Item Description
Dave Eggers is a terrifically talented writer; don't hold his cleverness against him. What to make of a book called A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Based on a True Story? For starters, there's a good bit of staggering genius before you even get to the true story, including a preface, a list of "Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of This Book," and a 20-page acknowledgements section complete with special mail-in offer, flow chart of the book's themes, and a lovely pen-and-ink drawing of a stapler (helpfully labeled "Here is a drawing of a stapler:"). But on to the true story. At the age of 22, Eggers became both an orphan and a "single mother" when his parents died within five months of one another of unrelated cancers. In the ensuing sibling division of labor, Dave is appointed unofficial guardian of his 8-year-old brother, Christopher. The two live together in semi-squalor, decaying food and sports equipment scattered about, while Eggers worries obsessively about child-welfare authorities, molesting babysitters, and his own health. His child-rearing strategy swings between making his brother's upbringing manically fun and performing bizarre developmental experiments on him. (Case in point: his idea of suitable bedtime reading is John Hersey's Hiroshima.) The book is also, perhaps less successfully, about being young and hip and out to conquer the world (in an ironic, media-savvy, Gen-X way, naturally). In the early '90s, Eggers was one of the founders of the very funny Might Magazine, and he spends a fair amount of time here on Might, the hipster culture of San Francisco's South Park, and his own efforts to get on to MTV's Real World. This sort of thing doesn't age very well--but then, Eggers knows that. There's no criticism you can come up with that he hasn't put into A.H.W.O.S.G. already. "The book thereafter is kind of uneven," he tells us regarding the contents after page 109, and while that's true, it's still uneven in a way that is funny and heartfelt and interesting. All this self-consciousness could have become unbearably arch. It's a testament to Eggers's skill as a writer--and to the heartbreaking particulars of his story--that it doesn't. Currently the editor of the footnote-and-marginalia-intensive journal McSweeney's (the last issue featured an entire story by David Foster Wallace printed tinily on its spine), Eggers comes from the most media-saturated generation in history--so much so that he can't feel an emotion without the sense that it's already been felt for him. What may seem like postmodern noodling is really just Eggers writing about pain in the only honest way available to him. Oddly enough, the effect is one of complete sincerity, and--especially in its concluding pages--this memoir as metafiction is affecting beyond all rational explanation. --Mary Park
Product Details
- Author: Dave Eggers
- Publication Date: 2001-02-13
- Publisher: Vintage
- Product Group: Book
- Manufacturer: Vintage
- Binding: Paperback, 485 pages
- Features:
- ISBN13: 9780375725784
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Package Dimensions:
- Dimensions: 780L x 520W x 120H
- Weight: 75
- List Price: $15.00
- ISBN: 0375725784
- ASIN: 0375725784
Customer Reviews
Average Amazon User Rating: 
Heartbreaking yes
2010-03-05
Reviewer: Robin N. Uncapher
A Heartbreaking Work of Shattering Genius certainly is heartbreaking. Dave Eggers has a talent for describing, in excrutiating detail what its like to watch a loved one die. If you have ever gone through such an experience, you will probably find his observations on target, so much so that they make you feel ill. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius begins with Eggers, at twenty-one, taking care of his dying mother. People who die slowly seldom die neatly. Eggers describes his mother's suffering, the things disease does to her body and her brain, the torture of being a young person and having to deal with a parent's demise. There is no dignity in this kind of a death. My heart broke for the children, and also for their mother, who seemed to hate the burden she was placing on her family.
What Eggers does best is to describe not only the tragedy, but the comic side of the situation. If you have ever watched someone you love die from a wasting disease or gone to a funeral with sibblings, you probably will recognise the desperate need for humor. As Eggers says early on, he and his sibblings do their best to find the lighter side of the situation--though there are fewer and fewer lighter sides.
After Eggers' mother dies. he moves to San Francisco with his little brother. Because he is only twenty-one, Eggers still has a lot of growing up to do. He's pretty hard on himself, given his responsibilities. The life of these two is wrenching, but also sometimes funny.
The problem, with the book, in my mind, was its lack of insight into the misery. Why describe this level of misery unless there is a larger point? Eggers is brilliant when recording the small details of life, and he's good at pulling humor from a miserable situation. He is not as good at showing us the reason for telling us this story, which is personal. As I read this book, and things got worse and worse I began to ask myself, "Why am I putting myself through this?" and I did not have a good answer.
Eggers is a talented writer. For what its worth, he did write a "heartbreaking work of staggering genius,' in 2006, called What is the What. In that book Eggers seems to have included many of the lessons he had yet to learn at this point in his life.
If you didn't rate this as 5 stars...
2010-03-03
Reviewer: BigFan
Bottom line, if you really read this book and don't think it's a 5 out of 5 stars, you just don't get it, and what a pity that is for you. This is truly a literary work of genius.
Heartbreaking Indeed
2010-03-02
Reviewer: chris forns
Really?
I don't usually write reviews, positive or otherwise, but when I scrolled across this book, I had to speak up. This book is on most people's shelves, and every time I see it, I shudder. Why is this book so popular? Why does everyone in this town (San Francisco) love Eggers? I just don't get it. This book was dull at best. It may have been heartbreaking work (more of a heartbreaking waste of good reading time), but genius it is NOT. Never has any book been so misnamed. What a tremendous bore. Skip this read if it's not too late.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering... something
2010-02-16
Reviewer: NAS
Written and creatively enhanced by Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius defies all previously written memoirs by 1) being a memoir and 2) simultaneously making fun of all that memoirs, in general, represent. Eggers informs the reader right from the start that the events in this book are inflated, unconventional, and mostly true. Heartbreaking- yes; Staggering- yes; Genius- hyperbolic word choice. By the title and first few pages alone, a reader can tell right away if this is a book they want to spend their time on. Personally, I am on a teeter-totter with this book; I don't know if I really like it, or really hate it. Written in a style resembling stream of consciousness, Eggers can go on for much too long on things that, honestly, nobody really cares about or even wants to hear about. I fell that the author is slipping into a state of paranoia as the book progresses. Eggers is juggling his "job," finding a place to live, finding some time for himself, raising his little brother, and dealing with the death of his parents who died 5 weeks apart.
From a reader's standpoint, events in this book are absolutely hilarious and sometimes so out of the ordinary that one can't help but giggle. The best parts of the book, I feel, do not lie in the narrative itself, but hidden on the page where publishers are listed and the ISBN number is. The author finds it necessary to state his rank on the sexual-orientation scale. He also wants the reader to know exactly how much he was paid to write this book and he also takes the liberty of writing out all the book's major themes. There is also a picture of a random stapler... Make of this book what you will, but just know that it is heartbreaking, staggering, and just very shy of genius.
good stories but not reccommendable
2010-02-05
Reviewer: Michael D. O'connell
I personally enjoyed this book just enough.
I didnt love it.
The story is ironic.
A family tragedy looked at in a comedic way.
