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Summary: Thanks for sharing, Dave
Review: Dave Eggers breaks a lot of rules in this mostly wonderful book. From the inside front cover flap ("Removed from Chapter 5") through the hysterical transcript of his MTV "Real World" audition, to the Joycean stream-of-consciousness ending, he combines studied pretentiousness with true honor and feeling. It's not always pretty--in fact, it can be brutal, such as the opening description of his mother's horrible death that brought back the smells and agony of my own time sitting beside my father's deathbed. But Eggers has done the right thing--not just by his brother, which was truly important, but by his readers. From our ringside seat we see the chaos, self-loathing, pride, sheer terror, pure joy, and the other conflicting emotions in his life as a twentysomething orphan.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved the beginning then skimmed the rest
Review: The preface as well as the beginning of the story had me hooked (don't try to eat dinner and read the beginning of this story). Then I got to thinking about some of the parts "Who cares?" Thought it rambled a bit too much. Did enjoy the stream of consciousness when I would stop myself and make myself read it line by line. Hope all turns out well for Mr. Eggers and his brother
Rating:
Summary: A qualified thumbs up.
Review: I had a hard time deciding if I liked this book or not. At times, it droned on endlessly until I was ready to give up on it entirely, but then Eggers would write something that was hysterically funny so I'd keep going. In Egger's own words: "The first three or four chapters are all [some] will want to bother with." This warning intrigued me enough to keep reading and I found that although the subsequent chapters do lag a little more than the first four, there are several parts that make it worth reading. I would, however, recommend skimming his recap of the "Real World" interveiw which lasts from pg 162-208. There are a few noteworthy highlights mixed in with a lot of babble. I'd also suggest skipping the last chapter altogether. The next to last chapter makes for a much cleaner ending, while the final chapter is disjointed, confusing, and adds little to the story. Most disturbingly, in the last couple of pages, the author changes from the sorrowful but lighthearted and sarcastic tone that carries through most of the book to one that's angry and hateful. One final note, Egger's abundant use of profanity is also likely to put some people off. So consider yourself warned.
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Summary: Carrion Prose
Review: If this novel were a t-shirt, it would read MY PARENTS DIED SLOW HORRIBLE DEATHS AND ALL I GOT WAS A HUNDRED PAGES. Eggers' book, stripped of its elaborate prefatory flourishes, is a brief, formulaic parents'-death memoir--the most venerable and formulaic genre of the American literary workshop. For generations, American workshop writers have exploited the deaths of their fathers, mothers, dogs, cats, rats, parrots, imaginary siblings and falsified grandparents for literary gain. Dave Eggers, who admits that he was submitting short stories about his mother's death before her body wa s cold, is only the latest in a long line of desperate ambition-machines who have sold their relatives' bodies to the meat-processors of art. Why, then, has his parents'-death story been so successful?Eggers' strategy is simple, but effective: instead of hiding his crime, he flaunts it, even as he hopes to keep the tears flowing. It's quite a performance, in its way: rather like going for both the low and high hand in a game of poker. For example, Eggers spends twenty pages squeezing tears from the reader over the accident which befell his friend Shalini, then admits that he hardly knew her. In the same way, after spending a hundred pages telling that cliche of cliches, that Everest of workshop drivel, the "Mom's Slow Death by Cancer" narrative, he admits that he began submitting short stories about his mom's death before her body was cold. For Eggers, literary success is the result of a very simple arithmetic: one corpse equals one chapter. Two corpses--his mom and dad, who die with all violins playing in the first hundred pages of the book--provide the momentum to get the "novel" underway. These first hundred pages work pretty well, in a workshoppy way, milking the parents' deaths for every little droplet. After that,only Dave's little brother Toph is left as pathos-device Toph's vulnerability and Dave's tender conscience have to carry the load, and the dropoff is so stark it makes the Marianas Trench look like a handicapped ramp. Wile E. Coyote has fallen off cliffs which didn't drop off this dramatically. Caring for one's little brother, which anyone from a less self-centred culture would do happily, becomes for Dave a terrible martyrdom, because it distracts him from his true duty as a young American: the pursuit of celebrity by any means necessary. The reader is supposed to find his concern for his little brother heroic. The implications about American culture are horrifying, above all because, based on readers' comments on Amazon, American readers really do accept caring for a brother as a deeply noble act, rather than a given. As Dave admits in his Preface, "The book thereafter is sort of uneven," since it covers "...the lives of people in their early twenties, [whose] lives are very difficult to make interesting..." Yeah, you can see his predicament. Who ever heard of a good novel about the lives of people in their twenties? Talk about barren ground! Dave does his best with this thankless material, always depending on ol' Toph to keep the audience reaching for their hankies every time his tales of upper-middle-class careerist banality become "difficult to make interesting." If you had to make a t-shirt out of the latter three-quarters of the novel, it would be worn by Dave, with one of those arrows pointing toward Toph, and reading I'M TAKING CARE OF STUPID, ALL BY MYSELF, or perhaps, HE AIN'T HEAVY, HE'S MY TICKET TO FAME! When Dave can bring his dying parents on stage, he's a passable writer; once they're gone, we're left with nothing but his stunningly banal, depressing search for literary fame at any price. To this end, Dave and his midwestern preppie friends. start a magazine, giving it the coy name "Might." There's no better way to convey the flatness of the enterprise than to quote the manifesto published in its first issue: "Could there really be more to a generation than illiterate, uninspired, flannel-wearing 'slackers'? Could a bunch of people under twenty-five put out a national magazine with no corporate backing [note: as Dave unwisely confesses elsewhere, his mag was started by dipping into his inheritance; thus his career is founded quite literally on his parents' deaths, just like his narrative.] and no clue about marketing? With actual views about actual issues? With a sense of purpose and a sense of humor? With guts and goals and hope? Who would read a magazine like that? You might." Then again, you might not, especially if you don't want a horrifying glimpse into the beige souls of Dave and his friends, who have no emotions other than a protozoan crawl toward fame at any price. And it's worked for him. That's the scariest part. In Dave's culture, that settles it: you can't argue with success, as the vultures say.
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Summary: Perhaps the humor hides the simplicity?
Review: This is clearly a "laugh out loud" book. If you enjoy a book that nicely mixes humor with a truly tragic/uplifting story, then you should find this engaging. However, the author's own titular pronouncement notwithstanding, this is a fairly simple tale simply told. I recommend it for everyone who has ever wondered how they would survive if their parents were gone tomorrow. Be prepared for some juvenile humor mixed in with the more insightful comments.
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Summary: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Review: I guess I am just not with it but just reading through the first 65 pages was so painful I stopped. I couldn't get into his writing style, stream of consciousness, whatever it was or is. I just found it a chore. I was not relating to the characters and some of his thoughts were just bizarre .
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Summary: Provoking
Review: This book really lives up to its title. Heartbraking, yes, Staggering, applies in certain parts, Genius, truly. Eggers has the fine ability to tell it like it is, and does so with honest humor.
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Summary: Read it Cover to Cover - Literally!
Review: To write a review of Dave Egger's staggering work of heartbreaking genius would be redundant - it's a "self-reviewing" memoir/novel/historical treatise...Eggers anticipates every comment or criticism that one could make and examines each, every step of the way. His style is both honest and hilariously self-conscience. I recommend it.
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Summary: Funny, outrageous, weird... I could go on...
Review: This book was recommended to me by a person I hold in thegreatest steem and he said it was one of the funniest books he hadever read so I thought okay, I'll read it. Guess what? It was, butalso nothing he told me about it prepared me for it. It was like being kidnapped by this seriously bizarre character (the author himself, to boot!) and be subjected to a strange/marvelous/horrid tour de force of his life... by turns it is poignant, laughable, annoying, and yes heartbreaking......
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: My wife (who gets to lay next to me while I read at night) had the best comment about this book. For the past week I would lay there and chuckle and laugh at different scenes to the point of, "Okay, that's annoying. Tell me what?" Then yesterday as I fumbled to get through page 346 and 347 she saw that I was openly weeping. I mean tears streaming down my face. She said, "I've never seen a book bring you to both extremes of emotions." Who the hell does this Eggers guy think he is, forcing me to laugh and cry and think about life! This is the best read I've had in months. Too many highlighted passages to even begin with. The guy can write and tell a story and be funny and punch you in the gut and throw a frisbee. Not bad for a Gen Xer! Buy this book. Mike
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