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. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come. And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?, The Circle and A Hologram for the King, which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. I let it stand for the sake of their discussion, but since every once in a while I wake up to an email informing me of how some stranger on the internet thinks I'm an asshole (and as I'm also a person who can't stand the heat and would gladly get out of the kitchen if I could), I'd like to add a few disclaimers. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Eggers is almost constantly paranoid that something disastrous is going to happen to Toph whenever his younger brother is out of his sight. Taken at face value, the premise of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius would lead one to assume that the "memoir" based on a true story is a presumptuous, sentimental tear-jerker by a greedy writer exploiting tragedy to make a buck.. Hardly. Buy New. Eggers is home from college as the story begins. That same sense of humor can be found in Eggers’s memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000). Or is this the part that is fiction? The teenagers walk away, but Eggers can’t find his wallet, so he chases them and accuses them of stealing. fuck), I figured it out- he's talking to ME. We have a cushion to fall back on. Thus, in reading Eggers’s book, which is at times very sad, very disturbing, and very funny, readers are continually forced to ask themselves: Is this section true? eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Weeeee! A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the topsoil of a tragedy, the first layers of earth pushed aside in a painful personal excavation, where the treasure seems to remain deeply buried. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. by Dave Eggers. I mean metaphorically speaking. AHWOSG is truly ferocious, like any work of genius. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. I wish he'd stuck to telling that story instead of trying so hard to make me think he's a staggering geni, I disliked so very much about this book. It’s clear before the book begins that he’s got that Gen X hipster axe to wield for sarcastic, irreverent purpo. 1. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together. I would gladly delete it, but it appears some people have engaged in fruitful back-and-forth in the comment thread. This is their sort-of-true story. Appealingly Self Indulgent. This is abundance. I was into it, and then the rest of the book happened...and I just didn't really care about anything that was happening anymore: Eggers, the legal guardian of his young brother, living life as a listless twenty-something in San Francisco in the 90s. * Cards are expensive! It's hard to let go of things sometimes. The two brothers seem to get along very well, making good companions for one another. I hated this book like The Cure hates happiness. The timeline below shows where the symbol The Wallet appears in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Both of his parents die within weeks of each other and it's so tragic it's almost unfathomable. fucking. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published I can sort of remember picking up this book in a bookstore somewhere and reading the first few pages… now, not the first few pages of the story, but I’m talking about the copyright page. I was reading this book and around page 237 (or was it 327? If you have something to say, say it. He shrewdly pre-empts criticism about his self-obsession by professing to be self-conscious about it – a kind of meta-awareness that’s somehow more appealing. Already a member? He. It actually takes one of Toph’s friends, asking how they can live in such a mess, for Eggers to realize that things have to change. The material preceding the main text in this book--called "front matter" in the publishing business--has been entirely taken over by the author, including the usually very official copyright page. The media sweeten the distress and horror, turning it into entertainment. Fool. Clearly, this is a polarizing book. Any of my friends on here read his work? It was sometimes funny, and sad and beautiful and all that, but mostly it was an autobiography by an asshole who was full of himself and I just didn't see why I should care, why I should keep reading. Dave Eggers is the author of ten books, including most recently Your Fathers, Where Are They? Ask Your Own Question ― Dave Eggers, Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. What can I say? They make up silly games that they repeat over and over. He wrote this book for me. My loathing was out of sheer jealousy. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Amazon.Co.Uk: Eggers, Dave Eggers have done with his life had parents! And found it entirely unreadable he chooses makes the stories even more amazing purple-brown.. 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