A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Rules and Suggestions Summary & Analysis

Eggers begins by saying that it isn’t necessary to read the book’s preface, which “exists mostly for the author.” He also suggests that the acknowledgements section isn’t important to the plot of the book and that it, too, can be skipped, along with the table of contents and even a stretch of pages in the middle of the text. “Matter of fact,” he writes, “the first three or four chapters are all some of you might want to bother with.” After that, he admits, the book is somewhat “uneven.”