A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Themes

In A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers challenges the validity of his own autobiographical project. As early as the “Acknowledgements” section, which precedes the book’s first chapter, he refers to memoir writing as “inherently vile.” Despite his distaste for the genre, though, he still indulges his impulse to examine his life. He even points out that, although memoirs are perhaps “wrong and evil and bad […] we could all do worse, as…

In A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Eggers ties the idea of youth to a sense of possibility. When he is only twenty-one years old, he becomes the primary caretaker of his eight-year-old brother, Toph, because their parents both die within five weeks of one another. This is overwhelming at first, but in the aftermath of losing his parents, Eggers finds himself adopting a sense of optimism about the future. Rather than succumbing…

In A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Eggers pays close attention to the identities people assume and the roles that they or others attach to these identities. Eggers himself straddles multiple personas, simultaneously fulfilling the role of a responsible guardian and a wayward bachelor. Naturally, he often finds it difficult to concentrate on each identity, especially since they are so distinct. Of course, his priorities as Toph’s caretaker consume his daily life, but…

Eggers tells many stories about other people in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but he also feels guilty about this aspect of his project. First and foremost, he worries about what his parents would think of his decision to publicly recount their final days. He frets that they would hate him for putting their stories into the world, stories that don’t fully belong to him even though he was present as they unfolded…