Rating: 
Summary: Raging brain of a broken heart...
Review: How do you maintain a "normal" life when tragedy finds you? Some of us use humor to control the painful rage. I recall a day in high school watching a girl comb her long blond hair over and over again as our teacher droned on and on. It took about all I had not to grab that comb and break it over her beautiful head (well, I had no scissors at the time or I would have fantasized choppng her hair off). My mother was dying of cancer at the time. Although Eggers' book may not be a staggering work of genius, it's quite original and insanely told with humor straight from a hurting heart. Read it... and remember to have someone take your photo while doing so!
Rating:
Summary: Genius, maybe? Brave, Definitely!
Review: Being from the Bay Area I admit this book was fun to read for the places he's been. I am heartbroken, and a genius, and I found this book to be the bravest book I've ever read. Dave is every bit as jaded and judgemental as I am having suffered almost as much as I have, but he has an incredible ability to be so brazen and honest. At 29, he is still too young to know the full impact of his thoughts but luckily his little brother Toph, like so many of our children, is watching him and I'm sure will keep him in line. It would be interesting to hear his sister Beth's story and to hear more of Toph's thoughts. I'm sure their stories would be every bit as heartbreaking, but the question is..who else among us is courageous enough to be so exposed?
Rating: 
Summary: Profoundly moving, yet light to the touch
Review: I will never claim to be David Foster Wallace and won't attempt to do justice to his blurb on the back but basicly his point is that eggers has just tremndous guts to spend this entire book in every line from the banal of everyday to the scenes of grief coated in this very pure reverence. this book challenges the reader by not heavy handedly underlining the things beneath the text. Eggers skips the dramatic pauses and expresses a human story genuine above all things. AHWOSG is an emotion always on the fringe of coming forward. Eggers allows you to know what is behind the curtain without letting you see him look the other way. It is an amazing, accessible trip. The kind the sits on your mind not heavy, but like another voice; a borrowed pair of eyes to see from the outside in.
Rating:
Summary: A Not Unaffected Tale of Staggering Pretty-Goodness
Review: This is something which I can strongly recommend to people in the 25-40 age group. You'll probably find a lot of yourself in Eggers' writing, especially those of you who've ventured away from home and have escaped the clutches of suburban mediocrity.Eggers ventures close to pretension at times, but the meat on these bones is pretty substantial. While I can't personally relate to raising a child, I could relate in many ways. I moved to San Francisco from the MidWest at roughly the same time Eggers did and moved away pretty much the same time (for similar reasons). The San Francisco he remembers is the San Francisco I remember (sort of). There is a pathos to his writing and the love he feels for his brother is touching. He has a fantastic talent for making the reader feel his joys, his sadness, his regrets, etc. that makes the book a fun and sometimes thrilling trip to take. Definitely worth your while.
Rating: 
Summary: Genius? Heartbreaking? What did I miss?
Review: Somebody please tell me just what is supposed to be the staggering work of genius that the title eludes to. I was thoroughly disappointed in this book. There was no story. Very engaging manic style of writing but what was it all for. A great cathartic purge? I feel like the entire book was windowdressing for his pseudo-Marxist ideas for salvaging society. Great ideas but don't couch them in your personal tragedy. My parents died. I was 23. I was a parent to my younger brother. My two older brothers were far from the competent allies Eggers had. I am a Gen Xer. I wanted to hear how Egger's orphan experience compared to mine. What did he have to say about the loss of parents, the taking to the grave of that point you reach as father/mother-son? Understanding your parents posthumously? I'm glad he spared the sentimentality and ran with the humorous, stream of thought. It made for a quick read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Not So Staggering work of Genius
Review: Although the plot to this book has potential, I found that Eggers put me to sleep with his boring characters and story line. I usually force myself to finish a book, no matter how terrible, I'm often overtaken with guilt when I finally decide to close a book without reading it from cover to cover. However, I couldn't even force myself to finish this sleepy, pathetic, and ultimately uninteresting novel.
Rating:
Summary: Everything Good and Artistic and Crushingly Honest
Review: Having been introduced to David Foster Wallace through his "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men," I picked up Eggers based almost solely on the fact that Wallace recommended it so highly in a rather long and complicated blurb on the back of the book. What Wallace felt, I felt completely: that Eggers is both "terrifically talented" and "courageous" in a way that I won't even begin to wrap my head around. Eggers life is so drastically different from mine (both of my parents are still alive and I certainly don't have to care for a younger brother), combined with the fact that I usually don't "dig" on "memoirs" too much, led me to be "suspicious" (such suspicion increased by Eggers own preface, which is the most brilliant metawriting I have ever had the *pleasure* of reading) about how I might be able to "relate" or "understand" or "appreciate" or any other reader/writer interactions that all these years of "schoolin'" have told me I *should* experience. That was stupid on my part. Very. I experienced this epic (I use "epic" like "professional" critics say "inventive") book like I experienced Cathcer in the Rye. On many occassions I'd actually audibly say "Uh" or "Ah," because Eggers so acurately captures how thoughts are processed, and this effect is only heightened by how intensly *honest* he is. I will read everything Eggers ever publishes.
Rating:
Summary: Read This Book!
Review: Enobled by the sadness of his story, Eggers' exhilirating book is always true and good, funny and inventive. Sort of a Tristram Shandy for the MTV set, but smart and wonderful for the most adult reader. Eggers' great story is the writing of the book itself, but along the way he covers parenthood, death and dying, and even The Real World -- with terrible wit and brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing is permanent
Review: Eggers' off-kilter memoir is insightful, funny and unpredictable. The duties of "parenting" a younger brother fall abruptly to 21 year old Eggers after the death of both their parents. This difficult transition provokes contemplation on matters both weighty and slight, all rendered from a unique and intelligent point of view. Themes of loss mix beautifully with the unavoidable sense of the impermanence of life in his sometimes lucid, sometimes impressionistic writing. The style is mostly comic with the author able to make great fun of his own self-concious observations. Eggers' triumph is that the comedy never banishes the sense of potential for everyday tragedy that surrounds us all. I simply haven't ever read anything quite like it.
Rating:
Summary: Gen X Spokesperson
Review: This was a book that touched me. After reading it, I have identified with the author more than I ever have after reading a book. The author's relationship with his brother is so endearing. I was also affected by the way the author struggled to come to terms with the death of his parents as well as his own childhood.
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