Rating: 
Summary: Sorry I picked it for my book club!!
Review: I made a quick pick of this book for the first read of a newly formed book club. I have to apologize to my bookclubbers! I couldn't get into it and then couldn't finish it. While I understand that writing this was cathartic for Eggers, he squandered his opportunity to write a brilliant piece by using a very jerky, uneven writing style and a huge amount of whininess. I didn't care about the Might magazine part--it sounded like some of my college friends who thought they were so much more intelligent than the rest of the world in their cynicism. I got his point and was sympathetic toward his situation but it just went on too long!! Now I know why I was able to pick the book up for $0.50 at a thrift store!! I'm just sorry the other people in my book club weren't able to do so.
Rating: 
Summary: The Art Of The State
Review: Yes, over here. That's right. It's nice to see you've made it. You had a rather tough go of it, didn't you? How do I know? I'm always watching, I thought you knew. It's part of the job, after all.All right now, attach your biodatplug. Touch the screen. Now, slowly. Slowly...Go into your Accept mode.***** ******Your great-great-great-great-grandchildren were quite taken with this Eggers individual and his sociopolitical propagandist "memoir". But back in the 20th and 21st centuries they hadn't yet realized the levels that the "book" was written on. It was "Oh, look at the cute kids and the hipsters all excited about this 'Postmodern'" - I know, quite an archaic term, but history needs such words, if only to place markers in the timeline - "literary entertainment." Little did they know that generations later the "book" would take a central place in curricula worldwide and then go on to become an almost totemic relic of a former time. Later came the banning, which...But I am not at liberty to speak of that. If only the powers-that-were in the 20th century had taken notice of the shake-up of the literary world this "book" caused upon its original release, perhaps they might have gotten control of Mr. Eggers before his ultimate coup. Of course the information related to that part of our history is classified, although the Hundred Year Chaos is well known. (Its details have been kept from the world citizenry with good reason. It is enough for you to know that the battles between the Postmodernists and the Wrebel Writers eventually spilled into the streets, where ink as well as blood was spilled in copious amounts. But I've already said too much here.) I know it's hard to believe that literature and "books" could cause such a cataclysm, but such was the barbarism of those days. But now that we have our bdps to receive our information, we can dispense with these writing "personalities" - so messy really - like Eggers and his kind. But his "book" is still of interest for a portrait of a time and place long ago. Before all our literature was auto-generated he was, after all, a fine communicator and something of an amusing showman. In those days some were so enamored of his "book" that they referred to it as their "Bible".* Well, if it doesn't get banned again by the Wrebel President's 20th clone I suppose that it will eventually fade into oblivion too. All Hail State Amazon, Your Official State-Approved Reviewer Bot *A religious tome of the past
Rating:
Summary: clever whining
Review: By chapter 4 I had enough whining. He was in a tough situation, but not so bad compared to the rest of the world. The wording is very clever and there are some cute gimmicks in the book. My favorite part of the book is the copyright page. I like the way he puts words together and if he can find good subjects, he can probably write very good books.
Rating: 
Summary: good, but not great
Review: perhaps the funniest and starkest post-modernist introductory chapter that i've ever read. you should read this book if only for that beginning. the book that follows does not quite rise to its first glimmers, but is still a readable, gentle story.
Rating:
Summary: My imitation of Dave Eggers telling a joke:
Review: Hi, this is Dave Eggers and I'm going to tell a joke. Well, actually it's not Dave Eggers, it's someone pretending to be Dave Eggers for the purposes of an Amazon review, but let's pretend for the sake of humor that it really is Dave Eggers. Or maybe you won't see the humor in that, in which case you can pretend this is somebody other than Dave Eggers, which might make the joke funnier. You can pretend it's George W. Bush, for example, if you're a Republican, because that might make you laugh harder. Or if you're a Republican but you don't like to laugh at Republicans because it makes you uncomfortable to laugh at one of your own, you can pretend this is John Kerry or Howard Dean or Ralph Nader. Then again, some of you might think politics is not something to be laughed at, that it's a Very Serious Thing, and that people who laugh at politics are Insensitive People who are laughing at Things Which Are Inappropriate To Be Laughed At. If that's the case, you should think of something other than politicians. But then again, if you're That Kind Of Person then maybe you have too weak a sense of humor to enjoy this joke anyway, and maybe you should just quit while you're ahead and not bother reading the joke which I'm about to tell. Now. Here's the joke:
Rating: 
Summary: The Book Of A Generation
Review: Although this "memoir" was released in 2001, it really is a book about the '90s -- and as a record of a time and place, it's excellent. Eggers' storytelling technique is sometimes self-conscious, yes, but for the most part successful. This is really a witty book, amazingly readable, and although there are some slow parts (parts where he was allowed to go on for too long), parts where his brother is supposedly talking yet it still sounds like Eggers himself. Okay, it's not a perfect book, but it is a very entertaining novel, if we can call it that and should. In the end, it's the quality of the writing, Eggers' natural ability, his use of language that will win you over, if nothing else. Give it a crack! Thanks also to the guy who recommended The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, another Amazon pick (much shorter book) that I liked.
Rating:
Summary: Thank gawd for library books
Review: This was the most annoying book I ever continued to read. I was hopeful at first, even made it to 282, but got tired of the exhaustive babble, skipped to the unsatisfying end, and didn't feel any need to read whatever was in between. Eggers, as he portrays himself in this book, reminds me of this whiney, stereotypical, Gen-X guy that I know, that I can't stand, who I want to smack upside the head constantly. And if Eggers is anything like my friend, he's happy that he succeeded in getting readers like me to be riled up enough to write a negative review. He loves to annoy. The only part I kind of liked was the MTV interview when he sounded somewhat human, and not like such a dramatic egomaniac. But the worst part...a friend of mine says I write like him. That makes me want to retch, and, at the same time, I'm so glad he told me. But who am I to knock Eggers. The dude took volumes of stream of consciousness journalizing and probably made a mint...but not from me. Thank gawd for library books.
Rating:
Summary: Painful - doesn't care what readers think
Review: The positive contributions Dave Eggers has made promoting literacy, as a web and book publisher and revitalizing interest in writing and young writers is commendable. I like his writing in small doses, such as in/on McSweeney's; it's funny and his vocabulary is charming. But his full length books are painful.
This book is self indulgent and inconsiderate of the reader. The refutations prepared in response to anticipated criticism that precede the story are an insulting waste of time. If an author is aware of such problems, shouldn't they be corrected before the book is published? The excess of the title is reflective of the entire book and the fact that this excess is self-conscious and possibly intended as humour does not excuse the fact that Eggers could do much better, but chooses not to. He doesn't care enough about readers' time to try harder. Style is no excuse for laziness.
Eggers talents are best used for short writing and promotion.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative, touching, cutting edge, brilliant.
Review: I don't know where to start! This is definitely a brilliant novel, one of the most important in the last forty years of American writing. Eggers is like a conductor, a maestro of the language, a wizard of irony and storytelling and wit. When you reach the last page you will want to return to the first immediately. If you took Mark Twain, Swift, Dryden and Ayn Rand and chopped them into bits with an ax and put them in a blender what you would pour out might be Dave Eggers. I just bought four copies to give out as Christmas presents this year.
Rating:
Summary: Vile Author, Pathetic Book
Review: Claims of Eggers's intelligence go unsubstantiated, a problem for the premise of the book... Pomo, confessional, etc, etc - we've been down this road, however in the past, it has been traveled with talent (for example, read a "Confederacy of Dunces" for a similar, but successful treatment). In Eggers's solipsistic trifling universe, we are to fall in love, owing to the honesty with which he details his various failings and generally repugnant nature. Eggers's commentary about 'Mexicans', 'Blacks', and 'Jews' is genuinely shocking; PC aside, I didn't realize these thoughts were still active in the general population. Indeed, Eggers is antithetical to the Bay Area in most ways; nevertheless, he desperately labors to belong (must he incessantly tell us the name of the street he's driving on?). His peer group in San Francisco consists of Lake Forest, IL transplants - though he does make an effort to create the illusion of racially diverse friendships. Don't worry Dave, you weren't attractive, intelligent, or compelling enough to make it onto "The Real World," but I just know there's a place for you on "The Surreal Life!"
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