What Was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius?
March 05, 2025 at 01:31AMTwenty-five years ago, Dave Eggers’ literary debut won its author instant fame and cultural ubiquity. These days, however, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius quietly moves just a few copies each day, its fanfare long since diminished. As the anniversary of its publication quietly passes by, Dan Kois considers the disparate impacts of Eggers’ memoir, which inspired a generation of would-be writers and gave rise to a mighty literary empire, even as its creator struggled openly and passionately with the consequences of his creative act.
For much of 2000, the memoir was everywhere. It was a 14-week New York Times bestseller, a Times best book of the year, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It swept through the media gossip ecosystem like a wildfire and made Eggers an inspirational figure, the target of envy, a literary crush object. It was so famous that when the producers of Friends wanted viewers to know that Tom Selleck’s character was an OK guy, even though he was Chandler’s rival, they put a copy of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius on his coffee table.
AHWOSG, as everyone, including its author, called it, launched Eggers’ career, one that’s seen him publish dozens of books, write screenplays, oversee a literary magazine and publishing company, and launch a nonprofit that’s helped hundreds of thousands of children become better writers. All those things happened because the book was a phenomenon—and a quarter century later, it seems clear that phenomenon is as much part of the book’s legacy as its literary risk-taking. This isn’t only because of the unlikelihood of an innovative, challenging book by a previously obscure author becoming a huge success. It’s because AHWOSG gave 29-year-old Dave Eggers everything that 23-year-old Dave Eggers ever dreamed of—and it was terrible.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/03/04/what-was-a-heartbreaking-work-of-staggering-genius/
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