The First Review of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
An Autobiography of Dave Eggers

Reviewed for the first time
by Andrea Nicolay
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March 28, 2000 | Page 1, 2

Fellow generation cohorts, there are certain starts, occasions, movements, very small or very large, whether of a political, cultural, social or fashion-oriented nature, that you enjoy taking personal credit for. Depending on how public you are about claiming these things, the copyrights are debatable.

Back in '96, I was the first girl on campus-I swear to god-who wore 99-cent flip flops to class as a counter-culture fashion statement. My former roommate could testify in a court of law. I was also the first one who resurrected my mom's old Sergio Valente jeans for the purpose of dazzling people with my cutting-edge vintage savvy (just ask my friend Kelly) while everyone else was buying J. Crew jeans (and paying $10 EXTRA for distressed cuffs).

We, the authors of major and minor change, are often, and rightly, proud of our work, but even more often, we are either privately or publicly chagrined when proven false. When manifested, the realization can be ugly, can take the form of Pettiness or Smallness. But when the plagiarizer outright denies the truth, it's pretty exhilarating! I know this feeling well.

With no further ado, here is the first review of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. Number 6 on the March 12 NYT bestseller list? I have no idea how that came about, since as far as I know I am the first person to have read it. I'll concede that I read the book while I was on vacation, and therefore I think my feelings of possessive intimacy and selfish joy may have been magnified by a sense of haughty isolation; everyone else on the beach was reading Tom Clancy and Sue Grafton (fools).

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an autobiography, more or less, in which Dave Eggers chronicles the young life of Dave Eggers, who at present couldn't be a day over 30, but I'm just guessing from his author photo. In addition to being published at a major house, in hardcover, at a very young age, Eggers has had experiences that separate him from most people. Both of his parents died of cancer, 32 days apart from one another, when he was only 21, and he subsequently took responsibility (relieved, at times, by older siblings Beth and Bill) for raising his eight-year-old brother Toph. Laid bare, these events form the heartbreaking element; the major ingredients that threaten to make you cringe and cry and want to hug him.

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