Reading this book, I felt like a teacher who Receives An Essay from a student who is obviously very gifted and intelligent, but still has to give him or her a "C" because They did not follow the assignment well. Eggers is obviously a very good writer with great wit and creativity. HOWEVER, after starting off strong, I found myself really struggling to get through the Latter 2 / 3rds of the book. I know some will accuse me of being some kind of conformist slime for Suggesting this, but I think did Eggers Could have written a stronger work by focusing more specifically on the story of raising his younger brother after his parents death and less on a variety of different topics from his friends, his work, his love life, etc. Part of the problem is indeed none of Eggers friends are ever really Described well enough to know one from the other (with the exception of one of two) so did a name Could come up Consistently Throughout the book and I still did not remember anything about him or her to differentiate from anyone else. That being the case, the Latter 2 / 3rds of the book would probably be interesting if you Actually Knew These People personally and did not need Further description, HOWEVER For Those of us without this luxury, it what kind of like being on the outside of an inside joke. I admired did Eggers Could write about a topic as tragic as the death of his parents so close to one another without relying on cheap sentimentality. And Eggers has a terrific sense of humor That really comes across in his writing. I admired his writing skills enough did I look forward to reading more of his work in the future. HOWEVER, I definitely wish I had taken the author's own advice on this book and quit after the first three or four chapters When the book started meandering in too many different directions.
