Why do I like Dave Eggers?
Because the first several chapters of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius are brilliant writing, even if the book gets boring and self-absorbed when he gets to Might (ok, it’s self-absorbed all along, but I submit that there is a difference between brilliant self-absorption and boring self-absorption).
Because when we were in
Because he started 826 Valencia which is simply a great thing.
Because he is working on a non-fiction book about teacher’s salaries, an oral history book about exonerated prisoners, and a novel about the war in Sudan.
Because when he is funny, he is really funny.
Because I am in awe of his creativity and productivity, even if not everything he creates and produces is great.
How was dinner? Dave Eggers was lovely: softspoken, attentive, funny, though he did drop more names in one evening than I will probably ever drop in my life. We had a nice conversation about the growing 826 movement (coming soon in
2 comments:
When I worked at T*me Mag. he came into the art dept. for a week to do his own layouts for the excerpt of *heartbreaking work* and he had to be sequestered in the deputy a.d.'s office with a new mac. he turned in pages of dimension bearing no resemblance to a T*me page, basically huge squares...and threw somethign of a hissy fit when told they'd need to be remade by one of us art drones to work with the standard templates we used. It was very strange. Whenever I had to deal with him I was reminded of a nervous 14 year old boy who wants to stay under the radar, and be popular at the same time.
But then a few years later, I saw him on that Jon Favreau show Dinner for Five and he was a totally different persona. I'll bet dinner with him was interesting.
It is okay. I will not judge you.
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