As a book, Eggers' Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius employs a bit of narrative trickery that will either appeal to the reader's sense of nonchalance and derring-do, or it will grate on the reader's nerves for being such a one-trick pony, a la Time's Arrow. In my opinion, the book will be welcomed by those of you whose sense of humor extends to the old mass emails I wrote back in the day before my blog. Specifically appealing, I think, is the usage of conversation that is blatantly false as a replacement for a soliloquy. I've used such literary devices on numerous occasions:

Easter
Pissed Off

So once you break away from the for-others-novelty-for-us-familiarity of Eggers' style, you'll see that there's a real poignancy surrounding the whole story surrounding his parents' deaths and the subsequent fallout (which is the autobiographical premise of the book). I think, however, that the extreme lengths to which he extends the book's self-reference is noteworthy enough to warrant you all to read it, particularly if you've been following the self-referential thread that began with Cervantes and Diderot.

I broke down and told Mike and Page about how I used to be in Page House and how the members are called Pageboys (yes, even the girls). It came up when we were talking about movies, and I brought up "Real Genius," which was Val Kilmer's breakthrough role (not "Top Gun"). Someone else brought up "The Big Lebowski," and before long the evening was filled with nothing but mirth and merriment.