A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (2001, Paperback, Reprint)

Dave Eggers metafiction, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It tells the story of his parents' deaths of cancer within five weeks of each other and Eggers's efforts, at the age of twenty-two, to balance the responsibilities of single parenthood with his comfortably faux-bohemian lifestyle on the edges of nineties media culture.

Eggers describes the sense of doom that overtakes anybody who loses both parents: the dark conviction that parental death is only the beginning, that the unthinkable disaster will surely be followed swiftly by unimaginable catastrophe, the whole family plunging into sickness and horror. Eggers deals with his loss by pouring himself into his kid brother, Toph, whose welfare, happiness and education form the central project of the author's twenties. Some of Eggers' best writing is about his relationship with Toph- in his rendering of his urges toward protection and liberation, domestic isolation and elaborate performance of the roles of tragic orphan heroes. It's also here that the book's narrative starts to drift on currents of self-reference, the brothers' dialogue veering into commentary on the ethics and structure of the book and Toph's place in his brother's literary reworking of their predicament.

An intricate web of introductory material deliberately contradicts itself, claiming varying degrees of "fictionalization." If the book is a memoir, it's a memoir that substantially rewrites the 'I' in the text. If it is a novel, it's a novel that presents a hazy realism. Apart from the heavy-handed moments when Eggers's friends and family lean over the frame to discuss the picture, much of the book reads like it was written in response to a creative writing teacher's demand for less metafiction and more authenticity.

"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is a frictionless slide from brilliance and tragedy to trivia, from a book that initially looks like it might startle with its emotional and rhetorical verve, to a memoir much like any other. Eggers's book, unfortunately, is half novel and half memoir. At the end of the story, he and Toph play frisbee on the beach, wowing onlookers with their audacious control and aerobatic skills. It's a nice metaphor for the author's efforts to keep a version of his decimated family airborn, but the book, regrettably, is already lodged in the sand.

There are only a few books that warrant rave reviews, I believe, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is definitely one of them.

One of the reviewers here mentioned that one must be in his or her twenties to appreciate this book-- and, he added-- if one is over 30, he or she would dislike it. I have to disagree. As a woman in my late thirties, whose life couldn't be more different than Dave Eggers', I found this book to be excellent-- excruciatingly honest and a most poignant memoir.

One can't help but feel for what the Eggers family goes through. The reader cheers and cries from the sidelines. I was surprised at the vehemence of my emotions when reading this. Dave Eggers certainly drew me in to his and his family's life, and there were so many times that, as a parent, I wanted to find them all and parent them myself.

I would recommend this book, wholeheartedly, to everyone. People have compared Eggers to David Sedaris. As much as I enjoyed the one Sedaris book I read, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, I would put Eggers' book on another plane entirely. Sedaris' life is also interesting, but Dave Eggers is clearly a better writer and more honest with his emotions.

What Dave Eggers does with words is amazing. This book will make you laugh at times and cry at others. Between interviewing for MTV's "The Real World" and starting his own quirky magazine, Dave Eggers takes you deep into his psyche. A well written and entertaining novel I recommend to all. Especially twenty-somethings who can relate.

I couldn't put this book down, at times very heartbreaking, hilarious and poignant. I only wish I had found it sooner, a highly recommendable read for the cynical who despise the banality of life.

I accidentally wrote a review for a different book. I have not finished this yet, but will review when done.