#110 in Biography & memoir
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
- 437
- Pages
- about 8 h
- Reading time
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” is a grief memoir so digressive and self-aware that its voice either charms readers or wears them out. Eggers recounts raising his younger brother after their parents’ deaths in a restless, playful style, diagrams included, and some readers delight in it throughout. Others hear mostly rambling and self-pity. A book for those who enjoy a narrator thinking aloud.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a memoir by Dave Eggers. Published in 2000, it chronicles his stewardship of his younger brother Christopher "Toph" Eggers following the cancer-related deaths of his parents.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.5 across 337 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 70% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Biography & memoir average of 8.1. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 33 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 7.5 | 304 | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius?
It has 437 pages — longer than 83% of the ranked books in Biography & memoir.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Biography & memoir — with scores between 7.5 and 7.9, closest to this book.
