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The San Francisco Panorama.
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- - - - Copyright 2001 San Francisco Chronicle
- - - - SECTION: DAILY DATEBOOK; Pg. D1 LENGTH: 996 words HEADLINE: Eggers Surprised By Success; Author to read from 'Staggering Genius' SOURCE: Chronicle Staff Writer BYLINE: James Sullivan BODY:
Readers and critics, however, have been dazzled by Eggers' wryly titled "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." The surprise best-seller has sold 300,000 copies to date, the paperback is just out with three separate cover designs, and New Line Cinema paid $2 million for movie rights. The author reads tonight at City Lights and tomorrow at All Saints' Church. By turns riotously funny and every bit as moving as the title implies, the memoir details the author's struggles to raise his younger brother after both their parents died of cancer. The story takes place in the Bay Area, where Eggers moved from Chicago with a few friends and founded the short-lived, sorely missed humor magazine Might. The writer, returning to the Bay Area after a stint in New York, now publishes an offbeat quarterly called McSweeney's (online at www.mcsweeneys.net). In February, the Eggers book was back in the news when the author had a high-profile run-in with a New York Times reporter over a story about the paperback publication. He agreed to participate in this interview via e-mail. Q: You sent your story out into the world, and the world devoured it. Were you prepared for the public side of your life? A: I never expected more than a Might-sized audience -- mostly prisoners and grad students -- to read the thing. I completely didn't expect older readers to have any interest at all. But once it started selling well, I braced myself. And as much as I thought I could predict what would happen and why, the good stuff and the bad, I was surprised again and again. It's been an almost entirely positive thing -- people I meet are so astoundingly kind. I don't know where all these people came from. Q: Were you reluctant to use the word "memoir"? A: I'm not such a fan of the word. I've never read a memoir, actually, outside of M. McCarthy's. I didn't think the term -- which evokes tell-alls by Golden Era film stars -- really applied to my book, especially after I removed the scenes with me and Esther Williams. Q: What's next? A: I'm trying to finish a book that will, I'm thinking, be shelved in the fiction aisle. But the distinctions seem sort of meaningless. The two genres -- literary nonfiction and fiction -- are like fraternal twins. You can barely tell them apart. Q: There has been an almost inordinate amount of attention paid to the business end of your book -- your unconventional publishing ideas, your publishers' willingness to accommodate them, your movie deal. Is it misguided? A: I think people have been attentive to it all because with Might and with McSweeney's, we've been fairly determined not to make any money. So when my book did well, people wondered what the hell was happening. But I am interested in the hows of making things, the economics of putting books together. At McSwys we're trying to take that whole process apart, to see if there's a better way to do it, to make things more comfortable for writers and the relationship between reader and writer more direct. Q: Are there aspects of celebrity that you find yourself enjoying? A: The success of the book has enabled us, with McSwys, to do a lot of the stuff we like to do. We'll publish 10 books this year, and that makes us happy. We opened a little store that sells taxidermy supplies. And my family's been able to give away money. That's nice -- to be able to redirect money that you don't deserve or need. Q: How does your particular Bay Area differ from the cliches? A: The weird thing is that it doesn't. I like it for all the cliched reasons. I like the hills. I like the raw surf. I like the bridges. I have nothing new to say about it, I'm afraid. Q: Given your experience, are you more or less inclined toward actual parenting? A: Just about everyone I know is pregnant, so I guess I'm slow. But I'm no less inclined generally. I plan to have about eight of the suckers and use them as an excuse to put off work. Q: Your book has been cited as a distinct product of turn-of-the-century America. Is it ominous to think of yourself in terms of the superstar-generation writers, both good and bad? A: I guess it can be a horrible curse. But I knew that going in. I knew I was writing stuff that would probably make me cringe in a year. It already makes me cringe. Q: What's the status of a potential movie version of the book? A: We're proceeding with the original plans -- to set it in the year 2067, after a crazy virus has killed all the good-looking people. Samuel L. Jackson has tentatively agreed to play me, though there'll have to be some tweaking of the story line to accommodate him. For example, instead of working at a magazine with his friends, he'll be with an elite CIA outfit full of young women and dog-men. It'll be great. Everyone's excited. Q: Is Iceland (where McSweeney's is printed) really as happening as the Brits claim? A: I don't spend much time in Reykjavik, so I'm the wrong guy to ask about the social life. When we go, we drive around in the fjords, through the interior, which is like the moon and Arizona and Mongolia combined. The only problem is the prices. The place is way too expensive -- an orange will cost you about $120. Q: You once wrote marketing slogans for The Chronicle. Anything you're especially proud of? A: Nothing I did there was very memorable. I was thankful every day I wasn't canned.. - - - - READINGS DAVE EGGERS reads from his book "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" at 7 p.m. tonight at City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco. Call (415) 362-8193. He reads at 7 p.m. tomorrow in a Booksmith-sponsored event at All Saints' Church, 1350 Waller St., San Francisco. Call (415) 863-8688. GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Dave Eggers - - - -
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