A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Rating:
Summary: Quite Frankly, One of the Best Novels I've Ever Read!
Review: The cover is irresistible. The red theatrical curtain rising (or perhaps falling) on a Technicolor sunset. The overblown title that must be self-referentially self-deprecating, or maybe not. And finally, irrelevantly, the little words, "Based on a True Story."

The truth of the story is beside the point, as the author points out in his endearing sequence of prefaces, acknowledgements, apologies, metaphor-indexes, helpful diagrams, and other procrastinations that precede the book. "PRETEND IT'S FICTION," he finally says, and this is good advice. The story of a young man losing both of his parents and suddenly having to raise his pre-teen brother is much better as a novel than as memoir. To his credit, Eggers has made a novel of it.

The book begins in deceptive calm -- a brilliant first chapter about the parents' slow, fragmentary, meaningless dying that captures the impossibility of ever seeing one's parents clearly. After the memorials, we adjourn to San Francisco and Eggers slams on the gas. The rest of the book is a high-strung inner monologue. It makes sense as the voice of a hero who is a knot of fatalistic anxiety, but also an energetic dreamer who can found an anti-magazine magazine and ranks apartments according to how far you can slide across the floor in your stocking feet. He remains a child even as he becomes a parent, and much of the delight of the book lies in this contradiction.

Of course, as a memoir, or faux-memoir, the narrative never breaks out from between the hero's ears. Others slip out of character to play self-referential postmodernist games, but Eggers, flail as he might, is always the same, a study in the directionless drive that many of us feel at that age.

One problem with telling your own life story is that it's very difficult to describe how you have changed, while it's easy to describe the changes in others. The tragic quality of this book is that the hero never really grows up, moves on. We simply ride his mind in the fast lane, like a clattering junk car that barely holds together but is still happiest at 90 mph, until we finally hit the end of the road.

For all its contradictions -- and despite all the negative reviews for the book on this site, which seem to focus on Dave Eggers' (annoying, yes) self-promotion more than anything -- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a hilarious and touching book by a truly gifted, high-speed writer. But judge for yourselves. Other recent, lesser-known novels I recommend off Amazon.com: [e-mail] (a medicated memoir) by Tom Grimes, THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez

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Summary: Staggering Self Indulgence
Review: I opened this book expecting my heart to break and to be staggered with genius. Okay, my expectations were a little high but this book was terribly disappointing. In fact, I continued reading it only because with all its acclaim, I thought it must at some point become interesting. But no, it never happened. The only staggering part was the author's sheer self indulgence with his endless whiny riffs on life's worries and stresses. These are a major part of the book but they became old real fast.

Its title is wonderful and Eggers writes with high energy. But there is no real story here.

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Summary: The Emperor Has No Clothes!!!!!!
Review: If I could rate this book a negative 5, I would. At a time when hardly anyone knows the work of John Fante, when Gerald Kersh is out of print and unread, when works like It Happened In Boston? and I Capture the Castle, are only now being rediscovered, when Budd Schulberg and Jose Donoso slip into obscurity, along comes a staggering work of mediocrity to take America by storm. This book isn't funny, or ground-breaking, or smartly written; it isn't even good. It is self-conscious, cutesy, and pretentious. Publishers should hang their heads in shame. Soon, they'll be publishing the stories of eight-year-olds who can't write for their fifteen minutes of fame. Whoop-di-do! Lap it up, people. Let your tastes sink to the level of network television. Let other countries bring us writers like Marquez, Octavio Paz, Neruda, Saramago, Fowles, Angela Carter--meanwhile, we here can revel in our smug, self-satisfied mediocrity, and Eggers can laugh all the way to the bank.

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Summary: a pithy review of excusably misteaks
Review: for my money, there's no question that eggers is a great writer. ahwsg does an awefully fine job of showcasing this. at times this book could (if such were the intent) shame even dfw, delillo, or pynchon with it's remarkable prose, even though the project as a whole shows that eggers is just getting started.

so, what makes this book worth-while? well, for one, it was in here that i first read such an accurate description of the outlook i (and, i presume, most folks) harbor deep down inside: that of unbounded ability of some sort or other. reading the early frisbee sections where we see two titans hurling discs in uber-hurculean fashion were spot on descriptions of childhood games where we were convinced wholeheartedly that the pros had, as it were, nothing on us.

the trials and travails of a twenty-something may seem like worn out fodder for television these days, but between the realization that crematory ashes are, in fact, not very much like ash at all and the ability to maintain a deep divide between our logical realizations (e.g. that we are meant to be somewhere for an important meeting while playing on the beach) and our actions (e.g. only to do nothing about it) eggers does an excellent job of going after the most saliant points with exceptionally clear examples.

is the book perfect? no. there are bits that lag (not just that they are without "action," but they seemed empty of significance), and there are spots that could use another go at the editing. is the book worth reading? most definitely, so instead of watching "friends," give this a read, but be forewarned, you may not want to go back.

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Summary: A staggering example of clever marketing.....
Review: As I browsed my favorite section of the bookstore (biography), I was struck by this book's truly effective title. I could not help but pick it up and examine the cover. I was hooked by the numerous quotes gleaned from glowing reviews and the truly humorous self-deprecating suggestions from the author about how to approach the comprehension of his autobiography. "How imaginative... how original...I must read this...", I thought as I added it to my purchases for the day.

Then came the gradual realization that I had been duped by a series of ingenious marketing strategies... perhaps conceived by a genuine genius who is simply too undisciplined to craft an effective autobiography. After the first few pages of the book, which do effectively chronicle the horrifying experience of watching his mother die slowly of an invasive cancer, it seemed to lapse into a disjointed series of self-indulgent ramblings that utterly lost my interest. I began to feel a growing resentment toward this book, which had seemed to promise such enjoyment. I forced myself to continue reading it... telling myself that I must be missing something. Unfortunately I actually began to dislike this young man for leading me on and disappointing me.

As mentioned by other customer reviewers, there are certainly moments of elegant and insightful writing which punctuate the scattered self-indulgent rhetoric of this memoir. Invariably, these precious moments occur when he seems to relax his posture of "tortured, sarcastic genius" and actually manages to invite the reader into his authentic emotional life... especially when dealing with his little brother.

I do not usually bother writing uncomplimentary reviews... not wanting to be another one of those book reviewers who enjoys the exercise of a pointed tongue for its own sake. But in this case, I believe the hype that was used to title and sell this book to the reading public deserves to be exposed for what it really is: extremely clever, extremely effective, and extremely disappointing in its aftermath.

Rating:
Summary: Just a great book.
Review: Beautiful, touching, smart and funny. But not ha-ha funny, smile while you're reading it funny. Eggers tells the story not so much of the death of his parents, but the struggle to keep it all together afterwards. I found his writing to be light and easy on the surface but very deep if you sit back and think about it. You don't feel forcefed as you do with some authors. He really touches on some very sad things in a way that is not mellowdramatic or boring at all. Its simply just a great read.

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Summary: Wandering & Interesting
Review: Did I read somewhere that this was the first great novel by a Gen X writer? Maybe so, and it is not a half bad story either. Eggers takes over as guardian to his brother Toph after both his parents die in suburban Chicago. He then moves to San Francisco and tries to do his best to raise his little brother. He gets involved with publishing a magazine, trying out for the real world, killing Adam Rich, and trying not to become paranoid about someone killing his brother while he is gone.

At times this book wanders all over the place, but the heart of the story is good. In some ways the tremendously detailed dialogues between him and girls, real world producers, Adam Rich, and others harken back to Russian literature of the 19th century. Now that may be a stretch but I have not seen any other young writers doing this with any humor. Eggers is funny. This book is worth reading. B

Joseph Dworak

Rating:
Summary: You like it or you hate it.
Review: It seems that Eggers book doesn't appeal to just anyone, I find it very interesting. The whole way Eggers describes his life as though every thought he has is visible to anyone. The book shows how death is courted with mockery and how a lack of self-confidence is a big factor in any 20-something life. I really loved it.

Rating:
Summary: 2 out of 3 isn't bad
Review: Heartbeaking? Yes. Staggering? Yes. Genius? No. Dave Eggers has created a sprawling work where he excorsises his pain over his parents' death. The interview with the Real World producers was the best part of the book. The rest seemed like a graduate-level creative writing excercise. Not as great a book as the critics say, but a readable one.

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Summary: Case Study abstract of Mass Media physiological effect
Review: with this something of a auto-bio,

eggers offers a view of someone making an extreme effort of honesty to look at himself in the mirror, trying to identify the evil ego and vanity . . . and just mess it up -- and despite what's left of what he sees, he is going to make a go of it anyway; what else is there to do?

there is freshly clever writing reflecting some of the absurd realitys of living in modern america.

at times, seems overly efforting the clever construction.

good book for a read during an extended furlough, stuck somewhere as a scientific study test subject, or on a long business trip to where there is little business of doing business. . . buy it used.