Section 3: Part 1

Summary

In the third section of this book, the author describes what it was like to live alone with his brother. Together they had to overcome many obstacles, such as cooking, getting Toph to school on time, and for him, having a social life. He and Toph finally got settled down in a very small condo/apartment. They learn the very basic parts of living alone. They have to take care of themselves, and Dave (the author) must learn to balance Toph's needs with his wants. When its a Friday night and he wants to go out drinking, sometimes Toph comes first. Every now and then, friends and family come to visit and participate in the cleaning.
In this section, two fears of his are brought into focus. Whenever he goes out for his social life, Toph is always left with a babysitter. Although he has had numerous babysitters for Toph, every time he worries that something is going to happen to Toph. He gets himself worked up over nothing and always debates whether or not he should turn around and go back. Although he never turns around, he always visions very descriptive images of what is going to happen to Toph. He convinces himself that this will happen anytime he leaves the house. The second fear that is shown in this section is his fear that the child protection agency will come and take Toph away from him. Whenever he thinks about this, he always goes on a “cleaning frenzy.” During this phase, he makes many trips throughout the house picking up anything and everything that’s on the floor. This section of the book reflects his fears as well as his newly acquired “parenthood.”


Biography on Author

Dave Eggers grew up close to Chicago and went to school at the University of Illinois. In 1998, he founded McSweeney's. McSweeney’s is an independent publishing house in San Francisco that puts out the quarterly literary journals. In 2002, Eggers opened up a facility called 826 Valencia which is a writing lab for young people in the Mission District of San Francisco. Along with the openings of these facilities he also teaches writing to high school students and runs a summer publishing camp. With the help of his workshop students at his high school, Eggers edits a collection of fiction, essays, and journalism called The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He is also the co-editor of the Voice of Witness series of oral histories. He normally writes about art and music for magazines, including Frieze, Blind Spot, Parkett, and Spin He also designs work that has been featured in many magazines, including Print and Eye, Area: 100 Graphic Designers, and Reinventing the Wheel. In 2003, his designs for his company McSweeney's were featured in the National Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and in the California Design Biennial. Along with these great achievements, he has received numerous awards. Some of them are, National Magazine Award for Fiction finalist in 2004 for “The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water", Independent Book Award in 2003 for “You Shall Know Our Velocity!”, Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2001 for “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.” This is only a fraction of the many accomplishments that Dave Eggers has experienced is his lifetime.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/authorpages/eggers/eggers.html