A Staggering Review of A Heartbreaking Work

27Sep07

Despite the adage, we do judge books by their covers.  Today it is my duty to judge a book because of its cover and the words on it.  Dave Eggers’ triumphant debut is a medium-sized novel with austere cover art featuring a crimson sash or curtain on the left and a somewhat cloudy sky on the right.  The sun, nestled toward the bottom, is obscured by orange clouds.  Setting or rising?  Can’t tell.  If one were to judge from this cover what he might find inside, I imagine he would expect the verbose renderings of an arcane British writer, another coming of age story filled with grandiose themes.  In short, the painting belongs on a Dickens book.  But the painting is fine, the words that are the problem.Inside it serves up a postmodern reality-suspension blended with traditional linear, factual autobiography.  MMMM, tasty.  It is tart, with flavors both sour and sweet.  It details a sad true (though elaborated) story of the death of the author’s parents and his assuming responsibility for his younger brother, Toph, while Dave is himself a youth.  Eggers’ self-effacing, furious prose separates it from the unending mounds of tear-jerkers.  His sadness is never depressed, on the contrary it’s manic and funny and irreverent.  Death is the backdrop against which stands out dazzling, breathtaking expressions of completely affirmed, meaningful life.  Inside the cover one finds a good read, truly fun.This is precisely why I feel cheated. It suffers in just the way it succeeds.  Books with well-mannered titles aren’t going to get noticed among the scads of others.  And this one is noticeable for its title.  This one promises the moon.  It is a girl dressed to the nines at a casual party.  A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, as a title its beauty is unparalleled.  But its title is also a promise on which, I’m sorry to say, the book does not make good.  While containing heartbreaking sections, the work as a whole fails to be heartbreaking.  Its author is obviously talented, but graced with genius he is not.  In summary, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a charming work which is still recommendable though its substance is overshot by the grandeur of the title. 

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