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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.92092
EAN: 9780375725784
ISBN: 0375725784
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 496
Publication Date: February 13, 2001
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: February 13, 2001
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
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
The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come. The Vintage edition includes a new appendix by the author.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - starts off wonderful, ends up lost
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 ... Read More
Rating: - Gosh, should I add to 900 some reviews?
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - Staggering Genius indeed.
"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.
Rating:  - Messy but wonderful writing by an annoying narrator
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 ... Read More
Rating: - A Book of Contradictions
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 ... Read More
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