 "Emotionally evocative, but wordy" | 2008-08-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3LKOWXF2S7O9Q |
| I bought this book because of all the rave reviews from critics and the because it was a Pulitzer finalist. I read the first one-third of the story and really enjoyed his candid writing style. I am from the Bay Area and too lost my mother at an early age, so I really related to both his accounts of Berkeley/SF life and people, as well as grieving the loss of a parent at a young age. His anger toward the insensitivity of others was frank. His urgency to protect his little brother from the realities of death and loss are memorable. His writing style is both vivid and candid, however very very detailed. At first this was interesting and kept my attention, but after the first 5 chapters or so, was a slow moving book. I found myself skipping chapters. Overall a decent read though. |
| |
 "Hyperboles Aside; Read It and See..." | 2008-07-28 |
| - Reviewed By desertdawg2004 |
"Well they say its kind of frightening how this younger generation swings, You know its more than just some new sensation... At an early age he hits the streets, wind up tied with who he meets / You know its more than just an aggravation." --David Lee Roth, from Van Halen's "The Cradle Will Rock," from their seminal 1980 work "Women and Children First"
So it may be a little ridiculous starting off a literary review with some credible quasi-fiction book like Eggers, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," (heretoforeafter referred to as AHWOSG) but there is something in it that is pertinent, something I believe Eggers with his way of writing what is available to his mind at the moment, though seemingly irrelevant, would approve of. So to title your debut book, AHWOSG, borders on the absurd side of hyperboles, in the end when one is finished reading, this almost can't put down work...is not a far-off description. It's that good my friends, read on and you may be convinced.
So back to David Lee Roth waxing poetic and philosophical, which are two descriptors rarely associated with the lyrical works of Van Halen, Roth years. What AHWOSG does, less concisely mind you, is capture a voice of a generation. The book does a lot of things, but this summing up of the Gen Y, the Internet Generation, or better yet, The YouTube Generation's media savvy need for an audience on a broad scale seems to be something Eggers does most successfully, Is it a generational treatise? Perhaps not quite that, because after all, can you capture in a work of literature all the voices, feelings, experiences of a whole generation. Probably not. But as Eggers proves, you can come pretty darn close.
Just get a gander at this writing, before you go on to purchase this book (or however in your corner of the world you acquire fiction to consume), "What does it take to show you mf's, what does it freakin' take what do you want how much do you want because I am willing and I'll stand before you and I'll raise my arms and give you my chest and throat and wait, and I've been so old for so long, for you, for you, I want it fast and right through me---- Oh do it, do it, you mf's, do it do it you f's finally, finally, finally." That's the last passage from AHWOSG and it caps off a really really moving read. Those are the words from an author that really really craves an audience. And so it may be with a generation brought up on an expectation that it just isn't the "15 minutes of fame," we are all seeking and due...but the way one connects is through mass media. A mass audience validates ones existence or at the very least, helps them deal with any human pain they may be suffering in the present.
Eggers, granted, has a lot of reasons to be experiencing angst. Whereas the Gen X'ers, my generation, are thought of as largely cynical with no clear valid reason to cop that permanent attitude, Egger's generation has plently of reason to be dislocated and distraught, the music of Radiohead only one small cultural influencer, not to mention 9/11, wars, real wars, not some mamby pamby skirmishes in Grenada and The Falklands. This is the generation that could very well go down in history as the Next Great Generation, following in the footsteps of the boomers who saved the world from certain peril during War War II.
What is Eggers' AHWOSG like you may want to know? After all why would you still be reading my random stream-of-consciousness review...still? It's about loss, staggering loss. It's about coming of age prematurely when one's parents pass at age 22, leading to the taking on of guardianship for your younger high school aged brother. It's about the search for meaning in one's life through work, friends and family. It's about life, man, just read it and get back out there living it.
To go on further may dilute any type of message I'm trying to send you with this review. What I'd like to do is just to convince you to read this book. You may in some small way find yourself looking at your own life, in light to Eggers', differently. You may in some larger way get to know and understand a generation, perhaps your own, perhaps someone elses. What you won't get from AHWOSG is boredom. And in a life, the pursuit of entertainment and moreso engagement, seems a worthwhile cause, if only to enlighten and give cause to live. ...mmw |
| |
 "The whole is better than some parts." | 2008-07-27 |
| - Reviewed By ritaloud |
The book as a whole is much better than some of the parts. Dave Eggers has written a raw, emotional memoir of the years immediately following the death of both parents. He becomes the guardian of a younger brother and is also trying to begin his own career as a writer. Eggers is witty, sarcastic, pretenious and possibly genius, but this book was not easy for me to read. Some parts were laugh out loud funny. Some were gut-wrenchingly brutal. Some were loving, poignant and sad. Then, there were parts that I felt I would never get through and it wasn't until I was finished that I really appreciated what Eggers had accomplished. Several times in telling his story, Eggers goes off on narrative tangents that don't really move the story. These border on stream of conscienciousness, but are just hard to follow, as are some sections of dialogue. (I was torn between 3 or 4 stars, because it was just hard to get through at times.)
So why does this book have such high praise? Eggers is funny and honest. This memoir succeeds in giving an clear picture of one young adult's life and his thoughts as he strives to deal with his grief, become a parent to his much younger brother and carve out a successful career as writer and publisher. Eggers was idealistic enough to think he could do just that. I found myself wanting to like this book because of what Eggers was trying to accomplish.
If you pick up this book and make it through the preface and first chapter (it may not be easy), go ahead and finish. I think you will be glad you did. Then check out Eggers work as a philanthropist and teacher-at-large. Now that deserves high praise indeed! |
| |
 "thumbs down" | 2008-07-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: AK0K98FXEETED |
| the first 50 pages or so are promising. it seems like it is going to be a quirky, honest depiction of this young man's life after his parents die and he becomes the guardian of his young brother. and as long as he stays with that, the story is compelling. unfortunately, most of the book is full of random stories about his uninteresting life told in such a self-conciously, self centered way. every bad thing that happens to anyone he has ever met manages to be completely about him. he thinks he's infinitely more clever than the rest of the world and more entitled to attention and he acknowledges this. it's as if he thinks that by admitting his faults, the reader no longer has the right to be annoyed by them. but they do and i was. the writing is scattered and lazy and i don't know how it got published. |
| |
| "starts off wonderful, ends up lost" | 2008-07-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2705BKQCKN1NX |
My good friend highly recommended this book for me to read last summer, citing Dave Eggers as his hero, and so I eagerly picked this up and delved into a story of a great sibling relationship in the wake of a tragedy.
As a 21 year old college student about to graduate, you would think that I would be obssessed with this work, completely representing my generation. And indeed, it succeeded in that. The whole living situation in the Bay Area of California was awesome, and his whole mantra of being young and free in America was great too, and the book should have ended at that. I should warn you that this is a memoir, so his ego is immensely represented as him being basically a self-absorbed Berkeley young intellectual. I could ramble on and on about this book and why I wouldn't rate it higher, but I'll just get to the point.
The first half is simply enjoyable to read with the whole relationship with his brother, dealing with the loss of parents (whom he seemingly never cared for), and with his sister being driven in law school and eventually marrying. His emotions are presented well with his relationships in this memoir, and then suddenly, as if out of the blue, Toph (his brother) is never mentioned again. The second half of the book is about his magazine and this MTV interview that never seems to end. It was so boring and meaningless. I want to read about you and your brother and your lives, not about some stupid magazine and a pretentious MTV real world interview to nowhere.
Overall, I get what he's saying, and it is a good message. Namely, family comes first but it is great to be young and free in America in your 20's, of course if only brought up by wealthy suburban Chicago parents. About 90% of America can't afford to rent his house that he did in the Berkeley hills with views of SF bay and not a job in site. It is a good book and I enjoyed it, but the Pulitzer Prize? No way. |
| |
| "Gosh, should I add to 900 some reviews?" | 2008-07-01 |
| - Reviewed By User: ABGR4Z3CHYNKZ |
| I don't think I have ever given a book a review of "dead in the middle," ringing it at 3 of 5, but I have to do it to this one. I usually really don't like books or really enjoy them (ok, a few I love). I also usually put books down and walk away when I struggle over months to get through them, BUT I found this drive to finish this one. First, it was highly recommended by a friend who is a writer for a living. Second, it has been high acclaimed. Third, I found the brilliance in the ability to write such realistic detail for so many pages on end, but alas, that was where the 3 stopped. The detail bored me to tears and made me want to skip to wear the plot picked back up, except it really never did. I suppose I am just not a good reader of rambling thoughts. I oddly enough know that Eggers is a gifted person, but this piece and the reasons I read for entertainment and intellectual improvement couldn't mesh here. |
| |
| "Staggering Genius indeed." | 2008-06-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2IJFH294W0XKQ |
| "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." Indeed. So few writers have Egger's gift. Wit, wisdom, a sense of humour, vision, style, flair, and the passion that enables him to masterfully craft such a truly genius work. |
| |
| "Messy but wonderful writing by an annoying narrator" | 2008-06-09 |
| - Reviewed By jennys_closet |
Dave Eggers should stick with writing fiction, so that we don't have to face the fact that the people he writes about (that is, himself) truly exist in this world.
I was an early fan of the McSweeney's website, I even have the first 13 volumes of the McSweeney's journal. I bought Dave Eggers book, but never got around to reading it, saving it kind of like saving a good bottle of wine, for when I could truly savor it. So I took it on vacation recently and truly regretted it, as there were few English-language books around I could buy to save me from this self-centered monologue. And I hope the loathing I've now developed for Dave Eggers will not detract my enjoyment of the website and journals.
Admittedly, his prose is wonderful. Loopy, long sentences, filled with imagery, witty dialogue, colorful scenery, and loads of wonderful scenarios that make you laugh. That's why I'm giving it 2 stars. But you are accompanied on this trip by a narrator whose flaws outweigh his good points. The author had a difficult early life, and it must be difficult to write of it. Also, Dave Eggers was rather young while he wrote this, and perhaps he has matured since. That said, his palpable loathing of old folks and his wish they would just die off and leave the world to him and his youthful compatriots and his gushing endorsement of the world-changing powers of, yes, reality TV, frankly disgusted me and ruined the whole book for me (I am 31, BTW, and have grandparents and old friends I adore, and adored even when I was a trash-talking 15 year old). He implies that a tragedy to a young person outweighs a tragedy to an older person (I disagree, it all depends on the person regardless of age). He constantly criticizes himself...and then continues on the behavior. Fine, that's human. But I don't need to spend hours of my life with a neurotic, selfish, youth-obsessed, contemptuous guy and his constant self-justifications.
The best part of the book was the preface, which had the ironic, satiric cleverness (and even the same font) as McSweeney's, an enterprise I always thought successfully showed off the contradictions of society, with a sort of wise, knowing, calm, and even hopeful air, like some sort of British deadpan joke. We laugh, admit our faults, and then move on. But now I wonder whether it's just trying to be knowing and superior.
So, if you can disassociate yourself from the basic obnoxiousness of Dave Egger's personality and personal thoughts and enjoy his prose, then perhaps you can enjoy this book. For those who have limited time and patience, I'm sure there are people with tragedies just as heartbreaking, but with a less entitled outlook, out there for our sympathy and support. |
| |
| "A Book of Contradictions" | 2008-05-22 |
| - Reviewed By swilliamfoley |
As the title would suggest, this is a work of postmodernism at its purest. However, that's not necessarily always a good thing. Dave Eggers presents a book that is a series of contradictions. As the title sarcastically notifies, it is sometimes heartbreaking, and it is also sometimes the work of genius. Consequently, the title also reeks of narcissism and "gimmick," to which it is equally guilty.
To summarize, Eggers details the death of his parents and then his struggle to raise his much younger brother while attempting to start and maintain a magazine and land a role on The Real World. But the book is so much more than that. While labeled fiction, he makes no bones about the fact it is almost entirely autobiographical.
When Eggers is being authentic, the book is beautiful. When he's writing from the heart, blending his neurosis and experimental metacognition with events in an ingenuous manner, the book really is a joy to read. There are sincere moments of hilarity, love, sadness, tension, and drama. Eggers also readily exposes flaws in his character and without pause--flaws we all have but may not reveal so candidly to the world. Unfortunately, my copy has 437 pages, and I'd say only about 230 of those are written in such sincere fashion.
The rest of the book is pure gimmick, and Eggers makes a point to admit this in a long-winded and agitating series of prefaces. These sections of the book really irritated me due to their completely self-absorbed shtick and superfluous nature. Eggers is pushing the envelope, and I can appreciate that, but in the instances it doesn't work, it DOESN'T work. We're all familiar with the saying, "You're trying too hard." Eggers falls victim to this temptation for much of the book.
There's nothing wrong with presenting yourself egocentrically, for the majority of us are self-centered. I admire Eggers for frankly and humorously divulging his many personality quirks. I respect the blunt style chronicling his family's struggles. And when it worked, I learned a great deal about metacognition and how to execute it well. Unfortunately, I also discovered the failings of "trying too hard" and giving into the lures of gimmick.
~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant |
| |
| "A Prayer For Toph" | 2008-04-26 |
| - Reviewed By acatholicphoenix |
| Okay, this book typifies the almost shameful culture we live in...the pervasive narcissism of the MTV generation. It is an autobiography which also nabbed a Pullitzer nomination. Dave Eggers, whose parents die of unrelated cancer within months of one another is primarily left to raise with the help of his two older siblings, his youngest brother Toph. It is a work of comedic excellence ( the preface included, which is a must read ) and intense tragedy, so much so you'll have tears leaking out your eyes and can't tell if the tears are from laughing or crying. I can't honestly say it is indeed a work of staggering genius but maybe I'll relent and say it shows some measure of genius. One thing however is that you will finish this book feeling like you are a solid member of the Egger family or at least one of the extended family by necessity. |
| |
Expedited Available
