Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
This book hit me like a mack truck. It was disturbing and yet by the end of the book, I don't think I've ever trusted a narrator more.
At first I thought it was clever. I laughed out loud, which rarely happens when I read. Then it just got tedious and way too long. I flipped through the second half just to get it over with.
This book read like a man talking to himself. This book would have been better if he didn't go off on thought tangents. The beginning of the book is much better than the end. He is a good guy for taking in his brother and I can't imagine that would be easy, but he doesn't need to publish his every single thought.
Wow. This book will stick with me for some time, but I'm not sure that I liked it. It was too messy for me, the tale of Dave, raising his brother Topher after their parents died of cancer within a month of each other. It's not really my style of book, but I won't forget it soon.
I would give a negative number of stars, if possible. I disliked this book so much that I still have a hard time starting "What is the What", even though it has been on my bookshelf for 3 months. The author's tone was offputting - smug and ironic.
The best thing about this book is its title. The rest was well written, just not very interesting.
I don't think I've ever read anything else quite like this, and I found it just drew me in throughout, even when I didn't understand what was going on. I guess you're not always supposed to understand what's going on. It's more about feeling what's going on. I loved all the self-conscious literary ridiculous comments and musings. Laughed out loud so many times. So raw, and real.
Pretentious, at times boring, but snarky funny are the thoughts that run through my brain while reading this 400+ bohemoth memoir of one person's two years in his 20s. Dave Eggers likes to talk (and talk and then talk some more).
I tried reading this about 10 years ago because it was so highly regarded and everyone said "this book is hilarious!" And who doesn't enjoy good book filled with hilarity? But the opening of this book is set when his mother is dying from cancer and his alcoholic father drops dead before her. And as I was just getting over the loss of my own father to cancer, the timing was not good. At. All.
So it sat and the longer it sat, the more I dreaded it. It was so long. It was so awful. It wasn't funny at all.
And when I picked it up again, I struggled in the beginning all over again. This time, not so much on a emotional level, but now I am 10 years older. These feelings that this boy is writing about no longer apply. I am no longer in my 20s trying to discover who I am and what is my purpose. I may not have figured it all out yet but I am no longer wandering the figurative desert either.
It is a good story. He is funny, sometimes laugh out loud and sometimes in that snarky ha ha snicker way. He brings back memories of my youth like the Real World and Wired magazine and post-Swingers Vince Vaughn. My only comment would be, he could have just said "less" and still have had the same impact. But it definitely is a product of times than something more universal.
So it wasn't awful. If your formative years were in the early- to mid-90s, you might enjoy this long, leisurely stroll down memory lane.
I tried reading this about 10 years ago because it was so highly regarded and everyone said "this book is hilarious!" And who doesn't enjoy good book filled with hilarity? But the opening of this book is set when his mother is dying from cancer and his alcoholic father drops dead before her. And as I was just getting over the loss of my own father to cancer, the timing was not good. At. All.
So it sat and the longer it sat, the more I dreaded it. It was so long. It was so awful. It wasn't funny at all.
And when I picked it up again, I struggled in the beginning all over again. This time, not so much on a emotional level, but now I am 10 years older. These feelings that this boy is writing about no longer apply. I am no longer in my 20s trying to discover who I am and what is my purpose. I may not have figured it all out yet but I am no longer wandering the figurative desert either.
It is a good story. He is funny, sometimes laugh out loud and sometimes in that snarky ha ha snicker way. He brings back memories of my youth like the Real World and Wired magazine and post-Swingers Vince Vaughn. My only comment would be, he could have just said "less" and still have had the same impact. But it definitely is a product of times than something more universal.
So it wasn't awful. If your formative years were in the early- to mid-90s, you might enjoy this long, leisurely stroll down memory lane.