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Keith Mosman: A Long(ish) List of Recent Short Story Collections (0 comment)
May is Short Story Month, so I’ll keep this brief: here is a list of the some of the collections that I’ve read in recent months (even though most of them weren’t officially dedicated to the form)...
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Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

by Dave Eggers
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

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  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Reading Group Guide
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ISBN13: 9780375725784
ISBN10: 0375725784



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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Dave Eggers is the author of four books, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, You Shall Know Our Velocity!, How We Are Hungry, and What Is the What. He is the editor of McSweeneys, a quarterly magazine and book-publishing company, and is cofounder of 826 Valencia, a network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centers for young people. His interest in oral history led to his 2004 cofounding of Voice of Witness, a nonprofit series of books that use oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. As a journalist, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Believer. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and daughter.

Review

"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

Review

"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

Review

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

Review

"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

Review

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

Review

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

Synopsis

This is a beautifully ragged, laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable book. --San Francisco Chronicle

National Bestseller
Pulitzer Prize Finalist

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 for decades to come.

Synopsis

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.


About the Author

Dave Eggers is the bestselling author of Zeitoun, winner of the American Book Award and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. His novel What Is the What was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won France's Prix Medicis.

Reading Group Guide

1. The material preceding the main text in this book--called "front matter" in the publishing business--has been entirely taken over by the author, including the usually very official copyright page. Why might the publisher have allowed Eggers to take this unconventional route? Why does Eggers work so extensively at disrupting the formality of publication and his status as an author?

2. On the copyright page we find the statement, "This is a work of fiction"; and at the beginning of the preface Eggers writes, "This is not, actually, a work of pure nonfiction." What point is Eggers making by casting all these doubts on the veracity of the book's contents? In his discussion about the current popularity of memoirs [pp. xxiÐxxiii], Eggers admits that the book is a memoir but encourages his readers to think of it as fiction. What is the difference, in a work of literature, between fact and fiction, and does it matter?

3. In the remarkable acknowledgments section, which is a brilliant critique and discussion of the book as a whole, Eggers points out that "the success of a memoir . . . has a lot to do with how appealing its narrator is" [p. xxvii]. What is appealing about Eggers as a narrator?

4. Eggers notes that the first major theme of the book is "The Unspoken Magic of Parental Disappearance" [p. xxviii]. It is a psychological truism that most children occasionally fantasize about being orphans, because parents often stand in the way of their children's desires. Along these lines, Eggers admits that the loss of his parents is "accompanied by an undeniable but then of course guilt-inducing sense of mobility, of infinite possibility" [p. xxix]. Does he ever find a way to resolve his conflicting emotions of grief and guilt?

5. If it is true, as Eggers points out, that he is not the first person whose parents died or who was left with the care of a sibling, what makes his story unique?

6. Eggers worries that because he is neither a woman nor a neat, well-organized person [pp. 81, 99], people assume that he can't take care of Toph. Which aspects of Eggers' parenting are most admirable? Which are most comic? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each aspect?

7. How do Eggers' memories of his father compare to those about his mother? To what degree are his feelings about his parents resolved, or at least assuaged, through the act of writing this book?

8. Much of the central part of the book relates to the business of launching and producing Might magazine. What does this section reveal about the concerns, desires, and frustrations of thoughtful, energetic twenty-somethings in contemporary America?

9. Eggers expresses ambivalence about having written this book because he feels guilty about exploiting his family's misfortune and exposing a private matter to the public. Among the epigraphs that Eggers considered, and then didn't use, for the book are "Why not just write what happened?" (R. Lowell) and "Ooh, look at me, I'm Dave, I'm writing a book! With all my thoughts in it! La la la!" (Christopher Eggers) [p. xvii]. How do these two epigraphs crystallize the memoir writer's dilemma?

10. Why does Eggers judge himself so harshly for returning to the family's old house in Lake Forest and for trying to retrieve his mother's ashes? Does the trip provide him and his story with a sense of closure, or just the opposite? Is there a central revelation to Eggers' narrative, a strong sense of change or a significant development? Or would you say, on the contrary, that the book has the haphazardness and lack of structure that we find in real life?

11. Eggers refers, half-jokingly, half-seriously, to himself and Toph as "God's tragic envoys" [p. 73]. Is it true, as Eggers suggests, that tragic occurrences give those to whom they happen the feeling of having been singled out for a special destiny? Is it common among those who have suffered intensely to expect some sort of recompense?

12. Recurring throughout the interview for MTV's The Real World [chapter VI] is the image of what Eggers calls "the lattice." What does he mean by this, and does it amount to a kind of spiritual belief on his part?

13. Mary Park, writing for Amazon.com, notes that "Eggers comes from the most media-saturated generation in history--so much so that he can't feel an emotion without the sense that it's already been felt for him. . . . Oddly enough, the effect is one of complete sincerity." How does Eggers manage to turn his generation's burdens of self-consciousness into strengths? What are the qualities that make his writing so vivid and memorable?


The questions, discussion topics, and author biography that follow are designed to enhance your group's reading and discussion of Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. We hope that they will provide you with a variety of ways of thinking and talking about this extraordinary and unique book.

4.9 9

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.9 (9 comments)

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techeditor , August 30, 2021 (view all comments by techeditor)
A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS is delightful. Dave Eggers has a writing style like I’ve never read before. What would otherwise be, for example, sad or serious, he lightens. My gosh, he even makes the copyright page enjoyable reading! This is a memoir. Eggers explains that he wouldn’t really call A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS a true story because he made up the dialog. And sometimes that dialog is obviously his invention, such as when a 9-year-old boy talks with the maturity of a 30-year-old man or when he begins with his MTV interview that turns into something else. I sometimes had to re-read to understand what he was doing. Before the beginning of A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS Eggers notes all the parts you can safely skip. But that made me want to read them all the more, and I didn’t skip anything. I admit, though, after 100 or so pages his style sometimes aggravated me, his constant repetition, so I did skim some paragraphs. Even though I could tell that those paragraphs represented his private thought processes, I sometimes found them disjointed and monotonous.

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Amanda Townsend , August 06, 2012 (view all comments by Amanda Townsend)
You don't have to read this review. If you do, maybe just read the second half. Or really just the last sentence, it's all you actually need. This is the (mostly) true story of how Dave Eggers conquered the world with his younger brother, orphaned by cancer and propelled into the world of being owed everything. He hands you this tale on a platter full of original voice, chicken, and maybe some fruit. His pain is your pain. And yours and yours and yours. Narrating knowing that you will be reading this, he manipulates the structure of a novel, the structure of a page, a paragraph, a sentence. He sometimes engages in conversation with his characters about the book itself, about the sentence you are reading, the metaphor you missed. He wrote this book so that you, you reading this right now, would read it. Not because you need to read it, but because he needs you to read it. It relies on you George Steve Mary Sally to read it otherwise it won't work. It will change your life and everything will stay the same. This book is very good and you should read it.

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Ava Sennett , January 28, 2011 (view all comments by Ava Sennett)
I first read this book years ago, and named it as a favorite. This year I picked it up again and was blown away by Eggers all over again. His writing is all at once hilarious, tragic, and easy to relate to. I love this book, and it has influenced me both as a person and as a writer.

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Susan Jacobson , August 27, 2010 (view all comments by Susan Jacobson)
The title of this book is a perfect description of the story inside! It is a wonderful story about life, and I dare you to put it down, once you have picked it up! This is one of those few books that I will read more than once.

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Denise Barnett , May 03, 2010 (view all comments by Denise Barnett)
What an incredible book, once I started it, I read it straight through. To think that Dave Eggers started where he did and has come as far as he has boggles my mind. Funny, sweet, sad and thoroughly fascinating!!

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cassier12345 , January 22, 2010
Not at all what I expected. It was a comical look at how life takes jabs at us. It pulled me in, made me laugh, and broke my heart. Eggers, we need some more!

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s.rose.greene , January 12, 2010
I picked this book up and put it down eight hours later. I read it front to back, including the fine print on the publishing page. That was the first time I read it. I've read it now three times, each time finding new information, getting his sense of humor and irony and passive aggressive communication. I felt this book.

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Daniel_D , November 22, 2006
Eggers not only writes his story while maintaining the master narrative, he also writes down his thoughts, their patterns and cycles that seem somewhat oddly familar. His combination of honesty, humour and insecurities make this book a compelling read and yet at the same time he somehow manages to raise more questions than awnsers! Think Ikea flat packaged ready to assemble furniture with a couple of extra screws thrown in for good measure! Yet unlike Ikea flat packaged ready to assemble furniture - this book comes with an instruction manaul that makes logical sense without the need for domestic unrest! The title makes a statement, 12 simple words in two phrases on the inside of the front cover that sum the book up perfectly. If you get a chance, take a look - those extra screws that you thought were deliberately thrown in for good measure or agnst, they serve a purpose after all! Do yourself a favour: If you have read it - Read it again! If you haven't read it - Beg, Borrow or Buy a copy - just read it!

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Tammy , August 21, 2006 (view all comments by Tammy)
Great book! In my opinion a "must read".

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780375725784
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
02/13/2001
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Pages:
496
Height:
1.00IN
Width:
5.10IN
Thickness:
1.00
Number of Units:
12
Copyright Year:
2001
Series Volume:
2
UPC Code:
2800375725786
Author:
Dave Eggers
Author:
Dave Eggers
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Death
Subject:
Parents -- Death -- Psychological aspects.
Subject:
Biography - General
Subject:
Parents
Subject:
Journalists
Subject:
Brothers

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