A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: A

So after I read this book I, naturally, wanted to write a review for it on my Blog. I said "yeah this will be great!". And then I started writing. You must know that this book is hard to write about, but I will try. So here goes:

We are told a story, in ironic detachment, about a man in his early twenties, half-way through college, whose parents die of cancer 5-weeks apart. Bam. He is left with an older brother, an older sister, and a much younger little brother. The little brother is his to raise. And we are to get the sense that he raises his brother with a zeal, a desperate need, to right past mistakes. But mistakes of whom? And why? Eventually we are shown just how deep the author's wounds run. Just how horrifying his past and his addiction to exist in chaos are. But we are also shown another deep running feeling. His love for his family, and most of all his little brother. Who he constantly refers to as "perfect" "golden" "amazing" "beautiful" "sage-wise" and any number of other things. However this book would be a big crazy mess if not held together by his ferocious insight and intense wit.

There are two ways to live life. Self-consiously, or Self-devouringly. As the author transistions from the former to the latter, and sinks deeper into the pain he so long held back we discover more and more of his addictions, his cravings, his lust, and his love. And we are drawn into it and become it. For all of it's unruly structure, insanely irritating mis-prints of fact (minor characters names change in a space of a few pages), and too long running clever literary devices (did we really need a Real World interview to run on for 40 pages?) I can honestly say that this book is truly a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.