A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius cover art

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

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About this listen

At the age of 22, David Eggers became both an orphan and a "single mother" when his parents died within five months of one another of unrelated cancers.

David is appointed unofficial guardian of his eight-year-old brother, Christopher. The two live together in semi-squalor, decaying food and sports equipment scattered about, while Eggers worries obsessively about child-welfare authorities, molesting babysitters, and his own health.

Contains Strong Language

©2001 David ("Dave") K. Eggers (P)2010 Recorded Books LLC
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Funny, sad, then funny again this book is throughly recommended. The narration is a staggering genius.

Staggering

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Stumbled across this by accident. What a find!! laugh out loud funny but also very moving. A fantastic listen..

rantastic

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Dion Graham's narration helped me stay with the stream of consciousness style and brought warmth to Dave's character. If I'd been reading the book, I'm not sure I would have found that warmth.

That said, I had to give up half way through. Dave's character is so needy, so self absorbed that I couldn't spend any more time with him.

A great performance by Dion Graham

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I stuck with it for about the first third of the book.

My congratulations to the narrator for an excellent reading of this novel. For me, the book, which attempts to make a virtue of it's self conscious, self referential story, is tiresome in the extreme. Others will probably find it witty and amusing. As they say; your mileage may vary.

Embarrassing

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