Rating: 
Summary: ¿It¿s disgusting, the whole enterprise.¿
Review: I don't normally read non-fiction and particularly don't read biographical works. But I was attracted to Eggers' book by the overwhelming praise it received in reader reviews here at Amazon. Having said that, maybe I'm not the best person to offer an opinion on this title. I found it to be entertaining in a pure story telling manner. Even though their lives have been influenced by some horrendous events Dave and his younger brother Toph seem to have an admirable take on life. They get on with things and try to do the best they can.My quibbles with this book stem from Eggers' complete inability to distance himself from his own life to the degree that he can take an honest look at exactly what it is he is doing in writing this autobiography. He is so self-knowing and media savvy that his incessant self-examinations read as hollow attempts to wring a little more oomph out of a story that is, let's face it, hardly unique. The more I read the more manipulated I felt and the more I had to question the morality of the author. To make matters even worse, in the final pages there is a passage between Dave and his terminally self-destructive friend John that raises the very objections I had developed: John says: 'It's disgusting, the whole enterprise.' And: 'It's entertainment'. In both instances he is describing his reaction to Dave's chronicle. In the end I couldn't help feeling that Eggers' had perhaps played me for a fool, that I, as a reader, was despised for buying his book. That I, as a reader, was just another of the gullible clones he, through his work at Might magazine, so obviously abhors. The book reeks of cashing in - Eggers' addition of new writing to each new edition certainly doesn't tell me otherwise. I guess I'll have to be in the minority with my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Too much Eggers
Review: Let's try something. I'm going to write a book called How to Get Famous, and I'm going to sell it to innocent but altogether pretentious attention seekers. Maybe even hawk it as literature? Definitely hawk it as literature, it'll increase the amount of suckas. And get this subtitle -- "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." Wicked cool, eh? Not cool, however, if you spent money on such a book. After reading HWOSG, I can't help but think that Eggers pulled off the first postmodern Ponzi scheme, elegantly packaged in brilliant prose and with the devilish facade of literature, but at the eventual heart of it, a mind-numbingly repetitive work of art that saps the writing of its considerable strength. The dude can write, I'll give him that, and his life story is engrossing. How he starts is impressive. The tale of his odyssey with his brother is genuinely moving, and his details of real-life and the emotions surrounding the death of his parents are as clear as a hidden lake. But it quickly -- beyond page 100 -- becomes too much. Like Thanksgiving at your grandma's house -- and boy, your grandma can cook -- the once great tasting meal ends up after the football game being way too much vanity and self-serving portions of Eggers. Indeed, the book degenerates into a web of one's mans neurosis, or neuroses, as Dave has many of them. But that's not why it becomes insufferable, particularly, although it is part of the reason. What rubs me is the eventual realization that the book is basically one man's audition for MTV's "Real World," one man's quest for fame. As he puts it in the acknowledgments, his "Real World" goal is "to become well known for his sorrows, or at least let his suffering facilitate his becoming well known, while at the same time not shrinking from the admission of such manipulations of his pain for profit." Well, at least he's honest -- apparently Dave has finally succeeded at his goal. And Eggers has seemingly no qualms to pony up his whole personal story to reach it. Give him the boarding pass of literature and the boarding pass of pain and guess what poorer readers, you've given him an all-expense paid trip to la-la land, an all-expense paid trip to fame. Nice gig if you can get it, I guess, but I just am disappointed that I, too, helped pay for it under the guise of grand reviews and fawning attention.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly heartbreaking
Review: Wow! I'm just so amazed at how I can totally relate to a twentysomething single guy raising kids. This book had me laughing so hard before I realize just how truly heartbreaking his story is - then i started crying. It's as much a biography as it is a new age guide to raising and rearing kids, his choices for bedtime stories were truly inspirational. His writing style at times funny, sometimes pedantic and more often than not just goes off tangent reminds the average reader of his/her own thought making process. My only problem with this book is figuring out how Dave Eggers is going to top this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Heartwarming Work of Staggering Genius is...just that
Review: Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is...well...just that. What more can I say? (See below.) Let's talk the book's flaws: It's pretentious. It drips with silly 20-something life-angst that seems...well...unimportant and self-obsessed. Eggers prose often is often overwritten, overly cute, annoying. He concentrates too much on his own thoughts, which entertain at first, then numb. But he warns us of these flaws in the book's preface! And he thoroughly disarmed any reservations I might have had for the book! How frustrating! How charming! Eggers can write. The scenes of Eggers watching over his dying parents, his description of his brother, sister, and healthy parents ring true, feel electric, are as vivid as any character sketch you will ever read. And Eggers is funny. He's self-deprecating, honest and severe with himself. He's obsessed with sex. He plays Frisbee well. This book is touching and annoying and funny and pretentious and electric and slow-moving. I loved its honesty and candor. True self-revelation is so rare in this recent memoir movement, it's refreshing to have Eggers out there. Advice for Eggers: In future books, lose the self-introspection and write dialog and scenes. That's where your strength lays. Advice for writers: Do not attempt to imitate Eggers' writing style. You will only fail and annoy your readers. (I've already noticed that the Eggers reviews on Amazon are sounding like cheap copies of the real thing-this one included!. Knock it off!)
Rating:
Summary: Bizarre
Review: Eggers's most powerful prose is often his most straightforward
Rating:
Summary: I Might Have Known . . .
Review: When the paperback version of this staggering book comes out this week it will have 15,000 more words in it than the one I recently finished--the one that made such a big and buzzy splash last year. Whether this expansion is good or bad (and it will most likely be good), and whether it is Dave Eggers' fervent wish or a ploy by the publishers (and it is most likely both) is yet to be seen. That said, I don't think AHWOSG needs another 15,000 words to be any more effective than it already is as a moving and hilarious story of a young man who has overcome some terrifying obstacles. On the opening flyleaf are printed the words "THIS WAS UNCALLED FOR." If you believe that there are some things that art can't touch, then you'll agree. George Bernard Shaw wrote something very like, "life doesn't stop being funny just because somebody dies, nor does it stop being serious just because somebody laughs." Eggers has faced death, and to be sure he has suffered, but he embraces life and understands that all we have is what we make out of it. He bleeds his soul onto these pages and produces beauty out of heartache, blasts humor from stupidity, and conquers fear with love. His greatest love being that of his eight-year-old brother. The brother he is charged with raising from age 23 after both their parents die of cancer only 32 days apart. Art aside, this novelized memoir has some interesting things to say about what constitutes what is fair to use from other people's lives when telling one's own story. I particularly recommend the dialogue that debates the resolution: "We are all feeding from each other, all the time, every day." AHWOSG is written with a serpentine self-consciousness that eats itself and then, often as not, says "Yum!" It is brilliant, and almost as cathartic for the reader as it is for the author--a point (his own catharsis) that he is clear about emphasizing. Those who accuse Eggers of cheap exhibitionism, however, are cranks: this is solid gold exhibitionism. Two or three years my senior, Dave Eggers is a shining example of the ironic GenX type that has paid close attention to the billions of images that has bombarded it, has paid close attention to relationships with other people, and knows everything is both real and just a show of itself. He represents and illustrates the mass of contradictions, the embracing of opposites that has characterized the modern age since Oscar Wilde first said...well...pretty much anything Oscar Wilde ever said. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: promising but so disappointing
Review: How does stuff like this get published? Parts of it were so funny but most of it was so juvenile. I have a son about Eggers' age, and this would be exactly what would happen if MY son were to care for an 8 year old. Scary! The parts about his parents' deaths and the scattering of ashes at L. Michigan rang so true...I've scattered a parent's ashes, and lots of what he said was so poignant and well-written. But so much of this was so juvenile and so ill-thought out. Did he have an editor?? The majority was so very precious and self-serving...The liberal use of profanity, particularly the F-word, is SO slacker and so unimaginative. I sense a talent here, but one that needs major cultivation and discipline.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic first work!
Review: Eggers' story is alternately moving and hysterical. He is the king of digression, with very humorous results. One of my favorite sections involves him leaving his young brother with a sitter while he goes out and keeps imagining all the hideous things that the sitter is doing in his absence. I think anyone would enjoy this book, but I found it especially moving because I lost a parent at a young age and went through the same emotional journey...although not with quite so many detours. If you have lost a parent, I think you will see a little of yourself in this young man's story. Enjoy it!
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking, Yes, Staggering Yes, Genius, Certainly
Review: Dave Eggers book "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" lives up to and exceeds the lofty title adhered to this monumental salute to life as a Gen Xer in the 90s. Overused adjectives such as witty, wry, urbane, sarcastic, horrifying, honest, and warming all apply to this novel which spins the tale of Dave, his little brother Toph, and the events that ravel and unravel their lives. Both parents die within the shadow of each other, causing the kids to suddenly find themselves grown up in a Grown Up World. But fear not, a reprieve of "Party of Five" is not at hand. Dave, with his urban slightly psychotic tone, spins us a tale not of pity, but of true depth and feeling uncommon in literature today. Through his writing, we access his inner being, or what he allows us to see, as well as the "characters" that appear in the book. He trims no edges, doesn't pretty up anything, and shows us the messiness of his life as well as his apartment. Writers can sentimentalize the past; Dave serves it up honestly, and rough, for us to devour. His writing style is stream-of conscious; he lets characters speak to us as they never would, breaks into stories with new stories, and then new stories, and then brings us back; making the reading more of a roller coaster than a quiet read. But that's is what makes this book so wonderful, so compelling, that he allows us this journey by sharing it. And bringing into it the true heart of the story, his little brother Toph, equally challenged by the loss of his parents, but continuing along with the events of his childhood and adolescence in as normal way as he could. And as Dave struggles with being his father and mother to his little brother, we see the love pour out on the page, time and time again, as a dramatic salute not only to unconditional love, but the ability to continue on, moving forward. Great promise, great honesty, great writing, all add up to a top recommend for this stunning, saddening work.
Rating:
Summary: A Mindboggling Review of Terrifying Conciseness
Review: I'm somewhat hesitant to write about this book, because I finished it, like, two or three months ago. It's been sitting next to my computer ever since, and I kept meaning to submit an Amazon review but, hey, I've been really busy. And now I'm afraid my memories of this heartwrenching piece of swaggering meanness have faded somewhat. Truth is, most all of last year was pretty rough for me. In January, my Mom's Parkinson's hit end stage and my brother -- her primary caregiver -- had to admit her to the hospital and subsequently place her in a nursing home. (INSERT GRIZZLY YET TOUCHING SCENE OF VISITING HER IN THE HOSPITAL WHERE SHE'S DELUSIONAL AND SEVERELY DEPRESSED.) It was a pretty difficult situation, being the dead of winter (NOTE: METEOROLOGICAL SYMBOLISM), and my older brother was pretty much solely in charge of her fate. (PROVIDE MORE SAD YET SOMEHOW SNIDE FAMILY BACKGROUND ON MY BROTHER AND THE DEATH OF OUR FATHER IN 1972.) And just when I thought life was settling down, my fiancee was diagnosed with cancer in March. (INSERT GRIMLY HILARIOUS ACCOUNT OF GETTING REALLY DRUNK THE NIGHT BEFORE I FOUND OUT AND HEARING THE NEWS WITH A RAGING HANGOVER.) I don't know how many of you Amazonian-dot-commers out there have experienced the cancer diagnosis-treatment-recovery process, but I assure you it's no cakewalk. (DESCRIBE TENSE YET ULTIMATELY TRIUMPHANT STORY OF OUR JULY WEDDING, IN WHICH MY FIANCEE ADJUSTED HER CHEMO SCHEDULE AND WORE A WIG. AND MY WHEELCHAIR-BOUND MOM WAS FREED FROM THE NURSING HOME JUST LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE IT THROUGH THE CEREMONY AND RECEPTION.) I'm not going to fall over myself describing this book's GENIUS to you. Nor am I going to gush about how unfair life was/has been for Mr. Eggers and his family. Not because I don't feel for him, but because I believe doing so would be missing his point. Eggers isn't looking for sympathy (well, maybe a little), he's trying to tell us that all of our lives contain great sadness and tragedy (if we look closely enough) and that we must transcend these experiences through persistence, self-discovery and humor. This may sound like a STAGGERINGLY original concept, but it's really not. (See every addiction/illness memoir every written. Not to mention VH1's "Behind the Music.") Thus, AHWSG's value as a (heartbreaking) WORK of literature depends on HOW WELL he accomplishes this task. And that's where this book earns its stars. Sure, Eggers labors at times to find new and different ways of expressing information (the preface, the T of C, the extended block-text acknowledgements, the diagrams). And he demonstrates an almost Olympian talent for tangential diversions. But give the Eggman some credit. At least he's trying to offer us some fresh perspectives. And like any humor-based work, how much you like it will (duh) depend on whether you: a) get it, and b) laugh at it. I consider myself a pretty cynical guy, but I credit this book with making me laugh out loud -- in public, no less! And that's a rare thing. Really. (I refer specifically to the part where he and his magazine friends are running naked on the beach. Oh, man...chuckling again just thinking about it...) Dave Eggers and I have a few things in common -- uh, besides our first names. We both grew up around the same time in the Chicago suburbs. We both attended Illinois state schools. He's a well-renowned, published writer, and I...well, you get the point. Without using that insipid 10-letter 'G' word, I must say that he's written a book that effectively and humorously sums up the plight and passage of many in our age group. We care for our dying parents. We suffer and adapt to new definitions of the word "family." And we do it all with a smirk on our face and a middle finger proudly extended.
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