Rating: 
Summary: Fabulash!
Review: This book is more knee slapping fun than all the Cannon Ball Run movies put together and then played backward during a rainy recess. Dave Eggers IS Gertrude Stein. The lesbian coding is pure genius as less savvy readers will actually think Toph is his biological brother. If you are still in a codependent relationship after you've read this tome and completed the acompanying workbook exercises well then, there is something wrong with you.
Rating: 
Summary: A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Ego
Review: Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed his book. I think growing up in suburban Chicago, going to the University of Illinois, and being the same age really helped me to identify with his voice. I did not know him, nor do I think I would like to, but reading about his life was a trip. Yes, his tale is heartbreaking. And yes, he has his little made-for-tv moments of rising above it all. But his staggering genius lies in the way he captures the angst, ennui, and levity of life of a twenty-something in the 90's much in the same way as Douglas Coupland of Generation X fame.The narrative of the book, though easy to read, can raise a few questions. It is easy to get caught up in his tale and as a result there are scenes that appear to be missing. Some of the periphery characters' stories do not carry themselves to completion or are resolved but we do not know how or why. This is where the staggering ego comes in. There are scenes that are truly hilarious, laugh-out-loud hilarious, and scenes that are just plain embarrassing. I suppose that is the price you pay for making your life public. Something that he was mentally prepared to do when he tried out for MTV's Real World. The reader gets a glimpse of a young man forced to take care of his younger brother at 21, find a job, and find his own identity. An interesting journey. Note: If you must read the preface and acknowledgements, read them last. Everything makes a little more sense that way.
Rating:
Summary: a true original
Review: eggars captures the spirit of a completely unique voice which comes from a place literature has not seen the likes of since thurber or vonnegut. he performs literary flips that make you wonder if he is even allowed to do what he does -- yet he pullsit off, for the most part, with wonderful and even occasionally touching aplomb. for a lighter read and yet no less entertaining and original, I recommend SELLEVISION by debut author augusten burroughs. any book that makes me laugh out loud gets my vote --
Rating:
Summary: Well, Golly.
Review: I mean, how am I meant to deal with this? I brought the book because of the second page, the bit where you get copyright information. It made me laugh so hard... It's just really funny. And this carries on. The book is intrisically funny. It has all these things about it that mean that it shoudln't be, and is, at its heart, a pretty tragic story, but like Dickens, through the tragedy comes joy. I had my own little soundtrack for the book as well, mostly American Music Club stuff, but the book became part of my life more than any other book in recent memory, the same way that It by Stephen King did when I was little, making me think about it before I went to sleep, and when I woke up. It isn't perfect, but it shouldn't be. It doesn't need to be. It is a narrative voice, human, andits humanity is its genius. Sorry if I sound like I love you, Dave - my girlfriend's getting pretty sick of it as well - but you touched a nerve. I guess you could say that I envied you. Now, I really want to read more of your stuff, but in England, Might magazine is totally unheard of. Nevermind, eh? I'm sure you'll bring out a book of stuff sooner or later... And I'm sure I'll love that too. Buy this book. I cannot recommend it enough.
Rating:
Summary: A crackling good yarn, a wild romp
Review: "Thank God it's Friday" begins David Eggers new book. Eggers, a Cincinnati temp, can't seem to gain the attention of his new boss, Mr. Tate. Thank God indeed. Friday indeed. As this wild ride moves from Zürich to Reno (note: Mr. Eggers, a simple $1000 at the baccarat table will secure your comped room! Honestly.) you can never tell what will happen next, but one thing is certain: It's sure to be a bumpy ride.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny and Honest
Review: I loved this book it was hilarious, his self concious ramblings are so much similar to my own that I couldn't NOT love hearing some of my own inner workings and obsessions. And his honesty and intentions..for example when he's talking about going to a parent teacher interview meeting he confesses he was hoping to "pick up". Its a great book, an interesting read, that can be kind of slow in parts but overall its just fun..defintely a must get.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes funny is just funny!
Review: While Mr. Eggers has (in his words) cornered the market on sad and pathetic tales - I found so much to laugh at in his recounting of the struggles of raising himself and his young sib that there were times I couldn't help myself - I cracked up out loud. I enjoyed this book primarily because much of what seemd implausible was terribly believable by virtue of his somewhat self-deprecating humor. Mr. Eggers manages to get the point across that "ordinary people" in "extraordinary cirumstances" are capable of accomplishing a serious amount... I particularly liked the honesty and found much of the book funny and touching - though I can't say I was surprised he didn't make the real people cut. My suspicion is that he is better for having missed out on that particular episode.
Rating:
Summary: Sheesh
Review: I have a small library of books written by people about the deaths of their parents. How very morbid of me, perhaps, and how very crass a way to put it, but my dad died of some sort of too-quickly-proliferating-to-be-positively-diagnosed-one-way-or-the-other cancer when I was 26 and that was four years ago and I don't think I'm any closer to making any sense of it. Books like Dave Eggers' are a help, though, especially as he had it a lot worse, with both his parents dying within a few weeks of each other. To complicate things, he finds himself bringing up his younger brother. In a dizzyingly offhand aside, he says "it was never really up for debate", the foregone casualness of which goes a long way to explaining some of the rage and panic that bubbles under the surface of this desperately cheerful book ("desperation" and "cheerfulness" becoming complicated concepts under the circumstances). It's totally understandable that under the circumstances, Eggers devotes a good deal more space to his relationship with his little brother, and to his own somewhat flailing attempts to Have A Life, than to protracted meditation on the mourning process, or some such carry-on. (The book about the parent-shaped hole in one's life has, as they say, been done, of course. Paul Auster's "The Invention of Solitude" does it in a cool, forensic manner; a more recent venture is Paul Morley's excellent "Nothing", which isn't in print in the USA but should be - a grungy, low-rent exploration of the whys and hows and whats behind Morley's father's suicide, which reads a bit like Beckett if Beckett had grown up near Manchester in the 60s and 70s, and which is in some ways an English counterpart to AHWOSG, even down to the self-conscious book-ness of the whole project.) I'm not at all surprised that David Foster Wallace contributed to the back blurb - his contribution reads like, and probably was, part of a letter to Eggers himself and is very much in tune with Eggers' program as a writer, to try and communicate as directly as possible without resorting to fakery, sentimentality and violin-twiddling. (Frank McCourt being the obvious recent example of the writer who embraced all three things and made loads of cash by doing so. Eggers even has a discreet but unmistakable dig at McCourt in his Acknowledgments, for which I cheer him.) I don't really understand the remark by the reviewer below who wanted to see how Eggers' experience "related to" his own, which admittedly was comparable. Nothing as bad as this has ever happened to me, yet although I would feel entitled to sit on at least the perimeter of a bereaved persons' support group, I don't want to. I want to read some sort of truth, and Eggers' struggle with language and communication is fully up to the struggles that his story is about - the black hole of grief vs. the need for happiness, responsibility vs. hedonism, life vs. death. It's a remarkable book and I didn't put it down. Except to eat, sleep and visit the bathroom. Truth at all times, remember.
Rating: 
Summary: 3:1 garbage to goodness ratio
Review: this book could have been great with a decent editor. instead it's unrestrained, longwinded and high on itself. yeah, i know that's the whole joke, but just because you can make fun of yourself doesn't make all the bad stuff not true. there are hilarious parts and even moments that are really touching but it's a better read if you skip at least half of it.
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking, yes...staggering genius? Hmmm...
Review: This tongue-in-cheek work from Dave Eggers, former editor of "Might" Magazine, is definitely heartbreaking. The death of both parents withing weeks of each other sends Eggers and his siblings into a tailspin, thrust suddenly into orphanhood, with Eggers finding himself the "mother figure" for his 8-year-old brother. The resulting "true story" is told with raw energy, candor, and a blustering sense of self-importance. It is this latter factor that slowly drains away the momentum from what could have been a true work of staggering genius. Told in a stream-of-consciousness style narrative, "...Genius" meanders its way to a muddled conclusion...but it is sheer entertainment along the way! The voice is fresh (if a bit cynical) and "tells it like it is". Skewering everything from MTV's "The Real World" to motherhood, "...Genius" is at least worth the time to read it cover to cover.
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