Men’s Group - January 2007 - “Fame”
Mark K December 20th, 2006
The title of the book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius says it all. Is this a book written by an incredibly self-absorbed twenty-something who thinks that the world should pay homage to his greatness before he actually accomplishes anything, or is it a tongue-in-cheek, clever satire about the author and his generation? We’ll also take a look at a young man’s brush with fame from an earlier generation with the film “Almost Famous”. Does each of us have a secret desire to be famous and a feeling that it’s just a matter of time before the world appreciates our greatness? This is the kind of question that we hope to explore during our January meeting.
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- Comments(3)
Wow, that’s one tough book. The one concept that really sticks from the title is ‘heartbreaking’… and probable also ‘genius’ actually. I look forward to reading what you all make of it. Hell of a book. Very interesting guy.
Ben - I’d love to hear more about which parts you found to be tough. This is my third attempt at reading it - the first two times I made it through the tough parts about the illness of his parents (and even found myself laughing out loud despite myself at some of the humor he finds in dark situations), but gave up when I got to the part where he is using his tragedy as a strategy to promote his own projects. This time, I’m determined to read the whole book, and maybe even try out some of his recipes!
It’s a long time since I read it, but yes, the death of his parents is tough. And he does indeed use the death of his parents as a way of promoting himself, though in a way it also seems to be a case of him thinking he deserves the success he gets after so much crappy stuff has happened to him, and maybe in a way he is right. But he is also evidently a very imaginitive and creative person who manages to fulfil some of his dreams. The parts about him bringing up his little brother were often fun and very endearing if I remember rightly.
To be honest I don’t know if I could ever read it again.