A review by catymart83
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

2.0

I feel bad that I didn't enjoy the book as much as its glowing reviews promised I would. The book tells the true story of Dave Eggers and how he became the primary guardian (along with his older brother and sister) of his much younger brother Toph when both his parents die within weeks of one another through different forms of cancer. I enjoyed the first 100 pages a lot (as Eggers himself predicted I would) but my reaction to the rest of the book varied from mild warmth to wild disgust based on the level of fake (I felt) self-concious posing of the writing at the time. I really wish Eggers had stuck to a "straight" memoir detailing his life (with some of his customary cheekiness thrown in)-I would have really felt a connection to the writing then. As it is, I had to force myself to finish this book and gave it 2 stars. True Story: When I had finally finished reading AHWOSG my sister heard the disgusted sigh I let out and asked me what was wrong. I told her about the book and read the last paragraph (if you could call it that-it's basically two pages of an uninterrupted sentence filled to bursting with unnecessary curse words) out loud to her to demonstrate what I so disliked about the book. When I finished she asked why I had forced myself to finish a book that I hadn't especially like from the very beginning? My answer-(that I felt complelled to read a book that had received so many great reviews from both professional reviewers and regular readers)-made me feel like a bit of a lemming, or follower. But despite that, I still think that people should read the book because 1. they might love the book(even if I didn't) and 2. I think it is important (provided that AHWOSG sounds interesting to you at the onset) to read a book that is such a cultural milestone.