3.58 AVERAGE


Only needs one word: Excellent

Meh.
At first I liked it,
then he lost me.
He really does seem to go on and on and then he makes some things important and other things not important, and I don't know why.
I was glad it was over when it was over.


I did not care what your weird best friend or your little brother told you, do not waste a second of your life on this book. 

I called this work the insufferable nonsense of a self-indulgent White boy. Or The Hipster Manual to unwarranted fame. 

There were a few good parts to this book. The introduction was mostly funny and entertaining. The moments when Dave Eggers talked about his parents ( who both die of cancer) especially the last moments with his mother were relatable and touching. His love for his parents and brother were the most honest and revealing elements of the book. The rest was trash. The rest was rants  full of racism, sexism and plain confusion.

 I could barely tell what was real or imagination in this book. But I do know his bigotry was quite real. What is truly frustrating is that his racism was quite unnecessary. Ok, racism is never necessary. But, his racial asides always came randomly, without any meaning to the plot. While, perhaps, the racism elements were meant as self-reflection. Eggers never does anything to fix his racist thoughts or actions. Instead, racism, sexism and POC are just useless props in his books. There for added imagery and color.

And if you do not care about racism still dont read this book. It was a boring, long winded retelling of the life of a self-imporant white hipster begging for attention. It was over 400 pages and the somewhat interesting or moving parts were a third of that. I am being kind. I should have stop after the first chapter. But my pride made me finish and I will forever regret my terrible life choice.

reflective slow-paced

I liked this book when I first read it in college, now reading in my 30s I find the narrator insufferably neurotic. 

I'd heard wonderful things about this book, but just could not get in to it. Sad.

There were moments that I really connected with the book and the author. And then there were times where I skipped through entire pages because of the author's ramblings.

I didn't enjoy the stream of consciousness bits but I appreciated the stories and recounted interaction between him and his younger brother.
dark emotional funny medium-paced

I understood the overall idea of the book, and I really enjoyed the emotional and funny moments throughout. However, the long monologues didn’t work for me—they kind of dragged the experience down. I get that they’re meant to help you relate or convey the feeling of anxiety during certain phases, but for some reason, they just didn’t sit right with me, maybe because of how I read them. That aside, I genuinely liked the book, especially because the story felt open-ended—it didn’t have a definitive "END" to anything, and I enjoy that kind of narrative.

Everything it promises. And funny.

I am Generation X so I really enjoyed this one. I've also lived in SF so it was nice reading about my favorite city.

The end was just... wow. Definitely worth reading,