A heartbreaking work

"What am I giving you? I am giving you nothing."
"I give you virtually everything I have. I give you all of the best things I have, and while these things are things that I like, memories that I treasure, good or bad, like the pictures of my family on my walls I can show them to you without diminishing them. I can afford to give you everything."

This has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while now. And now that I have finally gotten around to reading it, I am struck with the following thoughts:
1. Dave Eggers could have saved himself the trouble of writing this book if, at the time of the events in question, he had a blog.
2. San Francisco is best enjoyed with sunblock, a good coat, and a glass of wine.
3. There is always regret and tragedy in death, no matter how we approach it, no matter what sort of resolution we lend to it.
4. Consciously calling attention to the fact of using your characters as voices for yourself is neither brilliant nor creative, it is sheer ego played off as literary device.
5. Read this book. Don't read it. It is interesting, occasionally funny, and tries very hard to be endearing, but at the same time it is unlikely that it will nourish your soul in any way.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers (2000). Rating (using the poker hand scale): three of a kind.