Rating: 
Summary: This Genius Doesn't Stagger...
Review: Dave Eggers is an amazing writer, but even better he is amazingly real. This work is witty, so make sure you read everything from the inside cover, to the Rights page, even the back cover photo has his humor attached to it. Definitely read the parts he even suggests you don't. Eggers makes you comfortable that even if you still slide across wood floors in socks, hit on women in purple berets and run throughout the house yielding a knife that you are somewhat normal. He's definitely beyond genius, and his book had me laughing out loud. Definitely looking forward to his next work.
Rating:
Summary: It's kinda how the blues are supposed to work
Review: As a high school student, I enjoyed and excelled in mathematics classes. I loved solving algebraic equations, deriving geometric proofs, and interpolating my way through trig tables, until the day when, like so many others before and since, I moved into Precalculus and discovered that the affair was over. No part of my brain could ever wrap its gray, gooey self around the concepts of derivatives and areas under curves. Soon, I was convinced that my diminishing mathematical acumen was evidence of a larger inferiority, and my whole life began circling the drain.Until yesterday, when I encountered this wonderful tome, in which Mr. Edgar shatters the invisible "calculus ceiling." Utilizing humorous anecdotes and dozens of full-color plates, the author offers succor to all who have suffered as a result of math-induced trauma. Readers ranging from those who refuse to count their change in front of the critical eyes of sales clerks to sufferers of calculus-related erectile dysfunction will find relief and vindication in these pages.
Rating:
Summary: A Genius Work of Staggering Heartbreak
Review: A touch of sadness to brighten your life, this memoir recollected him to me with a vagueness, yet a surity, which no other memory has yet to revive. From the very depths of the Hell of my chiildhood, leaky faucets that sent me to the shrink. To my current Hell as a programmer, computer programmer, 8-5, rush-hour traffic, TV dinners, and a lonliness captured in the insightful memoir of staggaring genius, or heartbreak.
Rating:
Summary: A rhetorical roller coaster
Review: Eggers writes with a stream-of-thought style remniscent of talking on the phone with someone you haven't seen for years. The difference, however, is that Eggers' story is interesting. More than interesting, it's captivating. The plot is challenging for the reader, as Eggers basically tells a complete story in the first few chapters, only to add sub-storylines intertwined with the theme of the first part of the book in the latter chapters. Instead of being distracting, though, Eggers manages to tie the different plot-lines together to present a unified memoir. While readers may be weary of what seems to be a common theme--dealing with loss--Eggers' unique situation, and more impacting, Eggers' unique perspective, creates a book unlike any I've encountered, with several scenes staying with me days after reading the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Postmodern knobs on
Review: Dont't believe all the hype. Yes, Dave Eggers' account of bringing up his kid brother is moving and funny and worthwhile. But it's not the greatest book ever written, as most of the world seems to want to believe. At heart it is a conventional 'Triumph Over Tragedy' tale: parents die, kids pull together, everyone searches hearts, author becomes a success. It's the stuff of People magazine, but told with a level of knowingness quite uncommon in this kind of subject - Eggers really dies pull you up short at times. The question is: does his literary tricksiness detract from the narrative. And at times the answer must be: yes. The first time a conversation in the book turns into a deconstruction of Eggers' motives between himself and his conscience is fine and interesting and unusual. The second it's a drag. He is so keen to show that he is aware of his motives foir writing, that at times he undermines the awful reality of his own story. Eggers wants to have his cake and eat it: he wants to be loved like a sentimentalist but admired like a rationalist. He nearly succeeds.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising writer, but relies too much on attitude
Review: Eggers understands the power of language and composes resonant descriptions of common life happenings-e.g. the contents of an odd glance out the window at the winter sky. This is the book I would have written in my twenties in terms of tone. Reading his, I am glad I did not. It's a great piece of descriptve writing and it's helpful in relating the chaotic feelings common to people who lose loved ones. But 300+ pages of this 20-something's coming of age is just too much information about someone who seems irritating and self-absorbed and codependent. And acknowledging one's own propensity towards these traits does not make the person lovable. And he never came of age by the end of the book! But he is clever enough with turning a phrase to keep you turning the page. I just wish I could have thrown the book at him after I was done.
Rating:
Summary: obviously a work of incredible depth
Review: "~This book is genius. Of course, it takes a person of impeccable taste and intelligence to realize the genius of this book, but let us get one thing straight: it IS genius, pure unadulterated genius. yet another masterpiece of humor, heartbreaking and side-splitting, true-to-life and wacky all at once.
Rating:
Summary: Starts strong
Review: The first chapters and the sections featuring Tophe are moving. The writing loses some power and depth when Eggers chronicles his Might magazine days and REAL WORLD escapade. He apologizes for this in advance, of course, as the lives of twenty-somethings are not that interesting. He's right, but his life with Tophe IS, so why skimp there? He doesn't apologize for the total lack of literary or philosphical references, unless MTV and movies count, but never mind, the kids will love it. Eggers declares with apparent satisfaction that the people on REAL WORLD will be the movers and shakers in ten years. No wonder the book left me feeling both disengaged and uneasy.
Rating:
Summary: For those who have been orphaned in our youth...
Review: Dave Eggers taps right into so much that all of us who have been orphaned young experience. I could empathize with his feeling old and preoccupation with dying himself. And his ability to articulate how other peoples pain becomes as much about you as them is right on. The part in the book when he is tormented about what to do with the "cremains" is priceless. I didn't want it to end. I want to know how the move to NY went, how his younger brother is adapting, how the magazine is doing etc. Perhaps a sequel memoir in 5 years when he is a very successful writer, magazine editor, screenwriter, Oscar contender will be forthcoming. The inbetween stuff in the book is tedious at times, but then boom, it pulls you right back in. I am looking forward to rereading the parts that were side splittingly funny.
Rating:
Summary: Clever, easy read; refreshing and heartbreaking in some ways
Review: Eggers is certainly a fresh voice; self-depreciating, humorous, and not afraid to make fun of himself or others in his memoir. At times, however, I feel he tries to be a bit too clever in order to please the reader. But he is masterful in integrating the somber issues of death and loss with pure slapstick with Toph. Truly funny and heartbreaking at the same time....and worth the read.
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