I got part way into this and abandonned it. Maybe I’m just getting too old to enjoy twenties angst. I couldn’t help but ask myself – Is this the best book I have read or will read on this subject? And my personal answer was no.

Beautiful hubris! Eggers has a style all his own, and I really enjoy reading what he has to say. Wonderful imagery that puts you exactly where he wants you to be. I think I was particulary hooked on this book because it took place in my ’hood, so I did feel a certain attachment to all the places described.

Also, since it’s an Eggers book, it’s perfectly layed out and typeset (at least the hardcover is…). If you haven’t read all the publishing notes and copyright notices in the front of the book, do go back and read them… you’ll be in for a treat!

This is fabulous, hilarious, sad and totally original writing.

No, it isn’t for everyone- it certainly isn’t Jane Austen’s mannered family drama; but Eggers’ family tale and his commentary on the tragic deaths of his parents seems to sear right through all of our preconceptions and just as he mocks and satirizes aspects of life, he also possesses a hyper-sensitivity to human nature that makes all the clever tricks work somehow. In this book the tricks include: Rules for Enjoyment, a really long preface, obscure acknowlegments, and even some funky work on the cataloging-in-process page (Hi, catalogers, didn’t this just brighten your day!). But he makes it work and that is what matters. I also enjoyed You Shall Know Our Velocity-so if you have already read the memoir check it out instead. A quote from “Heartbreaking”:

“Just as some police-particularly those they dramatize on television-might be familiar with death, and might expect it at any instant-not necessarily their own, but death generally-so does the author, possessing a naturally paranoid disposition, compounded by environmental factors that make it seem not only possible, but probable that whatever there might be out there that snuffs our life is probably sniffing around for him, that his number is perennially, eternally, up, that his draft number is low, that his bingo card is hot, that he has a bull’s-eye on his chest and a target on his back. It’s fun. You’ll see.”

I love his writing. Especially some of the really incredibly long sentences. Even though they are so long, you don’t get lost in what the point is.

a good light read so far, not requiring one to think too much.

I got stuck on this book about half way through and put it down about a month ago. I really enjoyed the first third or so, but then it just got way too self envolved. I’m hoping that I can skim through this middle section and that it will become more readable again. I’m not familiar with any of his other works so honestly I’m still trying to figure out how much of it is true.

Well, I finished it. The ending was very good, very well written. Heartbreaking-Yes. I think he could have cut out a great deal of the middle of the book though I guess it played it’s role.

Just began reading this one. I will comment on it once I’m finished.

Mixed in with the incredible awe I feel at having been privy to a person’s life and mind this way, I’m also astounded that any publishing house would let Eggers get away with half the crap he pulls. Further astounded that he predicted this reaction… annoyed, awe-struck, touched, etc. If I’m thinking so much about a book, it’s a good one.

The writing is so absolutely alive—cocky, at times, unexpectedly tender. I tried to slow down my reading so it wouldn’t end too soon, but I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

I’ll definitely read it again.

—Susan Henderson

I’m not sure what to make of this one.

It was funny, but I think I’m not clever enough to appreciate everything that was meant to be funny. It was sad, but maybe I’m not as empathic as I thought I was because the full weight of the sadness never really hit me. It was spread out over such a long time that it just never hit me. But maybe that’s the point. This is where more cleverness would help too, I guess.

Astonishing.

Hoping this won’t take me as long to read as the last book.