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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (or AHWoSG) is a memoir by Dave Eggers released in 2000. It chronicles his stewardship of younger brother Christopher "Toph" Eggers following the cancer-related deaths of his parents. Image File history File links Ahwosg. ...
Dave Eggers at the 2005 Hay Festival Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
As a literary genre, a memoir (from the Latin memoria, meaning memory) forms a subclass of autobiography, although it is an older form of writing. ...
Jean-François Millet Le Semeur (The Sower) Simon & Schuster logo, circa 1961. ...
Random House is a publishing division of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann based in New York City. ...
As a literary genre, a memoir (from the Latin memoria, meaning memory) forms a subclass of autobiography, although it is an older form of writing. ...
Dave Eggers at the 2005 Hay Festival Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. ...
See also: 1999 in literature, other events of 2000, 2001 in literature, list of years in literature. ...
In general stewardship is responsibility for taking good care of resources entrusted to one. ...
Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ...
The book was an enormous commercial and critical success, reaching number one on The New York Times bestseller list and being nominated as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Time Magazine and several newspapers dubbed it "The Best Book of the Year." Critics praised the book for its wild, vibrant prose, and it was described as "big, daring [and] manic-depressive" by The New York Times. The New York Times Best Seller List is a weekly chart in The New York Times newspaper that keeps track of the best-selling books of the week. ...
The gold medal awarded for Public Service in Journalism The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical compositions. ...
(Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
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Plot synopsis
In Chicago, Illinois, Dave Eggers and his siblings, Bill, Beth and Toph (who is 13 years younger than his next-eldest sibling, Dave) endure the sudden death of their father due to lung cancer. Thirty-two days later, their mother dies from stomach cancer after a long struggle. Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 606. ...
Lung cancer is the malignant transformation and expansion of lung tissue, and is the most lethal of all cancers worldwide, responsible for up to 3 million deaths annually. ...
Stomach cancer (also called gastric cancer) can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus and the small intestine. ...
Afterwards, Dave, Beth and Toph (of whom Beth is now legal guardian) move to California. Bill, who does not play a large role in the plot, eventually moves to L.A. though the rest of the family is in the Bay Area. A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. ...
Dave and Toph begin living on their own in a dilapidated, untamed fashion. Dave struggles between moments of feeling that his approach to parenting is calculated and brilliantly designed to make Toph well adjusted to worrying that his hands off approach or commitment to personal projects will make Toph maladjusted. Dave's own attempts to lead a normal life as a young adult often involve surrealist encounters with women and alcohol. He is both guilty for leaving Toph and damaged by his parents' death, and this fuels his pursuit of sex and irresponsibility.
Dave and his friends organize an independent magazine called Might in San Francisco and become engrossed in the Generation X culture. The name suggests both "strength" and "possibility". See the article on Might magazine as much of history of the magazine is portrayed by the book. Dave also auditions for MTV's The Real World in a development on the theme of exhibitionism. Might is a now defunct magazine founded by Dave Eggers in the early 90s, the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This magazine can be described as an effort of 20-somethings to say something, instead of nothing. ...
This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...
For other uses of the word, see Generation X (disambiguation). ...
MTV (Music Television) is an American cable television network headquartered in New York City. ...
The Real World is a reality television program on MTV originally executive produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray and produced and directed by George Verschoor. ...
Fiction or non-fiction? A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is usually classified as a memoir or autobiography, and its foundation is certainly laid in true events. However, Eggers takes great creative liberties. He often writes wild, tangential fantasy scenes. He occasionally "compresses" time, making events in the book closer in time to one another than they actually were to enhance the flow of the story. As a literary genre, a memoir (from the Latin memoria, meaning memory) forms a subclass of autobiography, although it is an older form of writing. ...
Cover of An autobiography, from the Greek auton, self, bios, life and graphein, write, is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled as told to or with). The term dates from the late eighteenth century, but the form is much older. ...
He also sometimes has characters lapse into breaking the fourth wall by acknowledging their existence within the book at several points when talking to Eggers. In these cases, the characters often abandon their typical real-life personalities and characteristics, becoming tools with which Eggers can express and analyze his own thoughts and feelings in an "internal" dialogue, or vehicles for self-criticism. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
This article belongs in one or more categories. ...
Self-criticism (or auto-critique) refer to criticizing ones own beliefs, thoughts, actions, behaviour or results; it could occur in private or in public. ...
Eggers points out to his readers what parts of the book were fictionalized or exaggerated in the course of the book and the preface, and the shifts from actual conversations to mere dramatizations of Eggers's thought processes are dramatic enough to be quickly recognizable when they occur, though other fictionalized aspects of the book are not always as easy to spot.
Preface and addenda Unusually (but typical of Eggers's comedic style), the book includes lengthy preface and acknowledgement sections, a list of tips to help better enjoy the book (including several tips not to bother reading large sections of the book), and a guide to its symbols and metaphors. Look up metaphor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Later printings of the book also include an addendum called Mistakes We Knew We Were Making, which details some of the deliberate omissions and composite events that made the book flow easier.
Film adaptation In 2002, New Line Cinema bought the rights to adapt the book into a film. The screenplay was written by novelist Nick Hornby and screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis. Several directors have expressed interest in the film, but none have thus far signed on, and the fate of the film remains uncertain. Eggers has said that, if the film is made, he will be a producer for it. This is a list of film-related events in 2002. ...
New Line Cinema logo New Line Cinema, founded in 1967, is one of the major American film studios. ...
A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ...
Nick Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English novelist and essayist who lives in Highbury, Islington in London. ...
Trivia On the episode "Kiss kiss bang bang," during season 4 of Dawson's Creek (11/29/2000). Dawson critically acclaims a movie by calling it, "a heartbreaking work of staggering genius," in reference to the book, which had been released earlier in the year and was doing very well at the time.
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