God bless Dave Eggers
Thanks to Eric over at Marathonpacks for this link to Dave Eggers‘ (author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) reflections on the World Cup over on Slate:
“It was, by most accounts, 1986 when the residents of the United States became aware of the thing called the World Cup. Isolated reports came from foreign correspondents, and we were frightened by these reports, worried about domino effects, and wondered aloud if the trend was something we could stop by placing a certain number of military advisers in Cologne or Marseilles. Then, in 1990, we realized that the World Cup might happen every four years, with or without us.”
Read the whole thing here.
Plus, Eggers assigns one fictional character in his essay the name of Fakey McChumpland, which alone is reason enough to read it. This piece comes from The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup, an anthology edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey and published this month. It also includes a piece from Nick Hornby, so you know it’s good.
I LOVE Dave Eggers; A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was one of the best books I read last year (and it has gone missing from me, I think I’d best just buy a replacement). I welcome any links that you wish to send me from other Dave Eggers articles on the web that you find funny. The man is comic genius.
By the way, I am still rocking the suburbs on the World Cup bloggers pool, which is surprising even to me. Don’t worry guys, I am sure to lose soon! (but in the meantime, call me Prognosticator of Prognosticators)
Name: Heather Browne
Have you read “You Shall Know Our Velocity” yet? It’s his latest novel–I haven’t, but the excerpts I’ve read have been pretty nice. Also, it may not be all him, but a good repository of all things Eggersian and in his ‘voice’ (for good and for bad) can be found here: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/
If you’ve never been there, say goodbye to your afternoon…
-cheers
chris — June 15, 2006 @ 12:04 pm
even though i’m english i couldnt give tuppence for football nor the world cup but..talking of the usa’s soccer team, have you ever heard the album by Alex Lalas, Ginger,(i believe the man scored against england in the world cup one time.) anyway, the album, on which he plays most of the instruments and writes all the songs is a damn fine piece of high energy melodic power pop, just a notch below Jason Falkner or some such, it really is that good. no honest. can anyone think of another sports personality that has ever produced music that is actually good? ever? oh right yes there is Sam Roberts, didn’t he used to be a famous ice hockey player or something? anyway Other than Sam Roberts can anyone…etc etc…
Mick Dillingham
ps just found the man called E kcrw post over at Dont Need Anything… it is brilliant
Anonymous — June 15, 2006 @ 12:49 pm
Velocity is quite good and, sorry to be redundant, hang out at McSweeney’s site, that’s his baby…one of these days I’ll see him, he lives in Brooklyn and frequents NYC lit events. He really is a wonderful writer.
Oxypoet — June 15, 2006 @ 5:37 pm
Eggers is great. I saw him speak back that the U of I a few years ago reading excerpts from “Heartbreaking Work.” “velocity” is fantastic, I’d recommend it to anyone. His recently released collection of short stories is awesome too.
Eric — June 15, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
I need to get around to reading AHWOSG one of these days. I loved Velocity! I’ll watch out for this book.
cheers from your fellow leader board topper.
Jim el Buho — June 16, 2006 @ 12:05 am
Heather,
Love your site! Unbelievable, the way you’re kicking ass in the soccer pool. You’re a hustler, aren’t you
As they say “it’s a long season”. Looking forward to round 2…
- Steve
rocknrollstar — June 16, 2006 @ 12:52 am
I’ll echo the praise for Velocity… one of the greatest events I’ve ever attended was in San francisco as part of the City Arts and Lecture series, a interview where Eggers interviewed David Byrne. I would pay good money to see that again… Both of them are quite amazing in their own rights.
Many of the other writers publuished by McSweeneys are also worth checking out… Eggers has also been known to publish from time to time in The Believer (McSweeney’s published magazine). He had a particularly good series about a young refugee from Sudan – supposedly an excerpt from a forthcoming biography, but it was published in 2004 and I haven’t see any evidence of the book. Check out part of the article here: http://www.believermag.com/issues/200403/?read=article_eggers
Oh yeah – and thanks for an awesome site. Keep up the great work.
preston
Anonymous — June 16, 2006 @ 6:43 am
I second (third?) the recommendation for “. . . Velocity,” but Eggers’ newest is actually a wonderful volume of stories called “How We Are Hungry,” which you can pick up here: http://store.mcsweeneys.net/index.cfm/fuseaction/catalog.detail/object_id/7AFD5F72-97A1-45C0-909C-70D110DAB4CE/HowWeAreHungry.cfm
Frank — June 16, 2006 @ 12:06 pm
speaking of mcsweeneys and eggers (although he had nothing to do with this particular story), you should check out this story, entitled “Less Popular Game Show Catchphrases.” I know you like stupid humor Heather, this one makes me squeal.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2006/6/6sackstravelstead.html
superclea — June 17, 2006 @ 8:50 am
The “addendum” to this interview is my favorite thing Dave Eggers has ever written.
Dave Eggers on “selling out”
Ryan — June 17, 2006 @ 12:56 pm