I've been working up to this one for a while, and I'm sick and tired of not actually having said it. Do Not Like About Dave Eggers. First, on the credit side of the ledger. There is something quite sharp about his self-analysis.
Eggers explicitly anticipates all possible criticisms, all possible objections.
He apologizes for countless failings, real and invented, and stares with a harsh eye at his own motivations and ambitions. By doing so, they say, Eggers tries to head off outside criticism. That the author knows his own 'opinion' is false does not make it any more true. Which really bugs me, in that if people are going to go after Eggers, they ought at least to go after him for the right reasons. And I think it's important to recognize that, as slippery as Eggers may be, the tone of the book is not some kind of long elaborate put-on.