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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Beginning to get tedious and the relationships seemed over the top with the Dave Eggers character larger than life and bigger, wiser, and more important than the rest— yawn.
Memoirs are inherently narcissistic, but this one was especially so. Granted, I think it was supposed to be that way. Part of the supposed message dealt with Eggers' self-absorption and pretentiousness. Maybe my problem with the book was that it was just too upfront. The author keeps interrupting his description of events and such to specifically state what he thinks the events mean. I like a little more subtlety.
I really loved this book. I started out unsure of the format but it gradually won me over. It's both extremely funny and touching. The self consciousness of the writing will ring true with anyone of this media saturated generation. And it's a must read for those interested in excellent contemporary fiction (even though it's a memoir I tend to feel it's written more like fiction).
When starting this book, I had already thought I would not like it due to previous books I read by Dave Eggers. but this book diminished all those previous thoughts. This book was so relatable to me due to the way Toph and Dave thought and acted. I could feel like I was there in their shoes easily because the point of view was someone in their late teens to early twenties rather than someone older. I would highly recommend this book because it is both sad and uplifting and shows everything in a different light. The worse thing about this book though is that Eggers at some points throughout the book does come off pretentious and self-centered especially when talking about their magazine, Might, and how his brother thinks of him when he is eight or nine. I got past this when some lines in the book related so closely to my life and my personal experience right now.
This is one of the most emotionally frustrating books I’ve ever read. Eggers is so self-aware of his own moronic arrogance and desire for approval that you both hate him for his try-hard artist persona and love him for the implicit self-reflection that you feel in his writing. I’m just so ambivalent about him as character and as author, but I never gave up on reading it, so it must have been good, right???
This is not a book I would have selected on my own, but it was outstanding. I would definitely recommend it to others. My full review is on my blog. http://jacquesbooknook.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-heartbreaking-work-of-staggering.html
