July 7, 2005
Dave Eggers Fair Fan
Jill Brooks, INtake columnist

Web surfing is an occurrence that usually confounds me, because when faced with ephemeral and rare free time, I can’t think, off the top of my head, of anything worth learning in slight.

Incredulous to the phenomenon of free time, I feel hurried and pressured to unravel quality, searchable items (Quick: the French Revolution; no, no, nuclear physics; no, Greek mythology). The exasperated teacher in my head shouts “Time is up: turn your test over now” while the Wicked Witch’s hourglass nears its lowery end.

But the other day with ten minutes burning a hole in my schedule, I Googled the author “Dave Eggers.”

Never cutting-edge, always six months to a year behind best sellers (I was only 70 years late reading The Grapes of Wrath), I recently finished the book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Mr. Eggers.

This book rushed over me like water cleans a chalkboard full of math problems, a rare gem reconnecting me to life. It acknowledged that it’s OK to care so much about, well, pretty much everything, or sometimes nothing at all.

I read the last two chapters slowly, and after completing the book I set it in my window sill along with the other books that, as a late bloomer, I finally accomplished. But A. H. B. W. O. S. G. has been haunting me for days. I stare at its binding, and the tattered pages (I am hard on books) call for me to stop by once in a while, catch up.

I have actually stooped to self-propelled long-version daydreams where I pick up the book and discover an extra chapter, a long chapter I somehow missed; uncovering said chapter I’m throttled into disproportionate pleasure and hysteria.

I need to get out more, make new friends.

Besides staggering and genius, Dave Eggers is philanthropic. In the back of a pirate-themed retail store in San Francisco (they think the Midwest is strange) is nestled a writing/tutoring program for city youth ages 8-18, called 826 Valencia, which he founded. The program now has locations in several major US cities, some also fronting wacky stores (the one in Brooklyn, New York fronts a super hero supply company; Seattle’s sells items for prospective space travelers).

Indianapolis has several fetching creative writing programs as well: The Writer’s Center of Indianapolis, most notably. Classes are affordable and exhilarating, and one can only hope a rock star supply store may someday ensue. Their website www.indianawriters.org has links to many other great writing programs available throughout the city.