broke down and screamed and cursed God and everything around me and cried. Only when I finally dealt with his death and accepted it, did I find some sort of peace. This book for me expressed the same raw emotions.

It is his awareness of how this is destroying him, his acknowledgment of how angry he is with the world around him for giving him a difficult life that makes this book so appealing. He attempts to poke fun at himself to soften the story, to make it less tragic, maybe to make it seem that he has been able to move on...yet at heart this is simply the heartbreaking story of a young man who has lost his parents and is left to raise his brother alone. At the end after all of the glitz, glitter and shall I say clutter he fills the novel with he finally gets down to what he wanted to express all along...

The last several pages of raw emotion tear at you. You see his soul, raw and bleeding. No this isn't a pity me, poor me situation, I believe this is a cry of desperation, a moment of insanity. He has entertained the reader, made a joke even about his situation, presented himself as arrogant and self centered...but I truly believe it was all an act...to protect himself. Because that is what we do as humans, we hide our emotions any way we know how, and we protect ourselves to the best of our ability. It is better to laugh things off than to cry and indicate our weakness and fear of death.

My heart broke for him and upon reading the words finally finally finally after his rant about what he was trying to show us, what he was trying to entertain us with and how he had given everything, I knew it was true.

This book is incredible. Skim over the middle if needed. He clutters it, I think intentionally however. You will laugh, cry and then think why is he rambling about people running nude on a beach...but it is a wonderful novel and well worth the read.

***excuse the length but I cannot express enough how much this book meant to me and touched my life.
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Núria rated it:

01/09/08

bookshelves: 2008, borrowed, favorites

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: huérfanos, fatalistas, autoreflexios patológicos, escritores,

Después de un primer capítulo como el que nos da Dave Eggers en 'Una historia conmovedora, asombrosa y genial' supe que, viniera lo que viniera después, iba a querer con desesperación este libro, aunque después viniera la prosa más infumable que hubiera podido leer en mi vida. Porque el primer capítulo habla de mí, de nosotros. Es lo que había estado esperando leer toda mi vida (o como mínimo desde los 18 años). Nadie antes lo había contado bien. La diferencia es que Eg...more Después de un primer capítulo como el que nos da Dave Eggers en 'Una historia conmovedora, asombrosa y genial' supe que, viniera lo que viniera después, iba a querer con desesperación este libro, aunque después viniera la prosa más infumable que hubiera podido leer en mi vida. Porque el primer capítulo habla de mí, de nosotros. Es lo que había estado esperando leer toda mi vida (o como mínimo desde los 18 años). Nadie antes lo había contado bien. La diferencia es que Eggers es sincero. La diferencia es que Eggers me entiende. No se olvida de nada. Incluye la tristeza y el sentido del humor en su justa medida. La resignación y la rabia en su justa proporción. El alivio y la frustración en su justa combinación. Lo que cuenta no sólo es verdad. Es mi verdad. En este primer capítulo Eggers cuenta como su familia se desintegra cuando su madre y su padre mueren de cáncer con sólo unos tres meses de diferencia. Y leerlo fue reconfortante y doloroso a la vez. Y es así como tienen que ser los libros.

Luego viene la parte en que él, con sólo unos veinte años, se tiene que cuidar de su hermano, que aún es sólo un niño pequeño. Pero aún hay otra línea argumental, que es el auge y caída de una revista en la que Eggers participó, 'Might', que pretendía ser la voz de la Generación X. La obra no sigue una narrativa lineal, sino que más bien presenta una serie de escenas/personajes que sirven para dar una visión caleidoscópica. El tema de la muerte de los padres es un tema recurrente, que va apareciendo constantemente, pero sobre todo al final, de modo que acaba siendo una obra circular, que termina retomando el principio.

Se trata de un libro autobiográfico, pero no sabemos hasta qué punto es no-ficción y hasta qué punto es ficción. El mismo libro se dedica a analizar esta cuestión. Y es que es un libro altamente (auto)reflexivo, que constantemente, de forma directa, reflexiona sobre su naturaleza, cita sus temas principales, analiza el significado de sus metáforas y su simbolismo, e incluso reflexiona acerca de estas reflexiones. Lo mismo le pasa al protagonista: es alguien altamente autoreflexivo, que siempre se dedica a analizar y a dotar de significado incluso sus actos más triviales, y después, cómo no, reflexiona acerca de estas reflexiones, analiza por qué siempre tiene esta necesidad de analizarlo absolutamente todo.

Aunque el resto de capítulos no los quiera con desesperación como el primero, los sigo queriendo. Porque es una obra original en su forma, pero nunca deja de preocuparse por el fondo y nunca deja de ser sincera. Antes que nada el libro habla del vampirismo y el exhibicionismo que comporta la escritura. De la necesidad de compartir el dolor, pero a la vez la necesidad de que nos dejen solos con nuestro dolor. Del fatalismo que nos embarga cuando nos ha sucedido una desgracia: si nos ha pasado una vez, nos va a pasar más veces. De la hipocondría, del convencimiento que vamos a morir jóvenes. De vernos empujados a actuar como adultos antes de que nos sintamos preparados. De lo difícil que es combinar las obligaciones familiares con la libertad personal. De huidas hacia delante y autodestrucción. Del miedo que acarrea la responsabilidad (¿y si mi hermano se convierte en un psicópata por mi culpa?) De ser un niñato inmaduro pero creerse alguien extremamente original, irreverente, especial e incomprendido. De arrogancia y sentimiento de culpabilidad. Pero sobre todo habla de como la muerte y la desgracia siempre están a nuestro alrededor y no podemos hacer nada para impedirlas. Y lo mejor es que lo hace todo desde una distancia irónica, pero a la vez des de la sinceridad. Lo mejor es que es divertido, pero a la vez profundo. ...less

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Jeff rated it:

08/26/07

recommends it for: People who are nearsighted... I mean metaphorically speaking.

Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave. What can I say? I can sort of remember picking up this book in a bookstore somewhere and reading the first few pages… now, not the first few pages of the story, but I’m talking about the copyright page. Freaking Dave Eggers is writing his novel starting with the copyright page? Wild man, wild man!
So, I read it. I liked it. It was this nonstop stream of consciousness kind of thing, which I found a bit comforting, cause that’s how I think. I mean, of course...more Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave. What can I say? I can sort of remember picking up this book in a bookstore somewhere and reading the first few pages… now, not the first few pages of the story, but I’m talking about the copyright page. Freaking Dave Eggers is writing his novel starting with the copyright page? Wild man, wild man!
So, I read it. I liked it. It was this nonstop stream of consciousness kind of thing, which I found a bit comforting, cause that’s how I think. I mean, of course that’s how I think, cause my mind will just sometimes ramble on and on and on about nothing in particular. It could be about donuts that my mind is thinking about, it could be about women. Maybe it’s about basketball. I miss Michael Jordan. 1992 was the year they first made the Dream Team for the U.S. Basketball Olympic team. Do you remember all 12 members? I do. Swear to God I’m not looking this up: Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullins, Patrick Ewing, and the one college player Duke’s very own Christian Lattner (I don’t know how to spell his name… okay, I looked it up- it’s Laettner) And really what ever happened to that guy? How did he get on the dream team? One shot? He hit the winning shot in an NCAA basketball tournament. That’s it. That’s all he ever did. Shaq O’neill was waiting in the wings. Hell Isaiah Thomas could have been that last player, but apparently Michael Jordan didn’t want Isaiah on the team. Who knows if that rumor is true? Certainly not me.
Anyway, a friend of mine read the book and she didn’t like it so much. Which almost made me question how I felt about the book, but then I thought, “No, stay with your belief system man! Don’t let someone else’s opinion sway you.” But that did get me to thinking if there were books that men preferred over women, and vice versa. I don’t mean sexist misogynistic type books, but I’m talking the writing style specifically. Is there a cadence to writing that men prefer? Is there a cadence that women prefer? Maybe someone should write a thesis about that. I know it’s not going to be me. I didn’t major in psychology, though looking back I wish I would have because there were so many cute girls in the psychology department.
In conclusion, I enjoyed this book.
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Philip rated it:

05/19/08

Read in May, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Rather than a review of Dave Eggers' AHWOSG, I'm cutting and pasting an email exchange between myself and my buddy Nick Lewis. I think, somehow, it's appropriate. . . or inappropriate enough to be at least appropriate for a book as (in)appropriately aware as this one.

MY EMAIL:

I can't type long, as I've just recently joined FACEBOOK (!) and I now have over two hundred friend requests to accept. WHAT?! It's strange and wierd and sticky and I think I may never leave the house again.
...more

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Matt rated it:

01/15/08

recommends it for: wannabe hipsters

as a huge douglas coupland fan, i thought i might enjoy 'a heartbreaking work...' i should've known better. i tried to read 'you shall know our velocity' last year and found it entirely unreadable. i gave up after 200 pages of nonsense. several friends raved about 'ahwoasg,' so i thought, 'ok, i'll give eggars another try.' again, i was horribly disappointed.

the pros: yes, it's funny at times and very *honest* (though can we take eggars at his word? never trust an autobiography). i laughed ...more

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Bryon rated it:

03/21/08

Read in August, 2005

recommends it for: Anyone

I had problems with Dave Eggers for a long time. Having never read a word he'd written, I immaturely thought I had every right to hate him. He was young, successful, and adored by critics. That was enough right there. When it first came out, I would see AHWOSG in the bookstore and grimace at it (more than once, I even gave it the evil eye). My loathing was out of sheer jealousy. I recognized it as such back then, but still carried on. It's hard to let go of things sometimes.

OK. Fast forward ...more I had problems with Dave Eggers for a long time. Having never read a word he'd written, I immaturely thought I had every right to hate him. He was young, successful, and adored by critics. That was enough right there. When it first came out, I would see AHWOSG in the bookstore and grimace at it (more than once, I even gave it the evil eye). My loathing was out of sheer jealousy. I recognized it as such back then, but still carried on. It's hard to let go of things sometimes.

OK. Fast forward three or four years. I still have a lot of pent up animosity for those writers who are so far ahead of me. However, this fear, thinly cloaked as a juicy eccentricity has dissipated a great deal upon reading Eggers' triumphant, naked, brutally pure and dramatically veracious window into a life bereft of normalcy.

What is normalcy? Nobody knows (and quite frankly, nobody should care), but I'll tell you what it's not: having to deal with the death of both your parents within mere months of each other. That just doesn't happen to people. On the rare and awful occassions when it does, the children involved are devastated. It happened to Eggers and his siblings. When his mother died, he was left to share custody of his younger brother Toph. Still just a child, Toph grew up under the sometimes bizarre, always concerned eye of his older brother Dave.

The center of AHWOSG is truly the great and hilarious relationship Eggers has with Toph. To try to describe how they both grew up together in the strange and bumpy post-parental freedom-for-all (with strict rules of obtaining said freedom) would be detrimental to the experiences you can have in Eggers' world. So we won't venture further. Rest assured, there's a seal-tight bond there, one few can probably relate to.

Smirking just on the borders of the author's fatherly/brotherly/friendly/loving/do-right-for-the-little-jerk attitude is the fully-aware-of-everything-that-is-and-is-not persona that he is constantly invoking and daring to take him just one step further... just to the brink... just to push him off. His emotions are bloody rare, like a T-Bone rippling with E. coli. His running, inner monologue and occasional tabooed thoughts are cut from his heart with a dull spork and served to the reader à la mode--as if the sweet, cold vanilla sub-thought could lighten the mood. It does. And his words never fail to render a heartbreaking, poetic, screaming justice for his soul.

I ate it up. I wanted more. I swallowed my jealousy and loved it....less

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Tara rated it:

03/29/08

One of my least favorite books of all time! I think it's a sack of bullshit, to be perfectly honest. It was one of those books where I cringed with frustration as I turned every page, and I only wanted to finish it so that I could say I found nothing redeeming about it. Oh sure, he was flashy and could draw a cheap laugh, but it was like admiration for bubbles: it went nowhere and said nothing. I was disgusted with the title when I first heard of it, and though I can see there's some self-ridicu...more

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Caris rated it:

10/31/07

bookshelves: iheart, sparklingglimpsesatcommongrace-

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: the stronghearted, the proud, the profound and the profoundly damaged

Alrighty. I provide an outline to what I learned from this book:
1. Hooked from the start, I plowed through the first eleventy-whatever chapters under the fluorescents at Barnes and Noble and whilst crossing the autumnal Smoky Mountains in the backseat of roommates' cars. I was satisfied. I was amazed, heartbroken, staggered...Eggered!
2. I continued my literary pillage of Egger's twenties while couchridden with a cold. I dreamed of my Grandmother Wilma that night. Cancer killed her, and...more Alrighty. I provide an outline to what I learned from this book:
1. Hooked from the start, I plowed through the first eleventy-whatever chapters under the fluorescents at Barnes and Noble and whilst crossing the autumnal Smoky Mountains in the backseat of roommates' cars. I was satisfied. I was amazed, heartbroken, staggered...Eggered!
2. I continued my literary pillage of Egger's twenties while couchridden with a cold. I dreamed of my Grandmother Wilma that night. Cancer killed her, and Eggers let me realize that I don't think enough about it. Eggers demands we look our killers, literal and figurative, in the face...but starts to lose his point amid the blah blah blah about Might. Man, how can he still not embrace the death of that magazine?!? He relies to much on our common experience that our dearest brainchildren are continuously in danger from without. By the end, it seems he's all but forgotten that he was murdering Might from the beginning! (e.g. using his fervor to a concerted, appreciable end, then bashing the results & by extension all his hard efforts...like the "Screw those Idiots" stickers).
3. Grabbing a chapter here and there when I could to finish the thing, I have had too much time to ponder between passages. I began to anticipate that Eggers would end up angry at the universe and *imagine!* self-centered, cliffhanging.
4. Last Chapter SPOILER : He does. And sorta ruins the effect. The realness I so appreciated at the start is plastic and fluff, vanity and profanity, a whine undeserving of a listener. Maybe he meant to do that...but I need something with which to compare. OR I need to meet the guy face to face. Oddly, I'd say it's my cynical side (as opposed to the usual ingenuous side) longing for just-enough redemption to be hidden in the back cover, written in invisible ink after "finally, finally, finally." Eggers offered me the veracious carefully veiled within the maudlin (a combo I believe God as my Lord is fond of), but the truth does NOT out; Eggers puts his happy mask back on & with $39, 567.68 check in tow) goes back into hiding! Argh! Well, sorta argh. I guess.
The friend who was, unknowingly, the final impetus to me reading AHWOSG tells me that there's a version with an alternate ending...and I could perhaps borrow it from him (bless him!). Gladness. Check back for my re-review where I don't doubt I will have changed my mind and added that extra half-star....less

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Karina rated it:

02/23/08

bookshelves: memoir-biography

Read in February, 2008

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. I was reading this book and around page 237 (or was it 327? fuck), I figured it out- he's talking to ME. He wrote this book for me. Dave Eggers looked into the future and saw that I would want to read a self-referential, self-satisfying memoir. He knew that I would be trying to figure stuff, being in my twenties and all, and while not dealing with the enormity of losing both parents and having to rear a young sibling, I would have my own shit to work through. He. fu...more

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Ryan rated it:

07/14/08

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Ryan by: Kate Meyer, Jeff Crocker, et al
recommends it for: anyone and everyone

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

You know that one book, or movie, or whatever, that everyone tells you, "is so amazing/mindblowing/earth shattering/revolutionary for the world of your-artistic-discipline-goes-here", and you look at them and go, "okay, I'll take a look at it," knowing pretty well that the piece in question probably spoke to them in a personal and particular way and that they are probably projecting said feelings/opinions onto the world at large? Well, this book fulfills the first half of tha...more You know that one book, or movie, or whatever, that everyone tells you, "is so amazing/mindblowing/earth shattering/revolutionary for the world of your-artistic-discipline-goes-here", and you look at them and go, "okay, I'll take a look at it," knowing pretty well that the piece in question probably spoke to them in a personal and particular way and that they are probably projecting said feelings/opinions onto the world at large? Well, this book fulfills the first half of that scenario. My expectations were quite high from the various friends and relatives who lauded this already much lauded book, and I am floored, FLOORED, that it more than doubled those expectations.
Perhaps it's because I don't read a whole lot of modern lit (or memoir, or collected essays, or... how do you define this book?), but I wasn't prepared for either the heartbreak of the narrative as a whole, nor the genius of the form in which it is written. The introduction starts off as a piece of post-modern lit, with its constant self-references, deconstructions, and sheer nonsense - a picture of a stapler is just as important as discussing the multiple levels of the theme, read: high and low art becoming one. But then, as the book progresses, it drops the post- and becomes much more modern in its aesthetic, putting the author on the block just as much as the content itself, dissecting his choices, his viewpoints, and placing him as a much larger figure in a story that already figures him as the central character.
As character, narrator, and creator who isn't always in control of his creations, Eggers breaks through the post-modern malaise and self-satisfied, simple sarcasm to create a work that is much deeper, funnier, more poignant, heartfelt, and, dare I say, universal (though perhaps that's not for me to say). He not only criticizes the problems of modern youth in its (our) difficulty to care or invest in anything lasting other than its (our) incessant desire for fame or importance in a world that expands beyond our social circle (a problem that seems much more widespread these days than any other era), but he places himself firmly within that critique without ever pandering to the "woe is me" audience. You are forced to rise to his level of self-evaluation and consider just how you are going to matter in life. It's a book made of magic, and I can't recommend it more highly....less

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T. rated it:

06/24/08

bookshelves: memoir

Read in June, 2008

I didn't want to like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Adorno-esque elitist I am, I am usually automatically suspicious of anything that is too popular. I am a fan of McSweeney's, but that's a collaborative effort, and hardly a full-length memoir.
I also wanted not to like it as I began to read it. Much of the rambling stream of consciousness writing of the Beats I get quickly bored by, and this seemed like just an update of it. Young man, struck by tragedy, reflects on...more I didn't want to like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Adorno-esque elitist I am, I am usually automatically suspicious of anything that is too popular. I am a fan of McSweeney's, but that's a collaborative effort, and hardly a full-length memoir.
I also wanted not to like it as I began to read it. Much of the rambling stream of consciousness writing of the Beats I get quickly bored by, and this seemed like just an update of it. Young man, struck by tragedy, reflects on his life and at times what he wishes it could become. End of boring story.

The farther into AHWoSG I got, however, the more I enjoyed it. Much of this no doubt has to do with the connection I feel to his situation - I have a sister 15 years younger than me, about the difference between Eggers and his brother. Though we aren't on our own, our relationship and how I view her is very similar at times to the relationship between Eggers and his brother, Toph.
Eggers also has an easy writing style, which doesn't take much effort to unwrap and understand. He flits between reality and fantasy, though - being a memoir - even the reality must be taken with a grain of salt. He humorously acknowledges this, though, adding even more to the confusion.

This is not a straight autobiography. It is also not a work of fiction. Though it sounds simple, it took me awhile to reconcile these facts and just go with the flow of the book, not wondering where each storyline fit in on the reality spectrum.
It is also not a perfect book, the above reality problems being only one of the flaws. Most are tweak-y, edit-y things that may be more a problem of my own neuroticism than problems with the book itself [things like organization, plot confusion, etc].

Though I don't want to say that this is a book that "defines a generation" or what have you, it is a thorough portrayal of a certain type of person in a certain time period, that many can relate to on some level. As I finished the book, I relized that my confusion with autobiography vs. fantasy could be easily summarized: although A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius does center on the experiences and life of one man, Eggers seems to write it not just to depict his life but to use himself as a general representation for many of that generation....less

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Cecilia rated it:

09/15/07

Read in November, 2006

So this book is bulletproof. I finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers a few weeks ago, but for some reason wasn’t motivated to write about it. I went in with high expectations (always a mistake), and came out thinking it was great, but with vague, nagging sense of disappointment that I cannot fully articulate. I love McSweeney’s and since just about everyone else under 30 living in San Francisco has apparently already read the book, I had heard raves from sever...more

So this book is bulletproof. I finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers a few weeks ago, but for some reason wasn’t motivated to write about it. I went in with high expectations (always a mistake), and came out thinking it was great, but with vague, nagging sense of disappointment that I cannot fully articulate. I love McSweeney’s and since just about everyone else under 30 living in San Francisco has apparently already read the book, I had heard raves from several different places, including how cool it was to read about parts of the city they knew and to read Eggers describe doing things my very friends also do. Also there was that big ol’ “Pullitzer Prize Finalist” bubble on the cover. So that was the hype, but it did not help that contemporaneously with reading I kept stumbling across pieces, well, making fun of Eggers.

Back to the bulletproof aspect - this book is (brilliantly) so knowingly self-aware of just how incredibly self-indulgent it is. So before you can even make that point (which, well, it’s still sitting there), it’s been made and brushed aside. But it’s an autobiography and those are inherently self-indulgent. And as one preface in some autobiography I read in my first history course in college (I think it was by a slave - the book not the course), every autobiography has to be taken with a grain of salt because people cannot be expected to recollect perfectly nor can they be expected to not exaggerate.

My favorite part, to be honest, was what comes before the proper book - the copyright page, preface, acknowledgments, etc. They are the longest most consistent stretch of amusement in the book. The first part, about Eggers’ parents dying, floors you with the honest, open, gory details. The relationship with his brother Toph is fun to read because he depicts it with such adoration, and his becoming a parent is so, well, heartwarming even if his life as a twentysomething like that of other twentysomethings is a study in self-absorption and know-it-all-ism. The brushes with fame (Adam Rich, Vince Vaugn, Mr. T, Judd from The Real World San Francisco, a girl from Dangerous Minds) add an interesting twist, but make him even less ordinary. Overall, it was a good, fun read.
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Steve rated it:

10/09/07

Read in October, 2007

Plenty of clever people have written about A.H.W.O.S.G., but Eggers himself may have done it best with the preface, acknowledgements, and even the title of his book. It all portends a memoir that is sad, funny, smart, and honest. He shrewdly pre-empts criticism about his self-obsession by professing to be self-conscious about it – a kind of meta-awareness that’s somehow more appealing. It’s clear before the book begins that he’s got that Gen X hipster axe to wield for sarcastic, irrev...more

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Susannah rated it:

04/03/08

Read in April, 2008

It was very sweet of Shawn to lend me a copy of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. However, certain aspects of the book made me dislike it. The plot is beautiful, you could even say heartbreaking. It is about Dave Egger’s mother’s death, his father’s death, running away from problems, and gaining independence. However, I felt as though the main point of the story was strayed away from too many times for it to keep my att...more It was very sweet of Shawn to lend me a copy of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. However, certain aspects of the book made me dislike it. The plot is beautiful, you could even say heartbreaking. It is about Dave Egger’s mother’s death, his father’s death, running away from problems, and gaining independence. However, I felt as though the main point of the story was strayed away from too many times for it to keep my attention. Dave Eggers, the author, narrator, and protagonist of the book, frequently goes on long rants about his thoughts and inner feelings. These rants are the inquiry of his perception of events. Because he continues to speak forever about his thoughts, you begin to lose understanding on what it was that influenced his thoughts in the first place. These rants can most definitely be justified. It is understandable that an author who is writing on his own experiences as the main character and narrator of the story will often delve into his, and only his perception, opinion, and thoughts on the events being depicted in the story. However, should this aspect of the writing cause the reader to lose sight of all else in the book (all else such as other character’s opinions in the book)? At first, I found the long trains of thought that led to a topic of complete irrelevancy and randomness to be admirable. I found them interesting and eccentric. However, as the book progressed, I found that I could no longer stand these long, self-indulging thoughts that strayed away from what was actually happening in the story. After a while I found myself needing substance. I could no longer stand the abstract thoughts and irrelevancy. Because of this I feel that it is solely a personal issue of the incapability to handle long thoughts accompanied by a slow moving story. I can confidently say though, that if you are one to enjoy this style of writing, A Heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius is a very well written novel that you will surely enjoy....less

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Z rated it:

12/16/07

Read in November, 2001

I remember reading this book in Biology 11 -- either reading it before class started, or having it out on my desk, or something -- and my teacher, who was this sort of delightfully insane man who was retiring at the end of that year and so knew he could get away with anything, and once spent twenty minutes at the start of class telling us about the ABBA cover band he'd been to see last night, and how the music of ABBA uplifted the soul, and so on -- seeing the title and telling me never to be br...more