What did you think of the Savage review? Have you read any other reviews? I've read a few, and none of them seem to have anything very insightful to say. I think Kim may be right; Eggers may have effectively cut off any meaningful criticism of his book by being so self aware and self referential. Most of the reviews I've read seem to simply quote and summarize the book, without a lot of real insight.

I'm not sure I could do any better. I'm about three quarters of the way through the book, and I'm find it hard to come up with things to say about it.

-- Beth (beth@xeney.com), March 14, 2000

Answers

After hearing Eggers on Fresh Air and reading many other reviews, I found the Dan Savage review in Salon absolutely hilarious. "In no way can this review harm Mr. Eggers, something that I, as a fellow writer, instinctively wish to do" -- talk about right on target, ala The Information by Martin Amis.

Love or hate Savage, especially in light of the recent flu-virus- spreading episode, this guy doesn't tiptoe around those things that everyone wants to say, but doesn't have the guts to.

-- Sarah (sarah@schismatic.com), March 14, 2000.

I confess that Savage's review went right over my head and I have no clue what he was trying to say - or was he trying to say anything? I think he was drowning in his own attempt at cleverness.

The other stuff, I'm putting in the Eggers' forum proper.

-- gabby (gabby@enteract.com), March 14, 2000.

Savage's review left me stumped as well, but I'm sure that was his intention. I'm left wondering if he liked the book, or is subtly ridiculing it, or both. God I love irony. It leaves me in a drowsy, confused haze, sor t of like salmonella poisoning but without the vomiting. Whatever Savage meant by this, the end result is that I ended up combing his review 10 times trying to figure out what he was up to, which means Snarky Reviewer 1, Befuddled Reader 0.

-- Bryan (bryan@byunomatic.com), March 14, 2000.

I decided that I was trying to hard to make something of the Savage review just because I know that Savage never writes anything as boring as that review appeared to be on the surface.

Maybe he just wrote a boring review about a book that's not very easy to review.

-- Beth (beth@xeney.com), March 14, 2000.

Given the whole flu virus fiasco, not to mention his column in general, I think Savage's main objective in anything he writes is to annoy, agitate, and generally piss off the reader, and anything else comes a rather distant second. In this sense I'd say he's brilliant.

-- Bryan (bryan@byunomatic.com), March 14, 2000.

I took Savage's review as sarcastic stab at oh-so-polite lit crit, with a dash of "snarkiness" thrown in due to the fawning praise this book has garnered.

-- Sarah (sarah@schismatic.com), March 14, 2000.

I didn't really get the Savage review. I enjoyed it, I like his writing, but I missed his point.

-- Mary Ellen (mary_ellen@mindspring.com), March 15, 2000.