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1.3k reviews for:
A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story
Dave Eggers
3.58 AVERAGE
1.3k reviews for:
A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius: A Memoir Based on a True Story
Dave Eggers
3.58 AVERAGE
i read this in the bathroom at 40th st. warehouse, until people started using it as toilet paper.
I really enjoyed a lot of this book but....... it's so massively overrated.
I just can't handle his whole attitude of "The world owes me something because my pain is beautiful."
It's such a juvenile attitude, to think you're the only person alive that is feeling pain, or pain that intense.
Interesting read but very presumptuous writing, assuming everyone is interested in you because you want them to be. Be like the rest of us, and only hope people are interested in you.
I just can't handle his whole attitude of "The world owes me something because my pain is beautiful."
It's such a juvenile attitude, to think you're the only person alive that is feeling pain, or pain that intense.
Interesting read but very presumptuous writing, assuming everyone is interested in you because you want them to be. Be like the rest of us, and only hope people are interested in you.
The introduction was hilarous, but I was thoroughly disappointed in the actual book. Eggers himself seemed completely self-indulgent, and the book got dull about half-way through; I really had to force myself to finish reading it. There's no denying he's very clever, but I'm not particularly interested in reading anything more of his.
Man, oh man. Where to even start?
I thoroughly disliked this book. It started off well enough; Eggers added commentary to the copyright page and had a lengthy prologue explaining some of the facets of the book, replete with flow charts and diagrams. It seemed irreverent and fresh - a good start, right?
It's a somewhat fictionalized memoir, based on a true story, if you will. Eggers writes in a stream of consciousness style that was a little tough to get used to at first. I was ready to throttle Eggers by the latter half of the book, though. Eggers' parents both die within several months of each other, leaving him (a senior in high school) and his three brothers and sisters orphans. Eggers coordinates the raising of his 8 year old brother, Toph, with his siblings.
He (Eggers) thinks he's all cutting edge and cool when in fact, he's just incredibly narcissitic. Incredibly. I get that it's written from his perspective and that alone imbues it with a certain sense of "me-ness", but Eggers takes it to the extreme. When his mother is dying, he steals away to the kitchen to write the tear-inducing, touching eulogy he'll write for her funeral. When he leaves Toph with a babysitter for a night out, he worries that the babysitter is actually a serial killer who will kill his brother while he's gone and then what would people think of him? They'd think he's an awful brother; a terrible substitute for a parent. He's so focused and stuck on his own tragic life that he becomes totally oblivious to everything and everyone around him. His friends become fodder for his own life, a paragraph in the woe-is-me story that is Dave Eggers.
I found Eggers to be ridiculous; wanting to revel in the tragic circumstances that are his life to the exclusion of everyone else's feelings. Every conversation and action are only for the cinematic value of Eggers performance. An utterly unlikeable and self-centered character that sucked the life of everything around him. Small things were huge to him; halfheartedly working on a magazine destined to fail became yet another cross Eggers could haul around and show off to anyone who would listen.
"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"? You wish Eggers, you wish. "A Heartbreaking Work of a Narcissit's Meaninglesss Musings" would be more apt.
I thoroughly disliked this book. It started off well enough; Eggers added commentary to the copyright page and had a lengthy prologue explaining some of the facets of the book, replete with flow charts and diagrams. It seemed irreverent and fresh - a good start, right?
It's a somewhat fictionalized memoir, based on a true story, if you will. Eggers writes in a stream of consciousness style that was a little tough to get used to at first. I was ready to throttle Eggers by the latter half of the book, though. Eggers' parents both die within several months of each other, leaving him (a senior in high school) and his three brothers and sisters orphans. Eggers coordinates the raising of his 8 year old brother, Toph, with his siblings.
He (Eggers) thinks he's all cutting edge and cool when in fact, he's just incredibly narcissitic. Incredibly. I get that it's written from his perspective and that alone imbues it with a certain sense of "me-ness", but Eggers takes it to the extreme. When his mother is dying, he steals away to the kitchen to write the tear-inducing, touching eulogy he'll write for her funeral. When he leaves Toph with a babysitter for a night out, he worries that the babysitter is actually a serial killer who will kill his brother while he's gone and then what would people think of him? They'd think he's an awful brother; a terrible substitute for a parent. He's so focused and stuck on his own tragic life that he becomes totally oblivious to everything and everyone around him. His friends become fodder for his own life, a paragraph in the woe-is-me story that is Dave Eggers.
I found Eggers to be ridiculous; wanting to revel in the tragic circumstances that are his life to the exclusion of everyone else's feelings. Every conversation and action are only for the cinematic value of Eggers performance. An utterly unlikeable and self-centered character that sucked the life of everything around him. Small things were huge to him; halfheartedly working on a magazine destined to fail became yet another cross Eggers could haul around and show off to anyone who would listen.
"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"? You wish Eggers, you wish. "A Heartbreaking Work of a Narcissit's Meaninglesss Musings" would be more apt.
Having heard nothing about this book before picking it up on a whim at the library, I wasn't sure what to expect. I'll say this, it's unlike any book I've read before. I tried to read but in the end had to skip all the preface nonsense, I just couldn't take it. I did start to get into the story once it started, However, when the never-ending interview kept dragging on, I once again had to fast forward. I found his writing style tedious, and his persona completely unlikable. I finished the book, but just barely.
Eggers has my attention. His diversity and originality in telling a very poignant story is nothing short of genius.
It gets two stars because I was compelled enough to finish the whole book, but overall, I really didn't like it. The things that happened to him weren't that interesting, the way he told it was more annoying than anything else and the end wasn't satisfying. Reading the introduction and the reviews on the cover, I thought this would be a clever or funny book that, as someone in my twenties, I could relate to. How wrong I was.
DNF. The misery of trying to get through this book put me in the biggest reading slump.
I read this book because it is on my hundred book bucket list poster. I would never have chosen this book on my own. And if I didn’t promise myself to read every book on the poster, I would’ve put this down before the end.
It was very interesting to have a string of consciousness inside, the mind of a very young, very immature man. It did open my eyes, and confirmed much of what I imagine goes on inside.
VERY strong warning! This book has very very strong language.
It was very interesting to have a string of consciousness inside, the mind of a very young, very immature man. It did open my eyes, and confirmed much of what I imagine goes on inside.
VERY strong warning! This book has very very strong language.
This book was a sensation when it was first published, and the author is exactly the same age as me; I found it overlong and self~indulgent, though it was interesting enough to finish.