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{"id":2442,"date":"2010-11-09T07:56:57","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T13:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=2442"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:00:45","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:00:45","slug":"im-a-lot-like-dave-eggers-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2010\/11\/09\/im-a-lot-like-dave-eggers-seriously\/","title":{"rendered":"I'm A Lot Like Dave Eggers. Seriously."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s taken me slightly less long to complete Dave Eggers\u2019s masterful, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The book chronicles Eggers\u2019s early twenties, during which both his parents died and he was left to raise his adolescent brother (along with his older sister, who eventually committed suicide, and brother, who only helped out on occasion).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Eggers\u2019s book was a smashing success, and I imagine that many of my readers are aware of it and have even read it.\u00a0 So I won\u2019t waste your time recounting the plotline.\u00a0 Instead, I\u2019ll muse in an existential way (which, I think, is in keeping with Eggers\u2019s own posture in the book).<\/p>\n

As I read AHWOSG, I couldn\u2019t help but thinking over and over again, This guy is writing non-fiction. That\u2019s what I do, too.\u00a0 But I think he\u2019s better at it than me. Way, way better.<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, like anyone, I have moments whenever I am engaged with the work of someone who does the same thing as me when I wonder, Who\u2019s better at this, me or him\/her?<\/em> But with this book, it was different.\u00a0 Because instead of asking myself, Could I ever write this well?<\/em>, I had to ask myself, Could I ever be this honest?<\/em><\/p>\n

Eggers stream-of-consciousness narrative goes so deep into his psyche that the Wikipedia entry<\/a> says the book is better classified as \u201ccreative non-fiction\u201d than it is as memoir, a genre which itself allows a great deal of latitude to the writer.\u00a0 He has a dialogue with his younger brother, for instance, that leaves the realm of remembered conversation and goes deeply down the rabbit-hole of Eggers\u2019s psyche.\u00a0 The tricky part \u2014 and the testament of Eggers\u2019s brilliance as a writer \u2014 is that you cannot quite tell when the actual conversation ends and the fictionalized conversation begins.<\/p>\n

I agree with the many reviewers who say that the end of the book, an adolescent screed by Eggers, doesn\u2019t really work.\u00a0 But that\u2019s a trifle in the context of the book as a whole which successful bends the autobiography\/memoir category beyond its postmodern breaking point, and yet doesn\u2019t break it.\u00a0 Only a brilliant writer could do such a thing.<\/p>\n

Maybe if I keep telling myself I\u2019m like Eggers long enough, I eventually will be.\u00a0 Hey, a guy can always hope!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"