Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, A - Dave Eggers

If ever a book went through the full range of possibly emotions, this is one. If every a books was aptly named, this is the one! A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS is a semi-biographical novel by Dave eggers that tells the story about his life growing up in Chicago and moving to San Francisco after the death of both parents. Telling the story of how he was left to bring up his younger brother, this book takes a stance that you would not expect, given the sensitive nature of the book, but such is the originality of the author, instead of making this a completely sad and emotional tale of his harsh circumstances, he manages to turn this into something of a ...  Read the complete review

Not sure if it was heartbreaking - maybe more of a stagger down a tiresome emotional journey with occasional glimpses of light. I'm not going to attempt a précis of the whole tale here, but put down a few salient points that I enjoyed about the book- I never see the point of reviewing a book by rehashing the whole story. Basically, the book recounts a portion of the life of a young man- Dave Eggers and his attempts to bring up his younger brother when both his parents die of cancer in quick succession. It is very well written- especially for a first book- but is pretentious to the extent that , you don't really care much about the pairs plight, ...  Read the complete review

What at title! Do the pages beyond the dust jacket do it justice? So very nearly. But then the author realises this, and apologises for every one of the books shortcomings in the introduction. You can find this either endearing or infuriating, but at the very least it's refreshingly different. I like this man - he has intelligence, youth, arrogance and a world view that is so thouroughly media saturated that his every experience feels second hand. If you identify with that feeling, then this is the book for you. Essentially autobiographical, the book deals with the trauma of losing both of his parents at a young age, followed by the struggle to bring ...  Read the complete review

A.H.W.O.S.G, as it is abbreviated at the head of every page, comes to the reader equipped with two distinct advantages: one, its bestseller status, transferring upon it cultural validation, and two, its subject matter. How can a humble reader dare to criticise a memoir based around the true story of the death of both of the author's parents, which placed him in the position of guardian of his little brother? This is a position of which Eggers is fully aware; however, contrary to expectations, the novel rarely if ever descends into slushy sentiment and is in fact genuinely moving. The description of Mrs Eggers' death is ...  Read the complete review

Gonna buck the trend here to blindly agree with the book's title. It's not really genius - it's a damn good first book, but a first book it definitely is. Let's do this the right way round. The book is well worth reading. The tale is so inescapably tragic, and sad, and very, very moving. Eggers has more than his fair share of original, unusual, distinctive ways of describing events in his narrative/life. And his talent is at its strongest when the machinations of his style are less apparent. This might seem a problem, given that his style throughout is ALL about the transparency of his literary devices. But! it's not - his ...  Read the complete review