A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Critics

• Come to the cabaret

  A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers Picador, £9.99, 375pp Buy it at BOL What would Dave Eggers have done with his life had his parents not died of cancer, one after the other, in the space of 32 days, leaving him - a boyish 21-year- ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• To lose one parent...

  A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers Picador £14.99, pp400 Buy it at BOL Wilde's Lady Bracknell, majestically intolerant of abnormality, would not have been impressed by the predicament of Dave Eggers. At the age of 21, he was carele ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

7 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  This book has a great shot of being one of the items read in high school across the country in 2050, when teachers are trying to snapshot life in the late 20th century.

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  Bossdog said on Aug 2, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 

  He's such a snob! A poser. A hipster of our days. In this, actually, he has been innovative, absolutely ahead of our time.
  Then, with his permanent attempt to look direct and sincere and brutal he sounds to me more cerebral than honest, and even more self-congratulating than realist. In some way, fa ... (continue)

  He's such a snob! A poser. A hipster of our days. In this, actually, he has been innovative, absolutely ahead of our time.
  Then, with his permanent attempt to look direct and sincere and brutal he sounds to me more cerebral than honest, and even more self-congratulating than realist. In some way, fake.
  After all, pretty boring, especially the part about the foundation of his cool magazine in San Francisco and the too long interview for the application for Real world. But I must acknowledge that some pages are beautiful and others quite brilliant.

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  orlando said on Jan 25, 2012 | Add your feedback

• 

  Before I picked up this book I had heard endless tales of how wonderfully smart and funny this book was, how terrific the writing was and how the originality would slap me in the face like a cool wind on a summer's day. They were wrong. I hated this book like The Cure hates happiness.

  I understand ... (continue)

  Before I picked up this book I had heard endless tales of how wonderfully smart and funny this book was, how terrific the writing was and how the originality would slap me in the face like a cool wind on a summer's day. They were wrong. I hated this book like The Cure hates happiness.

  I understand writer's have their own style, and that is what, in and of itself, separates them from all the others. But, seriously, we learn paragraph breaks for a reason. It gives the mind's eye a break, a breather. Eggers, a rebel in his own mind, discards such mannerisms.

  Aside from that debilitating hindrance, the book is THE example for egotism gone awry. Now, before you start, yes, I am aware that a memoir book is, essentially, an ego stroke. But the good writers, they have the ability to make you forget that it's merely self-indulgence, sweep you up in their lives...in their story. Rather than want to beg the author in so many ways as to warrant that 500 feet order to invite you over, Eggers is the kind of guy you would actually go out of your way to avoid.

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  Clementine said on May 20, 2011 | Add your feedback

• 

  For me this book gave a glimpse of how it is to be a male.
  Genius.

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  Helena said on Sep 12, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  This book was pretty bad in my opinion. In fact, I'm not even going to finish it. I don't care if it's fiction, biography, or memoir, I couldn't get past the author's monster ego. Even then if the story was good, I can usually overlook it long enough to appreciate the story and mention it when I rev ... (continue)

  This book was pretty bad in my opinion. In fact, I'm not even going to finish it. I don't care if it's fiction, biography, or memoir, I couldn't get past the author's monster ego. Even then if the story was good, I can usually overlook it long enough to appreciate the story and mention it when I review it, or chat about the book with a friend, but the author too frequently sidetracks from the story where we have to endure paragraphs of endless rambling thoughts. When I start thinking about what to make for dinner, or to remember to pay the hydro bill, it's time to move on to something else. Pretty terrible for me, which is too bad, it started out well and could have been a great tale if not for the raging ego and incessant rambling.

  A Heartbreaking work of Staggering genius... I think not.

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  Leahrussell76 said on Sep 12, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 

  A nice beginning with lots of bravura, but the voice soon annoyed me.

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  Sengaia said on Apr 27, 2009 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

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• English Books
• Paperback 496 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0330456717
• ISBN-13: 9780330456715
• Publisher: Picador
• Pub date: Sep 21, 2007
• Also available as: Hardcover, Audio CD, School & Library Binding and Others
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Libri Italiani, Danske bøger

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• Wednesday Nights in the 21st Century (5)
• NY Times Notable Book Club (474)

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