A heartbreaking work of staggering genius / by Dave Eggers.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Vintage Books, 2001Description: xlv, 437, 48 pages ; 21 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 0375725784
- 9780375725784
- 973.92 EGG
- Contains additional work, with added t.p.: Mistakes we knew we were making.
Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Moylish Library Main Collection | 973.92 EGG (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 39002100665661 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * A "A beautifully ragged, laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable book" (S an Francisco Chronicle ) that redefines both family and narrative. * From the bestselling author of The Circle.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. This exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.
Addendum bound upside down.
Incomplete guide to symbols and metaphors -- Through the small tall bathroom window, etc. -- Please look, can you see us, etc. -- Enemies list, etc. -- Oh I could be going out, sure -- Outside its blue-black-getting darker, etc. -- When we hear the news at first -- Fuck it. Stupid show, etc. -- We can't do anything about the excrement -- Robert Urich says no. We were so close -- Of course it's cold -- Black Sands Beach is.
Contains additional work, with added t.p.: Mistakes we knew we were making.
A memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply hearfelt story of the love that holds a family together.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of This Book (p. vii)
- Preface to This Edition (p. ix)
- Acknowledgments (p. xxi)
- Incomplete Guide to Symbols and Metaphors (p. xxxviii)
- Part I. Through the small tall bathroom window, etc. (p. 1)
- Scatology
- Video games
- Blood
- "Blind leaders of the blind" [Bible]
- Some violence
- Embarrassment, naked men
- Mapping
- Part II. Please look. Can You see us, etc. (p. 47)
- California
- Ocean plunging, frothing
- Little League, black mothers
- Rotation and substitution
- Hills, views, roofs, toothpicks
- Numbing and sensation
- Johnny Bench
- Motion
- Part III. The enemies list, etc. (p. 71)
- Demotion
- Teachers driven before us
- Menu
- Plane crash
- Light
- Knife
- State of the Family Room Address
- Half-cantaloupes
- So like a fragile girl
- Old model, new model
- Bob Fosse Presents
- Part IV. Oh I could be going out, sure (p. 105)
- But no. No no!
- The weight
- Seven years one's senior, how fitting
- John Doe
- Decay v. preservation
- Burgundy, bolts
- Part V. Outside it's blue-black and getting darker, etc. (p. 123)
- Stephen, murderer, surely
- The Bridge
- Jon and Pontius Pilate
- John, Moodie, et al.
- Lies
- A stolen wallet
- The 99th percentile
- Mexican kids
- Lineups, lights
- A trail of blood, and then silence
- Part VI. When we hear the news at First (p. 167)
- [Some mild nudity]
- All the hope of history to date
- An interview
- Death and suicide
- Mistakes
- Keg beer
- Mr. T
- Steve the Black Guy
- A death faked, perhaps (the gray car)
- A possible escape, via rope, of sheets
- A broken door
- Betrayal justified
- Part VII. Fuck it. Stupid show, etc. (p. 239)
- Some bitterness, some calculation
- Or anything that looks un-us
- More nudity, still mild
- Of color, who is of color?
- Chakka the Pakuni
- Hairy all the crotches are, bursting from panties and briefs
- The Marina
- The flying-object maneuver
- Drama or blood or his mouth foaming or
- A hundred cymbals
- Would you serve them grapes? Would that be wrong?
- "So I'm not allowed"
- Details of all this will be good
- Part VIII. We can't do anything about the excrement (p. 281)
- The Future
- "Slacker? Not me," laughs Hillman
- Meath: Oh yeah, we love that multicultural stuff
- Fill out forms
- "a nightmare WASP utopia"
- A sexual sort of lushness
- There has been Spin the Bottle
- "I don't know"
- "Thank you, Jesus"
- "I'm dying, Shal"
- Part IX. Robert Urich says no. We were so close (p. 311)
- Laura Branigan, Lori Singer, Ed Begley, Jr.
- To be thought of as smart, legitimate, permanent. So you do your little thing
- A bitchy little thing about her
- A fall
- The halls, shabbily shiny, are filled with people in small clumps
- That Polly Klaas guy giving me the finger at the trial
- Adam, by association, unimpressive
- Part X. Of course it's cold (p. 353)
- The cold when walking off the plane
- Plans for a kind of personal archaeological orgy or something, from funeral homes to John Hussa, whose mom heated milk once, after Grizzly
- Weddings
- A lesbian agnostic named Minister Lovejoy
- Chad and the copies
- Leaf pile
- Another threat
- Of course she knows
- Wouldn't everyone be able to tell?
- The water rising, as if under it already
- Part XI. Black Sands Beach is (p. 407)
- No hands
- Down the hill, the walk
- Not NAMBLA
- Birthday, parquet
- Skye
- Hot, poisoned blood
- Jail, bail, the oracle
- More maneuvers
- A fight
- Finally, finally
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Author notes provided by Syndetics
Dave Eggers was born on March 12th, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts. His family moved to Lake Forest, Illinois when he was a child. Eggers attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, until his parents' deaths in 1991 and 1992. The loss left him responsible for his eight-year-old brother and later became the inspiration for his highly acclaimed memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". Published in 2000, the memoir was nominated for a nonfiction Pulitzer the following year.Eggers edits the popular "The Best American Nonrequired Reading" published annually. In 1998, he founded the independent publishing house, McSweeney's which publishes a variety of magazines and literary journals. Eggers has also opened several nonprofit writing centers for high school students across the United States.
Eggers has written several novels and his title, A Hologram for the King, was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. His most recent work of fiction, entitled The Circle, was published in 2013. His recent nonfiction books are The Monk of Mokha (January 2018) and What Can a Citizen Do? (Illustrated by Shawn Harris)(September 2018).
(Bowker Author Biography)