May 21, 2004

• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – by Dave Eggers

  Anybody else read this? I’m about 4/5 through, so I figure I can review it now. At times, I almost got exasperated enough to put it down for good, but the premise kept me going. It’s a memoir and first effort by a young author whose parents both die within a short period of time from cancer, leaving himself, an older sister, and a younger brother to fend for themselves. They relocate to the West Coast, the two older children essentially parenting the youngest. Nobody talks about IQ tests anymore, but you can tell a very, very bright person by the way they string words together, whether they are sane or psychopathic. This is a very bright person. Here’s a paragraph chosen at random from dead center in the book: Okay, you want to hear a sad story? Last night I was home, listening to an album. A favorite song came on, and I was singing aloud, loud enough for it to matter but not loud enough to wake up Toph, sleeping in his bedroom adjacent, and as I was singing, I was moving my hands through my hair in a weird obsessive sort of way, like a slow-motion shampooing maneuver–it’s something I do with my hair when I am alone and enjoying music–and as I was singing and doing the slo-mo hands-in-the-hair maneuver, I messed up the words to the song I was singing, and though it was two fifty-nine in the morning, I became quickly, deeply embarrassed about my singing gaffe, convinced that there was a very good chance that someone could see me–through the window, across the dark, across the street. I was sure, saw vividly that someone–or more likely a someone and his friends–over there was having a hearty laugh at my expense. See what I mean? When you’ve read their story you just hope for the best for this trio, this family, this author, and you know even if they end up in the gutter they will be entertaining and very, very bright.
  Deep Thought: When I was seven, I told my friend Timmy Barker I would give him a million dollars if he would eat an earthworm. He ate the worm, but I never gave him the million dollars. As of last week, all I had given him was $9,840.
  Today I am grateful for: Word processing

  • 9:12 am
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