A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

by Dave Eggers

I apologize again for taking so long in between posts.  I've actually read three books since my last post but have lacked the motivation to write about them.  To be honest, I have been avoiding writing this post because I was feeling guilty that this book did not quite live up to the hype in my opinion, and I've already said that about a few on Amazon's List.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a memoir by Dave Eggers about the years succeeding his parents' death when he is charged with taking care of his middle-school-aged little brother.  The book follows the tragic and at times comedic story of the two brothers as they battle the norms of everyday life in their not-so-normal situation.

I had been extremely excited about this book because I saw Dave Eggers' TedTalk a few years ago about 826 Valencia, a free tutoring organization for inner city kids he created.  If you have not watched it, I highly recommend watching it here.  Eggers has a dry and brutally honest sense of humor that is extremely funny and I had been optimistic his book would go quite the same way as his TedTalk.

Boasting a front as a "Pirate Supply Store" 826 Valencia inspired many other similar free tutoring organizations around the world.

And if I'm being honest it was very funny at times, particularly in the beginning before anyone had died.  However, true to the title, it was also at times utterly sad.  To be fair, Eggers warns you of this in his forward in which he states that beyond the first hundred or so pages the book "Actually isn't any good," and the author himself recommends stopping reading right there.

The author

To the book's credit, I got pretty busy and distracted during reading and I don't think devoted the attention to it that it deserved.  In addition, my only real complaint is that it drags on a lot about subplots that seem superfluous to the actual storyline but do in fact have a connection to the greater existential meaning behind the book.  So, all in all, I would recommend reading this book to develop your own opinion; but go in fully knowing that it is at times wordy and at other times truly truly sad.


**Side Note:  I just watched the film version of one of my previously reviewed books, The Fault in Our Stars, and cried my eyes out at the ending.  It's well worth a watch.