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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
Also, the staggering gall of Eggers (or his publishers at least) in naming this book gave it many points in my, uh, book. Definitely worth reading.
I'd heard many good things about the book, and it started with great promise. It had an irreverent tone, it was funny when you stepped away from the story for a moment, but in the end it was too self-indulgent to finish.
I'd only give it one star, but I was engaged for the first part of the book.
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.