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Summary: Really Is A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genious
Review: A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius is just that, a staggering accomplishment. I am not normally a fast reader, but this book was easy to speed through in just a couple of days because it was so interesting. It is remarkably well written, witty, creative, beautiful and indeed heartbreaking. As other reviewers have mentioned, one can sense a bit of self-promotion and certainly self-absorption in this book. The author, Dave Eggers, is incredibly introspective, perhaps to a fault. In telling this autobiographical tale, he often appears self-centered and selfish. The story is mainly about him. Naturally, you see his life through his eyes and his eyes only. The book is written in a sweeping train-of-thought style, taking the reader through a whirlwind tour of the inner-workings of Eggers' mind. If you enjoy train-of-thought style writing, this book will amaze you. If not, you might want to consider reading something else. As the lead character in his own novel, Eggers is at once miraculously mature and incredibly adolescent. He is generous and sometimes unselfish, mainly to his younger brother, the book's second most important figure. The books deals largely with how Eggers learns to take care of his younger brother. This is a profoundly interesting autobiography. It grabbed my attention from the very first page and never let go. It helped rekindle my dormant passion for reading and it may inspire you as well. The only complaint I can think of is this: Eggers describes his life experiences in extreme detail. This is usually done with amazing success, making the book exceptionally interesting and enveloping. But sometimes the story can be a tedious. Still, this is a minor complaint and the book is well worth buying.
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Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: Summary: excellent, well-written, insightful... every writer should be so good! I picked up this book, and couldn't put it down until I finished it in one sitting!
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Summary: It lives up to its title.
Review: Although both of Dave Eggers' parents die in the book, the book is not depressing. Both deaths happen off-stage. What he is most concerned about is the aftermath - Eggers, 22, is left responsible for the care of his nine-year-old brother, Toph. The two of them move out to California where Eggers begins a magazine. The thing everyone comments about the book that it is gimmicky. It is. It famously has a forty page manual on how to enjoy the book, complete with a sketch of a stapler. My favorite gimmick however, is the way Eggers draws attention to his own gimmicks. Toph frequently "breaks character" to pass sophisticated judgments on his brother and the way he is writing the book. There is too much that I loved about the book for me to mention. I loved the relationship between Toph and Eggers. It is not a melodramatic, party-of-five thing. Eggers loves his brother. He loves the opportunity to mold another person. He loves doing stuff with his brother. He looks at him like a roommate. My favorite scene is where Toph momentarily forgets that he is eleven and not twenty-two. I love that this is a chronicle of the nineties - which, I guess, is my generation. There is a great section of the book dedicated to Eggers involvement with The Real World TV show. Remember Puck? Even he makes an appearance. As with any great book, you read AHWOSG and occasionally think, "I thought I was the only one who felt that way." The book is a very fast read. My only occasional problem is the self-hatred Eggers sometimes shows. He attacks himself for mining his own misery - which is what every writer does, especially the comic ones. It's OK - he's allowed. We are all tired and we are all true of heart.
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Summary: I really enjoyed this book
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be thought provoking and and found Egger's opinions and takes on things to be interesting. I also found his situation with his brother to be quite extraordinary.
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Summary: Eggers: a tour de force of Storytelling and Voice
Review: Eggersian force bleeds onto the pages in this innovative and powerful work by the founder of the popular quarterly journal, McSweeney's. Although wildly discursive at times, as one's stream of consciousness often is, Eggers manages to whip together a fantastic work of a bold-faced hero struggling through modern life. Eggers's tale is audaciously autobiographical, especially in the wake of the difficulty of the subject matter, but he is aware of the pitfalls of this, and manages to walk a fine line between self-conscious grip and utter self-devourment. Eggers, like Dr. Jekyl and Hyde, emits a duality typical of those struck with harrowing tragedy. Appearing strong, herculean even, in his tenacity for quashing all slings and arrows that come his way, he is a fallen shelter beneath it all, barely able to hold it together though somehow does. But at a cost. And that cost comes at the expense of others. Through his work, Eggers becomes increasingly self-devouring and as he devours himself, he takes others with him, using everyone, anyone for his storylines; no target is left untouched as even his sacrosanct mother is left to be made into another "story" for his readers to engage in and be entertained by (certainly, any self-respecting individual would not let this happen or at least paint the final moments with the remnants of a parent with a more melancholy, if not mournful, tone). Eggers instead makes it sound more like a news broadcast, carrying his tape recorder around and reproducing anything, anywhere that he could put in his work, which brings us to our final realization about this wretchedly attention-craving man. Yes, he is seeking attention shamelessly, but not self-promotingly. Unlike Joji from "Naomi", we actually do see a plea for sympathy, for the dilution of his pain, his suffering, and the insufferable torment he has had to hold within himself ever since his loss--that why him? Why did it have to be him--a man so inescapably intolerant of such tragedy occuring in his life and incapable of coping with it in all its dimensions and depths, why him? Why, indeed, is what we ask at the end, and then we come to see, to know: he wants us to know, and now that we do, he and we both give a sigh of relief. He is no different from where he was before, circumstance-wise, but somehow he is healed by it, and we are the gladder for having made him so. That is the power of writing, the release of internal storms, the expression of, and thereby separation from, the most difficult of emotions, of feelings that cannot be rid of any other way. But Eggers has done it, and he has done it without breaking apart completely--or so we think. He is so close to the verge of shattering that we think it impossible of ending any way but tragically, or worse, boringly, until we realize this is what he intended. He wants us to think this way, not only to sympathize, but to empathize with his state. And we do. We truly do feel his pain, and because we do, and because Eggers knows that we must, we are relieved--a truly cathartic work of tidal storytelling force.
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Summary: This is our future generation?
Review: I enjoyed the first 1/3 of this book - Eggers has some very real & truthful observations about the deaths of his parents that strike a chord many would be afraid to admit to. He also voiced his sudden paternal feelings for his brother in a way that was both humorous & gut-wrenching. But he loses me half-way through his Real World interview when I realize that I'm now going to have the self-centered, self-involved musings of a 20-something thrust at me...page after (yawn) page. I'm truly amazed that so many reviews have been favorable as I felt like I was standing in a dance club with a drink in my hand listening to a child/adult (20-somethings usually think themselves wise beyond their years)pontificating on nothing. Meaningless.
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Summary: A "review"
Review: I give this book 5 stars. What else can I say that hasn't already been said? Nothing. Dave Eggers was my best friend in the world the three, four days it took me to read this book. My perspective on writing and on life itself has been permanently altered, I think for the better. How does that relate to 5 "stars" that I give this book? I've no idea what the 5-star rating system even means now.
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Summary: A Staggering Achievement
Review: And I'm not being sarcastic... Let me put it this way: I have read (literally) over one HUNDRED books in the past year and THOUSANDS in my lifetime. This ranks amongst the best -- and I've read all of the supposed best. Truly a masterpiece and there isn't a soul that shouldn't read (and reread) this book.
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Summary: I don't get the hype
Review: I was given this book as a gift, and I forced myself to read the whole thing. I kept telling myself it must get better since everyone seems to rave about it as if it was the 20-something book of the century. I found it to be boring, poorly written, and pointless. I know we all have different tastes in literature, but I really can't understand why people think this book is somehow deep or moving. I realize it is purposely self-indulgent (the point of an autobiography), but that self-indulgence didn't work for me at all. I never felt for this character, even though he'd been through such tragedy. Believe me, I tried to feel for him, but I just couldn't.
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Summary: If your mom was a 23 year old boy....
Review: This book is hilarious. You should read it, and then you should give it to your mom. Everything the author says and does in regard to his little brother will remind you of how your mom thought about/talked to you when you were little, but translated into twenty-something male tounge. The language is a little brash, but once you look past it this is one of the best and funniest books you will ever pick up. Berkely and young parenthood never seemed so fun. Sedaris has a satire that can't be missed.
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