A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers

Advantages: Staggering.
Disadvantages: Heartbreaking.

...your own life story - a title like that, but it's no exaggeration. I mean, how often does a book make you giggle before you even reach page one? I laughed out loud just reading the copyright details. If you don't believe me, nip into Waterstone's and have a shufty. Described by critics as post-post-modern, even the acknowledgements leave you gasping: "While the author is self-conscious about being self-referential, he is also knowing about that ...
...that the gimmickry is simply a device, a defense, to obscure the black, blinding, murderous rage and sorrow at the core of this whole story, which is both too black and blinding to look at - avert...your...eyes! - but nevertheless useful, at least to the author, even in caricatured or condensed form, because telling as many people as possible about it helps, he thinks, to dilute the pain and bitterness and thus facilitate its flushing from his soul..." ... Read review

Advantages: see op
Disadvantages: see op

...heartbreaking - maybe more of a stagger down a tiresome emotional journey with occasional glimpses of light. I'm not going to attempt a précis of the whole tale here, but put down a few salient points that I enjoyed about the book- I never see the point of reviewing a book by rehashing the whole story. Basically, the book recounts a portion of the life of a young man- Dave Eggers and his attempts to bring up his younger brother when both his parents ...
...written- especially for a first book- but is pretentious to the extent that , you don't really care much about the pairs plight, although I had genuine sympathy for the young boy- Eggers' self righteousness and pretentiousness irritated me to an astounding degree. However, he made two excellent points in his book- the first in an area which I know nothing about, that of parenthood and the feeling of sheer terror/guilt that you get when you are concerned ... Read review

Advantages: It's cleverly written, because whilst wallowing in the morbid it still manages to be quite lighthearted. I don't know how.
Disadvantages: You do have to read about death at the beginning, sorry.

...out section. It was a couple of months before the book was to come out in this country. I eagerly awaited it's release; at the price of £14.99, it's more than I would normally consider spending on a book. Preferring to buy 2nd hand books from local charity shops, or for those books I feel won't turn up there, borrow from a friend or buy if under a tenner. But the extracts and the little I'd heard about Dave Eggers autobiography, had me in the shop ...
...and father died, both within a space of a few weeks, due to cancer. His mother had had cancer for a long time, (a drawn out affair). His father was more of a shock, because whilst they knew something was wrong, nothing was ever said. And then he died, before his mother. With an older sister and brother (Beth and Bill) living away from home, studying and working, it became Davids responsibility to bring up their younger brother Christopher. He was ... Read review

Advantages: Eggers truly human voice commands respect - despite what sometimes, admittedly, comes across as arrogance.
Disadvantages: Perhaps a little long winded in parts. But you really have to remember that this is sincerely part of Eggers intended technique.

...Cancer and your Dad of a heart tumour. Then, as the 'responsible' sibling of three, you're the one left to bring up your 8 year old brother. What do you do next? Well, if your Dave Eggers - self confessed martyr - you sell your childhood home, take your brother to California, take as many advantages from the sympathy of others and as much cash from government organisations as you can (after all you are now "owed"), start up a failing magazine and ...
...then of course you write a book about it. AHWOSG is certainly what it says on the tin. Eggers writes from the heart and is unafraid of telling such a heart rendering story in his own way. You would never expect a tale of childhood loss and the resulting effects of social anxiety to be even remotely humorous. Yet, as Eggers is well aware, our anxieties are often masked through forms of humour. He consistently reveals his innermost pains, only to cover ... Read review