Why did Rick love this book?
Dave Egger’s memoir is about his early years as the adult caretaker of his younger brother after the death of both their parents. This is an energetic and writerly work.
His writing screams “Look at me” with its sharp and distinctive style. He writes that he wants to be heard, that he wants to be understood, and his writing demands this of you.
There are stories of him starting a magazine and him trying to get into MTV’s The Real World. My memory of the book is a scene of him and his brother playing frisbee. It is told in a dramatic and elevated manner, their throws monumentally heroic, the disc cutting the air between them, their catches amazingly acrobatic.
You sense this is how a young hero should see himself in his own story. Surely this is worth seeing, he asks, and I thought: absolutely!
2 authors picked A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The author chronicles his life in the years after the deaths of his parents, when he assumed responsibility for the care and upbringing of his eight-year-old brother.