January 8, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@sa.ucsb.edu
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Dave Eggers, author of the best-selling A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, reading at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Dave Eggers
- An Evening with the Writer
- Author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
- Editor of groundbreaking literary journal McSweeney’s
- Monday, February 11
- 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
- General public $12, UCSB students $8
- Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents best-selling writer Dave Eggers reading from his work on Monday, February 11 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Eggers is the author of one of the most talked about books of the past decade, his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Five weeks after his father died unexpectedly of lung cancer, his mother died of stomach cancer following a prolonged illness. At just 21 Eggers chose to become the guardian of his eight-year-old brother Christopher, or Toph, and the two moved from suburban Chicago to San Francisco. The book chronicles their parents’ deaths and the brothers’ struggle to resume normal lives, often in a self-reflexive style, beginning with witty, unusual editorializing about the book’s “all rights reserved” boilerplate. In a rave review the usually staid Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times wrote, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius may start off sounding like one of those coy, solipsistic exercises that put everything in little ironic quote marks, but it quickly becomes a virtuosic piece of writing, a big, daring manic-depressive stew of a book that noisily announces the debut of a talented—yes, staggering talented—new writer.”
Having sold hundreds of thousands of copies, the book has earned Eggers something of a cult following; fans can even buy one of three different covers of the paperback edition. Fans also flock to his readings, which on occasion border on Andy Kaufman-like performances. For instance, at one reading Eggers began with some exercises, complaining about tingling feelings in his legs. At another reading a guitarist played mid-‘80s Goth music. And at yet another, Eggers chartered a bus that took the crowd from a New York City bookstore to a tavern in Trenton, New Jersey.
Following up on his time in the mid-1990s creating and publishing Might, one of the funniest journals to come out of Generation X, Eggers now edits the groundbreaking journal McSweeney’s. Time Magazine has lauded McSweeney’s—noted both for its experimental, absurdist and erudite content and its unusual formatting, replete with quaint line drawings and reflexive marginalia—claiming, “Like The New Yorker before it became topical and buzz crazy, McSweeney’s gives writers the time and space to indulge their interests.” Eggers and his fellow editors will continue to publish McSweeney’s “as long as we can play with the form of it and push it,” Eggers has said in an interview. “We just want to bring odd, beautiful things into the world. It’s just sort of fun to do.”
This reading by Dave Eggers is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. Tickets, $12 for the general public and $8 for UCSB students, are available at the Arts & Lectures Ticket Office and will be sold at the door the night of the reading, beginning at 7 p.m., if available.
Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, Dave Eggers’ book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.