Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: The Game of Pain Sara Miner College

Dave Eggers is a playful author, wiling to experiment and take risks for his audience. At the same time, Eggers is aware of his ploys and sometimes uses these games as a way to pawn off the tragedies that happened to him over the course of the book. While gamesmanship and pain seem mutually exclusive, in Dave Eggers’ case, they are far from. Eggers uses unconventional formatting and the use of a double narrative to better exemplify the uniqueness and intricacies of the tragedies he experiences, proving that pain and humor can coexist. Particularly within the front matter of the book, Eggers explores his self-conscious relationship to the hardships he faces to both mask and uncover vulnerability; he combines humor and games with suffering to prove he has nothing to prove.

Eggers begins his book with a page left entirely blank except for large letters centered in the middle of the page reading, “THIS WAS UNCALLED FOR.” This can be read in a variety of ways. Eggers was not asked to write this book. Eggers feels guilty for writing this book. Eggers or others are angry about this book’s publication or what it says. The entire memoir can be read in reference to this first note. Several times, Eggers refers back to it indirectly...