Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I don't normally read non-fiction and particularly don't read biographical works. But I was attracted to Eggers' book by the overwhelming praise it received in reader reviews here at Amazon. Having said that, maybe I'm not the best person to offer an opinion on this title. I found it to be entertaining in a pure story telling manner. Even though their lives have been influenced by some horrendous events Dave and his younger brother Toph seem to have an admirable take on life. They get on with things and try to do the best they can. My quibbles with this book stem from Eggers' complete inability to distance himself from his own life to the degree that he can take an honest look at exactly what it is he is doing in writing this autobiography. He is so self-knowing and media savvy that his incessant self-examinations read as hollow attempts to wring a little more oomph out of a story that is, let's face it, hardly unique. The more I read the more manipulated I felt and the more I had to question the morality of the author. To make matters even worse, in the final pages there is a passage between Dave and his terminally self-destructive friend John that raises the very objections I had developed: John says: `It's disgusting, the whole enterprise.' And: `It's entertainment'. In both instances he is describing his reaction to Dave's chronicle. In the end I couldn't help feeling that Eggers' had perhaps played me for a fool, that I, as a reader, was despised for buying his book. That I, as a reader, was just another of the gullible clones he, through his work at Might magazine, so obviously abhors. The book reeks of cashing in - Eggers' addition of new writing to each new edition certainly doesn't tell me otherwise. I guess I'll have to be in the minority with my opinion.