<![CDATA[A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius]]>

false <![CDATA[A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius]]> 4953 23 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 42857 book 2000 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius total:43822|5:10509|4:14780|3:10904|2:4935|1:2694| 43822 156941 57138 4432 1 47 false false Sat Mar 29 10:28:52 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 18 21:47:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 25 false false Tue Jan 15 13:50:38 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 15 13:51:28 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 42 false false Mon Sep 17 21:09:50 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 12 08:08:11 -0700 2008
it's *so cool* to be post-dave-eggers, and talk about how you didn't really like this book all that much, and it's even cooler to totally hate this book. it's like a coolness interview question. "did you like his book?" "yeah, I ...more...]]> 2 24 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 08 06:21:10 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 23 13:33:52 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 18 false false Thu Aug 02 20:58:24 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 26 21:53:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 17 false false Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Fri Mar 21 08:12:50 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 21 08:26:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 17 false true Mon Feb 04 00:17:19 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 01:09:34 -0800 2008

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 re...more...]]> 3 21 false false Mon Jan 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Aug 14 04:19:01 -0700 2008 Tue May 05 01:05:18 -0700 2009 1 "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". All that crap in the preface can go to hell; this is the prime theme of the book. Arrogant as all hell? No! Well, yes, but what it's really talking about is the very human desire to find meaning in things that seem to...more...]]> 2 13 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Tue Aug 07 09:46:34 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 07 09:52:39 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 11 false false Tue Oct 14 13:25:33 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 14 13:25:33 -0700 2008
you know, wilcan's level 400 creative writing class? last semester of my senior year of college? we had the classroom in Times Hall that didn't get air conditioning! i passed ou...more...]]> 4 7 false false Thu Sep 06 20:03:08 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 20:17:26 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 6 false false Mon Jun 23 11:58:45 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 23 11:58:45 -0700 2008
I...more...]]> 4 4 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 31 06:26:36 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 09 15:30:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 6 false false Wed Aug 08 12:13:46 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 12:14:28 -0700 2007 self-absorbed schtick after three pages of the preface. But, the cover read
"pulitzer prize finalist" (among other superlatives), so I forged on. I'd made
it to page 33 of the actual text (without laughing once) when I noticed Eggers'
picture on ...more...]]> 1 7 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 05 19:49:57 -0700 2007 Sat Nov 03 05:21:28 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 6 false false Sun Mar 29 15:34:48 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 18:40:55 -0700 2009
I ...more...]]> 5 3 false false Thu Jan 10 05:05:31 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 28 09:12:30 -0800 2007 Wed Jan 09 10:59:49 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 4 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sun Dec 16 16:46:40 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 16 16:56:56 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 5 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Thu Jun 14 19:44:32 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 14 20:00:31 -0700 2007
Because I'm a geek, Dave Eggers endears himself to me just by his modifications to the verso, which include his placement on a sexual-orientation scale o...more...]]> 2 3 false false Wed Mar 21 22:47:02 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 21 23:05:01 -0700 2007
i mean sure, it's funny, it's sad, it has its moments. i got involved with the graphic and emotionally staggering descriptions of his parents. and this guy has had a pretty intense life if this is his memoir. recognition must ...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=4953