Based on a true story by Dave Eggers.
Anyone else read this book?
I picked it up in an airport bookstore for the long journey home. Maybe it’s just me and my current circumstances in life but I thought it was a wonderful read.
But I can’t find anyone else who’s read it and thought perhaps someone else here has.
Brilliant title!
I’ve read it. It was OK, but certainly did not measure up to the title or the reviews.
I’ve read it. It was OK, but certainly did not measure up to the title or the reviews.
Somewhat agree with schplebordnik.
I guess I just thought it was a bit uneven, maybe could have used a bit more editing or something. And this shouldn’t matter, I suppose, but I kept wondering “How fictionalized is this memoir?”
Dave Eggers’ name is sometimes bandied about with those other young authors, David Foster Wallace, Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen. On the whole, I prefer the work of the latter two. But that’s just me.
I thought it was an amazing book, though I don’t understand the whole Cult of Dave Eggers that seems to have sprung up around it and him.
I couldn’t get through ten pages of this book. WAY too self-indulgent and ironic. I mean, the guy can’t even number his pages without some wry and would-be “hip” comment about numbering pages in a book. Irritating as hell, man…
And what was up with ALL that frickin’ hype?!
I read it the week it was released and really enjoyed it. I probably wouldn’t have if I’d heard all the hype first.
I got about a third or a little more into it and found I just didn’t care anymore. Although there were some good bits.
Loved it. I can imagine how someone with little tolerance for cleverness for its own sake wouldn’t like it. Me, I love cleverness for its own sake, and so loved the book.
And until the were rechristened “Freedom Fries,” this book inspired me to refer to fries as “potatoes served in the French manner.” Now I suppose they’re “potatoes served in the free manner.” Or some such.
I loved it too. Although the parts where he debates why he’s writing the book in the first place and how it will be perceived by the readers could be seen as self indulgency or perhaps a ploy for understanding by those who would view the subject matter and the subsequent book as exploitation, I think it was refreshing to see someone put doubts on paper. We all have them - how will it sound if I say X, if I describe this situation will people think I’m making light of a serious situation, etc - but I liked that he put it all on paper, whatever his reason for doing do may have been.
I thought it was great. I don’t think there’s any one proper way to handle life dealing you massive traumatic events in short order, and I thought Eggers handled and recorded the situation with as much aplomb as just about anyone in similar straits would be able to.
Also, I really like the title in that I think it refers, not to the book, but rather to life itself, and it’s a perspective I quite like.
Purd Werfect I agree. This book was one of the most enjoyable read that I had last year. I have recommended it to others, and have also bought it for a couple of people as presents. Highly recommended. For the record, I do not care about book reviews all that much. I would rather judge a book for myself than have another do it for me.
[hijack] I also recommend Anthony Bourdain’s two books “Kitchen Confidential” and “A Cook’s Tour”, and Ben Hamper’s “Rivethead”. [/hijack]
I was absorbed by the opening chapters, as he recounted how his family managed to survive the death of the parents and he and his brother adjusted to life together. I lost interest when the focus shifted to his magazine and his love life.
I thought AHWOSG was great - it was funny and clever, but there were a lot of parts that were really sincere and sad as well. I even read and enjoyed Mistakes We Knew We Were Making, which was the flip side of the paperback version. Kitchen Confidential is another book I loved, particularly since I spent my college years working in restaurants.
BTW, I got the impression that the title A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was a joke, not to be taken seriously.
Loved that book!
I struggled hard with the book, but I only made it through a few chapters. Part of my problem was that while I sympathized with him greatly, I really didn’t much like Dave Eggars as a character. Looking back, I see that I’ve given up on several books that other people have raved over because I found the characters so repugnant that I didn’t want to spend hundreds of pages with them. Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full and Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces come to mind. (I didn’t find find Eggars as bad as these, actually, but it came to the same thing.) Is this just a quirk of mine or do others behave this way as well?
CuriousCanunk, you write:
I’m curious, too. Seriously. Isn’t this contradictory? What do you see as the difference between a postitive book review and a positive recommendation?