± Nothing/A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
± Nothing
Paul Morley
Faber and Faber, £11.99, pp 426
ISBN 0 571 17799 9
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave Eggers
Picador, £14.99, pp 395
ISBN 0 330 48454 0
Rating: 3/4; 4/4
You have only to watch the news to
see the modern media's take on
ordinary human tragedy. The media
sweeten the distress and horror, turning it
into entertainment. The modern talk show,
an oily slick of self disclosure, shows no sign
of disappearing from our televisions. With
this in mind, how might an author in the
early 21st century address personal trauma
with some measure of sincerity? Both the
British journalist Paul Morley and David
Eggers, editor of the US magazine Mac-Sweeneys, have written postmodern accounts
of their post-traumatic experiences.
Morley's father committed suicide, and
the police came knocking on the front door
to break the news. Eggers' parents died
within three months of each other, leaving
him in his early 20s to look after his younger
brother. Avoiding pathos and sentimentality,
both writers use new methods of disclosure
to grieve in print, taking hints from the twin
masters of the 20th century, Nabokov and
Perec, who themselves knew personal disaster. Eggers' book has a number of deliberate
false starts, while Morley experiments with
different endings.
In Morley's early writings he enthused
wildly on popular culture. As his first articles
appeared in print, he heard of his father's
lonely death. For 20 years he has been silent
on this tragedy. Until now his work has
sometimes been flippant, and he was
accused by the New York Times of being a
man who "talks too much." But in the case of
± Nothing, at least his digressions lack the
superficiality that characterised his music
journalism.
Both Eggers and Morley relentlessly
question the facts of their parents' deaths,
scratching at their wounds but with self pity
and sentimentality pared down. Both are
aware of the attractions and dangers of
solipsism, and both constantly question their
own motives in the telling.
Both books should be read by anyone
interested in the myriad responses to grief
that we have to deal with in our lives. Morley
remains one of the more frustrating but fascinating British cultural commentators, and
with ± Nothing I think he gains in stature.
Eggers is an "American Great" of the
confessional mould, like Roth or Salinger.
Such honesty in memoir is rare.
John Quin consultant physician, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton
studentBMJ 2001;09:129-170 May ISSN 0966-6494
