A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Literary / Eggers, Dave, 921 Eggers, Dave
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Literary / Eggers, Dave	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Literary / Eggers, Dave	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	921 Eggers, Dave	4-week checkout	Due 05-06-2024

Addendum bound upside down.
Incomplete guide to symbols and metaphors -- Through the small tall bathroom window, etc. -- Please look, can you see us, etc. -- Enemies list, etc. -- Oh I could be going out, sure -- Outside its blue-black-getting darker, etc. -- When we hear the news at First -- Fuck it. Stupid show, etc. -- We can't do anything about the excrement -- Robert Urich says no. We were so close -- Of course it's cold -- Black Sands Beach is.
A 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. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply hearfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Thumbs up for Eggers' Genius submitted by manz on November 1, 2008, 10:21am This is a fantastic book. Pulitzer nominated Eggers mixes truth and exaggeration to a T in this memoir. His stories and funny and heartbreaking. His rambling of words and words of rambling is like reading butter that won't stop spreading. A good read. Eggers has done all sorts of great things and it's nice reading about his road to get there.

My Absolute Favorite Book submitted by monkk on June 28, 2011, 10:57am If you like memoirs, make sure you give this one a read! Eggers manages to tackle some difficult subjects with humor, and the writing is fantastic. Certain passages would be fantastic as audition monologues, as well.

Heartbreaking, Check. Staggering, Check. Genius, Check. submitted by Sara W on July 1, 2011, 8:27pm This is a great book. Dave Eggers is an imaginative and energetic writer and dives in with great enthusiasm to his story. I'm glad he does - it's a great story. The telling comes across as very honest, because Dave Eggers doesn't always appear to be a great guy.

He's blunt about his family tragedies, his relationship with his siblings, his successes and his failures. At times this bluntness is startling, at times, refreshing.

The Vacuum submitted by meliskim on August 2, 2011, 7:00pm I love this book. Egger's imaginative, energetic style sucked me in, as usual, but the uniquely-detailed, deeply personal aspects of this memoir kept me absolutely glued to the page.

Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius submitted by l.schroederss on July 16, 2018, 1:46pm This is a fantastic (and heartbreaking) book. Don't overlook the foreword/introduction...

Nope nope nope submitted by EJZ on July 23, 2018, 8:14pm I found myself saying out loud many times "Oh get over yourself!" while in the middle of this book. I think Eggers makes a bit too much of his hardships, of which there are few, and he certainly makes too much of his early successes. What to him seems like reaching for an impossible dream, came across to me like shirking responsibility to have fun. I far preferred his book "What is the What"

Polarizing submitted by pepemama on June 19, 2020, 1:37pm You love this book or you loathe his ego. I think it is hilarious. Many artists can be full of themselves. Watch the play Red about Mark Rothko. This is a wonderful, funny, depressing, thoughtful, arrogant work.

Liked this as teen submitted by jibkidder on July 3, 2022, 7:57am On the one hand it would be interesting to revisit this as an adult and a parent, on the other hand I will never do that.