A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Author: Dave Eggers

Rating: ⭐ 2/5

Date Read: 2014/12/26

Pages: 530

Please understand that, in this context, “heartbreaking” means “self-consciously maudlin” and “staggering genius” means “derivative drivel.” It really is work, though.

Have you forgotten why you don’t spend time around twenty-two year olds? Do you want to relive your youthful naivety by reading prose that is probably supposed to be self-consciously ironic but comes across as a little too earnest (“All we really want is for no one to have a boring life, to be impressive, so we can be impressed”)? Do you enjoy associating with people who claim they grew up poor because they weren’t the richest kids in their very wealthy suburb, who feel comfortable expressing highly racist opinions because they agree with the importance for appearing to care about diversity, at least on a conceptual level? Do you believe that dealing with a real tragedy somehow gives people free rein to be complete douchebags? Well, then, this is the book for you!

I get that the nostalgic elements of this book have something to do with zines and the Real World, but there’s an incommensurability about Gen-X angst that I can’t work through, that makes me want to run into Winona Ryder somewhere (The Gap, probably?) and tell her that I sat through all of Reality Bites twice and I still have no idea what she was talking about. Perhaps there has simply been a paradigm shift, in which case I’m glad, although I have the lingering suspicious that my generation is similarly obnoxious in a novel way, in which case mea culpa.