Meeting Inspiration
I had the rare opportunity to meet Dave Eggers today, one of the great writers and advocates of my generation.
More directly, Eggers was the first person I'd ever known who found a way to express the daily frustration, anger, despair and isolation associated with being part of a challenging family.
He was signing copies of his latest book, Zeitoun, at Green Apple Books and, because he only advertised via the McSweeney's newsletter, there were only a few people there.
As the line was short, Dave took the time to chat with just about everyone, and he was as humble and open as his writing leads one to expect.
The novel that put Eggers on the literary-map was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a memoir about the loss of both parents to cancer -- in the span of months -- and the ensuing years raising his little brother and living with this loss and extraordinary challenge.
The Catcher in the Rye is generally held out as the model coming-of-age tale of rebellion. I've always felt that Catcher's protagonist, Holden Caufield, was a whiny, spoiled brat, and I've never been able to identify with him. Maybe because Caufield was a character from a different time, his rebellion seemed immature, selfish, juvenile, obvious.
By contrast, Eggers is only a few years older than me. We both worked at startups on the same block in San Francisco, went to the same taqueria for lunch. His railing-anger had reason and direction, his emotion was honest and true, slow to build and then bottomless. Reading about his experiences resonated strongly and helped me work through my own life challenges.
As I told Eggers, (and as I'm certain he's heard a thousand times) his words often felt like my inner monologue printed onto the page. He shook my hand and thanked me for being there, on the other end.
He's written nine books (only the last of which came together smoothly for him, he said), was a finalist for the National Book Award, helped found McSweeney's -- one of the great, modern, independent publishers -- and written a pair of movies (Away We Go and Where The Wild Things Are). Still, his pride and energy remain fully entrenched with the 826 Valencia project, an after-school writing program which he helped found.
In fact, 826 Valencia takes so much of his time that he and the staff really only get one week off each year. Of course, this was that week... and what was the guy doing? Signing books and chatting with fans. And he didn't make a penny -- Eggers is donating all proceeds from Zeitoun to the Zeitoun Foundation:
The Zeitoun Foundation was created in 2009 to aid in the rebuilding of and ongoing health of the city of New Orleans, and to help ensure the human rights of all Americans. Beginning in the fall of 2009, the Zeitoun Foundation will begin to distribute funds garnered from the sale of Zeitoun, a book written by Dave Eggers about the life of Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun and their trials and tribulations after Hurricane Katrina.
Eggers is one of the prime inspirations behind my writing this blog. I figured that if he could find the time and technique to share his own thoughts and experiences and help people like me, then I could start writing and hopefully, one day, maybe help a few people with experiences similar to mine.
It's rare that our heroes live up to our expectations. Most public figures are shorter than we'd expect, and even more are lacking in the character they'd been granted by their PR people and/or our imagination. Meeting Eggers in person showed that not only was he taller than I'd thought, but his character exceed my expectations.
Far from Caufield's phony, Eggers is a humble giant. I can't wait to see what he does next. In the meantime, I'm going to keep working and writing. Hopefully we'll meet again soon.