Does anybody - really - like Dave Eggers' novel?

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If so - WHY?

― Sweetie, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes. For his beautiful long-windedness, but especially for the drawing of the stapler.

― rainy, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Erm, would it be pedantic of me to point out that it's really not a novel, but rather a memoir?

But to answer the question: really, yes, although by this point the book is a bit like the most-photographed-barn-in-America of DeLillo's 'White Noise,' impossible to really see clearly through the dense miasma of received opinion and chatter surrounding it. Are you immensely pleased &c.

― Martin Swope, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I admit I couldn't get into it after twenty pages and stopped. Gave it a whirl but it ended up hurting my head.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I, for one. Because, if nothing else, the parts about Toph. Especially the frisbee stuff. I agree the thing does get snarky and pretentious at times, esp. the subplot about the friend's suicide. But on the whole, quite refreshingly intimate work.

― turner, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I agree with Turner's assessment. Also I found it quite funny in parts. And Eggers himself is quite a charmer when you see him read.

― bnw, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think I feel about this book approximately the way Tom initially felt about the Strokes. I.e.: sure, that's nice.

― Nitsuh, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I found it shockingly bad. I hated the way that he couched what was complete control freakery and reader manipulation in terms of 'laying bare' the process by which books get published. All that stuff where he pre-empts criticism is sheer arrogance. It's like someone who takes the piss out of themselves so that you won't - pompous oneupmanship masquerading as subtle and charming self-deprecation. And the book is so poorly constructed - after the first section it descends into a rambling, narcissistic trawl through white American generational angst. And, Jesus!, has anyone read any of the other McSweeneys books? Glib, cynical, unfunny, hamstrung about race. Yuk!

― T Traherne, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

in defence of mcsweeneys, just read david byrne's the new sins, which was hilarious, profound, superficial all at once...and eggars, yeah, loved it, was a hoot, touching, yet self-aware, importatnt for what it was trying to do.

― Geoff, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Um, somehow I agree with both turner and T Traherne. Yes the hyper self-conscious second guessing of the intro could be seen as arrogant or irritating, but for me it rings so true. That's the direction some people's minds go, and to deny it expression seems churlish. I was glad that someone had done it.

― Nick, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I would have found it impossible to write in that way, but just because it skirts edges of cutesieness, tweeness and up-its-own- arsiness doesn't mean that the guy actually is a bad writer. And yes, I was even moved by it in places. The fundamental core is even good people are bad sometimes, or vice versa - which is a view of human nature I readily ascribe to.

― Pete, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Was all prepared to loathe 'Heartbreaking..." just 'cos of the hype, the cute title, the author's smug self-awareness, and 'cos Mark Lawson picked it as his bk of the year on 'Late Review'. But couldn't help browsing through my flatmate's copy, and was hooked almost straight away - it's laugh-out-loud funny in places (esp. the stuff abt faking a celebrity death) and I thought the self-conscious style was superbly sustained. It was, gulp, even v. moving in places.

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I thought the introduction and epilogue (in my edition they had an epilogue which I think were added later) were excellent and they made me laugh, because the joke was pushed to such extraordinary lengths. The actual body of the book, the god damn story itself, was pretty mediocre, I thought. Weren't that bunch of magazine journalists the most whiny bunch of whimsical whankers you ever did see? And the style... God save us from that "I've done a creative writing course", ticking-the-boxes way of writing. At the risk of pissing everybody off, I think it's a peculiarly American, or possibly just West-Coast thing. Being very conscious of writing in "writerly" way. I find it very forced.

― Sam, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Before anyone attacks my own writing, "were added later" = "was added later".

― Sam, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

*i* think what's going on in the eggers book is an author getting completely bulldozed by his own style. *i* say if you want to read a book written in this super-self-conscious style where the author actually has control, get something by david foster wallace.

― ian, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, because it speaks to me and my generation. No, seriously, though, I did enjoy it. It dragged here and there, though, definitely, but that's what made it seem unique and honest.

― Nude Spock, Wednesday, 19 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

eleven years pass...

I think I understand what 'hate reading' is now

― 乒乓, Tuesday, 25 December 2012 15:23 (eleven years ago) link

ten months pass...

What did you all think of the circle?

― I can't keep up, I can't keep up, I can't keep up (calstars), Wednesday, 30 October 2013 02:41 (ten years ago) link

haven't read it but "what is the what" and "hologram for the king" are just plain good.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 30 October 2013 02:44 (ten years ago) link

six years pass...

If anyone here likes this novel I reserve the right to judge you forever.

how come none of you told me that Dave Eggers just wrote what appears to be the worst book ever written??? pic.twitter.com/rVgYPk42bp
— Alex Shephard (@alex_shephard) December 4, 2019

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 4 December 2019 15:49 (four years ago) link

I could forgive that happening if it had been written during those first few post-election months when so many of us went briefly-yet-thoroughly insane.

― Typo Netagive (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 15:54 (four years ago) link

every time i read robert eggers' name it takes me a minute to remember that he is a different guy to this guy

― "Big Joe Fuck and the Bogalusa Maniac" (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 15:56 (four years ago) link

guy is somehow even more worthless than franzen

― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 16:11 (four years ago) link

xpost Only just this moment realized that I've let the follow-up to The VVitch pass me by thinking it was the inexplicably-feted and unrepresentative film debut of the McSweeney's dude.

― Typo Netagive (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 16:25 (four years ago) link

i think you are all missing something important here:

its supposed to be trump

― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 16:31 (four years ago) link

do u see now?

― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 16:32 (four years ago) link

OOOOOoohhhhhhh... Huh. Pretty sneaky, Dave!

― Typo Netagive (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 16:35 (four years ago) link

guy is somehow even more worthless than franzen

― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 16:11 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

thank you

― éminence rose et jaune (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 18:05 (four years ago) link

Heartbreaking Work is still a very good memoir IMO.

― akm, Wednesday, 4 December 2019 18:13 (four years ago) link

He's also been going on about how he stays off the Internet and everything, which led to this interesting thread last night:

In my years at McSweeney’s there was no “off the clock.” Personal time & vacation were routinely disrespected. I was offered paternity leave twice—a great idea in theory—and it was ruined both times. It was a “dream job,” but incompatible with raising a family, so I left (thread) https://t.co/GYzwa7pIGj
— Brian McMullen (@mcmubria) December 4, 2019

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 4 December 2019 20:57 (four years ago) link

Ah yes, the talent

Dave Eggers' new Trump satire is even worse than I imagined, and folks, I imagined bad things pic.twitter.com/VIxtN60Krf
— Connor Wroe Southard (@ConnorSouthard) December 9, 2019

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 December 2019 04:09 (four years ago) link

frikkin yikes

― gbx, Monday, 9 December 2019 04:25 (four years ago) link

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