Dave Eggers, A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS

Oh, this was a good one. I'd had it on my shelf for a while and finally pulled it out. The title hints at the very funny (sometimes bordering on manic) kind of self-reflexive humor throughout the book. On the one hand it's about a 22-year-old who loses both his parents to cancer within 5 weeks; he's left with an older brother (who works at a think tank), an older sister (law school), and a younger brother (Toph, age 9). The protagonist has to adopt the role of the father to his younger brother. So that's part of the story; the other part is about overturning, playing with the expectations of trite novels about death (a la Princess Bride!). I loved it, even if at times it cut rather close to the bone because my father died this past May. For those who liked DEAR AMERICAN AIRLINES, this might be a good next pick. Has anybody out there read Eggers' most recent?