About "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"
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.
Reviews
22.01.2009 / Randi Kreger / www.BPDCentral.com
Is your library card up to date?
Here is the best piece of advice in all 920 reviews: get this book from the libary and skip around. You can't go wrong.
21.01.2009 / Joseph C. Sweeney / Portland, Maine
One of the great works of American (non)fiction
How much of this incredible story is true? I believe most of it is. But the book should be taken with a grain of salt.
Just read it!, as they say. A great and hilarious book not to be missed. Anything by Dave Eggers is good. This one is great.
08.01.2009 / Scooter L / Seattle...ish...
I really liked it until I didn't...
I admit it. I enjoyed half of this book. The first half. Somewhere along the line, however, Dave Eggers starts sounding a little less bipolar and funny and a lot more whiny and childish. I stopped reading it. That's how bad it is. The first couple hundred pages are okay if not a little sel...
[> more]The book "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" belongs to the following genres:
Biography & Autobiography Biography / Autobiography Biography/Autobiography Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs Editors, Journalists, Publishers Personal Memoirs Reading Group Guide Literary Biography Brothers Death Eggers, Dave Parents Psychological aspects
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About Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project, 826 Valencia.
Life
Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts, one of four siblings. His father was an attorney and his mother a school teacher. When Eggers was still a child, the family moved to the upscale suburb of Lake Forest, near Chicago. He attended high school there, and was a classmate of the actor Vince Vaughn.
Eggers attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, intending to get a degree in journalism,