The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. 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. 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.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come. The Vintage edition includes a new appendix by the author.

"Eggers evokes the terrible beauty of youth like a young Bob Dylan, frothing with furious anger—. A comic and moving witness that transcends and transgresses formal boundaries." Washington Post

"A brave work, and not a little heartbreaking." National Post

"Eggers unfailingly captures the reader with gorgeous conviction." Lynn Crosbie, The Toronto Star

"A virtuosic piece of writing, a big, daring, manic-depressive stew of a book that noisily announces the debut of a talented — yes, staggeringly talented — new writer." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Scathingly perceptive and hysterically funny.... Eggers reveals a true, and truly broken, heart." People

"Eggers crafts something universal here, something raw and real and wonderful that transcends any zeitgeist and manages to deal trenchantly with 'big issues' that often prove too daunting for younger writers: mortality, youth, the artifice of writing, the Zen of Frisbee. This is laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable." San Francisco Chronicle

"It's James Joyce, back from the dead!....And he's got some Proust in him, the little 29-year-old-jerk, he's got the trammeling thoroughness of Proust's observation, his honest observations of artifice. The book is fine and different for earnest reasons, too....How generous of him to write this for us, to reveal all this so fearlessly, like Joyce, like Proust." Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review, 01/30/2000* --

One of the most mesmerizing memoirs of the literary season: a wrenching, hilarious, and stylistically groundbreaking story 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.

The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. 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. 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.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come. The Vintage edition includes a new appendix by the author.

"I think this book is kind of malleable. I've never really wanted to put it away and be done with it forever — the second I first 'finished' it, I wanted to dig back in and change everything around. So I'm looking forward to getting back into the text, and straightening and focusing and deleting. Most of all, I'm thrilled that Vintage will be letting me include all the cool chase scenes, previously censored." — Dave Eggers

The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. 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 seven-year-old brother. 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.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read in paperback for decades to come.

PAPERBACK EDITION — 15% MORE STAGGERING - Eggers has written 15,000 additional words for the Vintage Canada edition, including an entirely new appendix.

Dave Eggers, a founding editor of Might magazine and contributor to many periodicals, is now the editor of McSweeney's, a quarterly journal. He lives in Brooklyn with his brother.

Contents

Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of This Book

Preface to This Edition

Contents

Acknowledgments

Incomplete Guide to Symbols and Metaphors

PART I.

THROUGH THE SMALL TALL BATHROOM WINDOW, ETC.

Scatology — video games — blood — "blind leaders of the blind" [Bible] — some violence — turtles — embarrassment, naked men — mapping

PART II.

PLEASE LOOK. CAN YOU SEE US, ETC.

California — ocean plunging, frothing — Little League, black mothers — rotation and substitution — hills, views, roofs, toothpicks — numbing and sensation — Johnny Bench — motion

PART III.

THE ENEMIES LIST, ETC.

Demotion — teachers driven before us — menu — plane crash — light — knife — Barry Gifford — State of the Family Room Address — half-cantaloupes — so like a fragile girl — old model, new model — Bob Fosse Presents

PART IV.

OH I COULD BE GOING OUT, SURE

But no. No no! — the weight — seven years one's senior, how fitting — potential sagging — John Doe — decay v. preservation — burgundy, bolts

PART V.

OUTSIDE IT'S BLUE-BLACK AND GETTING DARKER, ETC.

Stephen, murderer, surely — The Bridge — Jon and Pontius Pilate — John, Moodie, et al. — Merchant Marine — lies — a stolen wallet — the 99th percentile — Mexican kids — lineups, lights — a trail of blood, and then silence, and then Russia

PART VI.

WHEN WE HEAR THE NEWS AT FIRST

What's In, What's Out — mailing lists — daughter of Charles Bronson, stunning — [some mild nudity] — Randy Stickrod — all the hope of history to date — an interview — death and suicide — mistakes — keg beer — Mr. T — Steve the Black Guy — a death faked, perhaps (the gray car) — a possible escape, via rope, of sheets — a broken door — betrayal justified

PART VII.

FUCK IT. STUPID SHOW, ETC.

Some bitterness, some calculation — Or anything that looks un-us — more nudity, still mild — of color, who is of color? — Chakka the Pakuni — hairy all the crotches are, bursting from panties and briefs — The Marina — The flying-object maneuver — drama or blood or his mouth foaming or — a hundred cymbals — would you serve them grapes? Would that be wrong? — "So I'm not allowed" — Details of all this will be good

PART VIII.

WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE EXCREMENT

Elliot Strunk — The Future — "Slacker? Not me," laughs Hillman — Meath: Oh yeah, we love that multicultural stuff — "Isn't that great?" — We fill out forms — a kindly Betty White sort — "a nightmare WASP utopia" — a sexual sort of lushness — There has been Spin the Bottle — "I don't know" — "Thank you, Jesus" — "I'm dying, Shal"

PART IX.

ROBERT URICH SAYS NO. WE WERE SO CLOSE

Laura Branigan, Lori Singer, Ed Begley, Jr. — to be thought of as smart, legitimate, permanent. So you do your little thing — a bitchy little thing about her — a fall — the halls, shabbily shiny, are filled with people in small clumps — that Polly Klaas guy giving me the finger at the trial — Adam, by association, unimpressive

PART X.

OF COURSE IT'S COLD.

The cold when walking off the plane — plans for a kind of personal archaeological orgy or something, from funeral homes to John Hussa, whose mom heated milk once, after Grizzly — weddings — a lesbian agnostic named Minister Lovejoy — Chad and the copies — leaf pile — another threat — of course she knows — wouldn't everyone be able to tell? — the water rising, as if under it already

PART XI.

BLACK SANDS BEACH IS

No hands — down the hill, the walk — not NAMBLA — birthday, parquet — Skye — hot, poisoned blood — jail, bail, the oracle — more maneuvers — a fight — finally