A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this book - you can HAVE mine
Review: This book has the potential of being a great novel,the author is incredible, he has a unique style that is endearing and engaging. The story is incredible, the conflict he feels in being a responsible parent/brother to his younger brother Toph is tender, sincere, and often humerous. He had me enthralled until about the last 100 pages of the book then the story line seems to get lost in the muck and mire. I continued to read because I was sure all the meanderings away from the story would be tied together somehow. I was wrong - the book left me empty and wondering why I wasted my time, not to mention money on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Heartstopping work of Groundbreaking Genius
Review: Dave Eggers can flat-out write. He's got a gift with words, for fabulous turns of phrase. But he's an angry young man, caught up in his grief, and sounds entranced by his talent and his initiative. His angst comes out in his prose, though he sometimes depends too much on vulgarity to get his message across.

The man is widely loved for this story of a family surviving back-to-back tragedies, and justifiably so. The first part of this book is as sad and tragic as anything I've read. It falls off from there, but it's still a fine read. I've read that Eggers turned down $1 million for the movie rights, and that he hates promotion. That tactic has helped his book grow from underground sensation to bona fide bestseller; I doubt he's turning down his royalties. I hope they don't make a movie out of AHWOSG -- they couldn't improve much on the book.

Rating:
Summary: Post-Post-Modern Genius
Review: Staggering indeed is this story of Eggers and his struggles to raise his (much) younger brother after the untimely death of their parents. What could have been an everyday memoir is transformed by Eggers into a wonderfully funny and hearbreaking account of the large issues at hand (death, love, devotion) and the small ones (the correct way to slice an orange, different ways to catch a frisbee, etc). He employs so many modern twists in his book that the fact that the last 200 pages are "uneven" and tedious (as he tells us in the prologue) barely phases the reader (though sometimes the tedium is annoying).

But the main thing one takes with him upon completion of the book is not in the post-post modern approach to writing, or even thoughts of how horrible it must have been for Eggers and his brother to lose their parents to cancer at such young ages. No, the reader remembers Eggers' most simple and loving passages as when he feels the forehead of his young brother and thinks, "His head is hot, like things inside are burning". It's that bond that he shares with his brother, and the concern for his future, that truly resonate with you long after reading the book.

Rating:
Summary: Heartbreakingly Clever, Genius of Marketing
Review: Eggers is definitely a very talented writer. I enjoyed the book up to the point where Eggers decides to hit me over the head a dozen times with the same thing. Repetition maybe a motif of the X-generation, but it doesn't have to be demonstrated so literally as Eggers has done. After all, readers aren't as stupid as we seem and a book isn't a pop song where we need a chorus. The most annoying thing about the book is Eggers' relentless ranting. True, he can rant rather cleverly, but eventually I get tired of hearing the same over and over. I like him the way I like my 5 y.o. nephew who is also a brilliant ranter: that is, I like him for ten minutes then I want to box his ears.

The book is brilliantly crafted. The author shows exactly what he wants to show and not a bit more (despite all the posturing). That is also to say he doesn't want to show much. He's like a magician. He gets you to focus on the right hand while he does something else with the left hand. I bought the book because I wanted to know more about the terrible tragedy that had befallen his family and the burden that he had taken with his younger brother. Granted I also would like to learn a bit about him as well. But after I read the book, I didn't learn a whole lot about his family or his little brother or his girlfriends. But I did enjoy the convolution (the first 40 or 50 pages) of his prose and his sheer audacity.

After I finished the book, I had a chance to hear him read. It was only then that I could confirm my suspicion. Eggers is a gifted writer, but he is far more the marketing genius and the consumate showman. The only disappointing thing is that--like most showman--he delivers less than he promises.

I like this book because it ventures in new direction (though not far enough). I like it because Eggers has the cojones to take the publishing-reviewing industries in and ride them for all they're worth.

For true brillance, read Angela Ashes by Frank McCourt (Pulitzer Winner). For emotional honestly and insights, read Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham (Kiriyama Winner).

Rating:
Summary: Sketchy At Best
Review: Don't believe the hype. I had to force myself to finish this book. I barely laughed and when I did it was out of disbelief that people actually enjoyed this sophomoric effort. A lot of the writing felt forced to me, had no substance and, at times, was down-right annoying. If you want to laugh, do yourself a favor and read anything by David Sedaris. If you still want to read this book, buy the paperback.

Rating:
Summary: Here is a picture of a stapler:
Review: First of all, this book doesn't really have to be read like it's true. I mean, because the tone is so depressing and heavy at times (but in a good way), it's easier to read this book as if it were a novel. So even if you generally don't read non-fiction, this book is worth a try. I liked almost everything about it. Stylistically it is great. It has a perfect blend of wit, insight, and sillyness that reminds me of a They Might Be Giants CD. And Dave is brutally honest about his life and thoughts, even when they're not flattering to him. Augustine's Confessions is the only other book I have read where the autobiographer is so forthcoming about his shortcomings and struggles. (Did I really just compare Dave Eggers to a Saint?) Well, read the book and decide for yourself whether you think Dave deserves Sainthood (I think it's a no...). But he does write one heck of an entertaining book. So read it soon. And read it often.

Rating:
Summary: Get it in paperback.....
Review: Oh dear. This is a definite case of too much hype and not enough substance.

While Eggers comes accross as affable enough, he's also too annoyingly arch and egocentric, too aware of his youth and (so-called) beauty and indomitability to be a likeable hero. In a word - he's bigheaded and spends most of the book defending this as his fundamental right.

Some of the writing is good, and the first hundred pages are inspired. His account of his mother's decline and his father's fading away are moving and funny, and very real; if Eggers had maintained that mixture of humour and human appeal, then this would have been a great book. The rules for enjoying the book are clever, and his anarchic approach to how you actually go about starting a book is incredibly funny and refreshing. But as he warns, these are the only good bits - the rest of the book is very, very tedious.

We want to hear about how his brother does, but apart from brief snippets of info which give us clues as to how he is devloping in these unusual circumstances (the marvelous models of Jesus that he makes) Eggers seems to forget the premise of the book (Big brother looks after little brother after parents dies) and ignores Toph woefully to tell us at length about how great it is to be young and free in America. You get the feeling that Toph would have managed to write a much more interesting version of the story. We'd also like to read more about how Dave copes, his emotions and thoughts and feelings, but we just get more banality about his rather boring escapades in publishing and TV which really, I promise are merely the self interested outpourings of a kid who watched too much MTV and not even nearly as interesting as you'd expect.

After making myself finish the book, I felt cheated. I wasn't seriously expecting this to be a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, but I did hope that there's be a little more heartbreak, or a little more genius in it than there actually is. Perhaps Eggers found it difficult or unnecessary to write at length about what it is to lose both parents and be left literally holding the baby. He shouldn't have to -there are plenty of other books out there telling painfully real stories of human suffering to make another one superfluous. However, what I really felt disappointed about was that this book promises the reader one thing, and then goes on to deliver something totally and disappointingly different.

Rating:
Summary: My Parents Are Dead
Review: It's good, but worthy of just one read. There's no depth, it seems, and Eggers' anti-anti-irony approach here communicates nil.

Still, it's a good, thick book, and I give it a star for every time I've used it to prop this broken lawn chair in my garden.

Rating:
Summary: Believe the title.
Review: The title certainly is a correct statement in itself. Mr. Eggers narrates this story of life, death and LIFE in such a way that makes the reader bust up laughing in an otherwise silent room (drawing nasty looks from all the students trying to finish up the assignment for their Intro to Macs class) and nod sympathetically at other parts. It is a touchingly realistic (being based on a true story after all) story with a method of narrating that is confusing until the reader is able to catch on to his style of mixing what he is thinking with what is going on with what has already happened. From page i, starting with the publishing credits (trust me, read them), to the end, this book is packed with wit, sarcasm and absolute beauty. It is a fantastic novel, heartbreaking and obviously a work of staggering genius.

Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: I love this book. I haven't finished it yet, but I can't help but encourage people to read it. I started it yesterday, am half-way through and resent the fact that I am at work today because now I can't read it until tonight. It is funny and touching and embarrassing and annoying -- everything you would want in a good friend.