Review: A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Posted by kevin Sun, 14 Jan 2007 21:12:52 GMT
"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" (Dave Eggers)
This is an autobiography. I wish someone would have told me that, because I hate autobiographies. I'll go as far as to say that no-one's life is that interesting... everything needs a plot.
That said, this guy has a fascinating writing style. For a really dull book, it had some interesting moments. Many of what he says is very poetic, and rang with that quiet bell of truth that you can recognize sometimes. His paranoia and genuine love of his brother and friends, while at the same time desire to use them in his book (yes, it's meta like that), was endearing in a quirky sort of way.
It was very different from my usual fantasy-fare, so was a refreshing read.
Man you don't even know how long I've waited for this since disabling my own Movable Type widget (that doesn't work since Haloscan bypasses that code).
Actually I don't understand who need to read somebody's autobiography. I have my own! ;)
That's pretty interesting book that make people think a little about different important things.
Hooray post-modernism/minimalism! ...Which is hard to read, sometimes. Sometimes there's not really a plot, or there is, but it's not the important part. Plot is set aside to make way for language instead. Yum. But it does make for a fairly choppy autobiography. I sort of want to read some of Eggers's fiction, just out of curiosity.