Heroes of the Frontier

Eggers is my favorite contemporary author. He’s the guy I read whenever he comes out with a new work.It’s hard to imagine building on top of The Circle. I feel it is a crowning achievement, not for Eggers oeuvre, per say, but for its expression of our times in perfect pitch. Heroes of the Last Frontier returns to the deep character play--characters so richly drawn we get to know them as clearly as the writer might--that sort of perfect facsimile of expression--that has made me a lifelong reader of Eggers’ work.Josie is drawn with such depth that I think I could writer her lines in the non-existent epilogue.She is the victim of an over-litigated, unsentimental society--a post-hero America. Her husband was an all-time goofball who got rich of factory farming and had an all-too casual predisposition for sitting on the toilet. Her husband, mainly explained through Josie, gives the American boob his latest, most modern dimension.Josie, in a comical and foraging way, makes her way off the grid, away from limp modernity.She is chased by all manners of force--man made and otherwise.The freak storm that serves as the novel’s climax--cool, too, to read a book with a true, non-denouement climax--is so much more than just a storm. And the reader can articulate it just well enough to open his world up to the one Egger’s created. We are rooting not only for Josie, but for the survival of something--maybe the only thing good in us modernists--in today’s world.Nature’s retribution requires the sort of hero Josie is. Our time requires the same.

Dave Eggers most recent novel, Heroes of the Frontier concerns Josie, a no-longer-practicing dentist, and her two children, Ana and Paul. The story unfolds against a background of roadside campgrounds in the wilds of Alaska, where Josie has gone to escape a series of barbs that have been hurled her way in recent years. But as mother and children navigate the countryside in their junker RV rental, they will discover that Alaska has its own cache of barbs. Eggers’ one-pitfall-after-another plotting never becomes tedious, because Josie and Ana and Paul are so incredibly engaging. Their story—full of both humor and heartbreak—seems to ask: is Eggers’ well-intentioned protagonist an example of someone who cannot make a good decision to save herself (and if so, why not?), or is she simply a victim of really rotten luck?

I loved reading this book. I was hooked from paragraph one. We meet our hero, Josie, just after she's begun her adventure in a rented RV in Alaska with her two children. The story unfolds through flashbacks and musings. The descriptions of her children are priceless. We come to know the three of them as their adventures and misadventures ensue. I read to page 100 after I started reading, and made myself stop reading it for a bit so I wouldn't gobble it down. I look forward to more Dave Eggers.

Dave Eggars introduced himself in his one of a kind memoir, and later wrote two real life accounts, telling the larger story by focussing on an individual (I still think everyone should read Zeitoun, it remains that much of a favorite). He then turned to fiction seeming to pay heavy attention to nearby Silicon Valley and its dangers and charms. Which is why this book surprised me so. It is pure fiction, with a message, but still seemed more T. C. Boyle than Eggars.Josie, a dentist having lost her practice, has bundled her two young children and fled to Alaska. Using cash since she doesn't want to leave a paper trail, she puts herself and her children at increasing risk, causing the reader to marvel at her choices, wondering how it was that she ever had the fortitude to become a dentist in the first place. Her backstory, original and intriguing, is told as current experiences bring details to light. I did have several questions, but didn't let them hold me back from thoroughly enjoying this new avenue that Eggars has taken.

Loved the first half of this but hit a dead end halfway through. Thought it was going to be something special but got mired down in the wilds of Alaska and stalled and went nowhere. Simply put, it got boring.After awhile, really started to dislike the protagonist, which didn’t aid in the narrative.All in all, didn’t hate it, didn’t love it.

As usual, a brilliant effort from Dave Eggers. I have found him to be the most consistent writer around. Everything he writes is so well crafted. He can turn a phrase to paint such a vivid picture, I've never read anyone else who can so consistently do that. Sometimes I find myself 're-reading a paragraph over again because the prose is just such a joy to partake of.I just love his books. I've read all of them, I think, and I didn't find any that didn't equal his High standards.

Everything I have read by this author I have loved. I especially loved his characters in this book. I could picture them as if I knew them well. His writing manages to be funny, relatable, somber but hopeful all at once.

This is a big-hearted, riotous romp of a novel that I hugely enjoyed and feel motivated enough to recommend to others. Josie and her children are finely drawn characters that you can identify with and you find yourself caring about what happens to them. David Eggers likes his characters and as a result we do too. The story is original, funny, quirky and well written. It tackles the unpredictable roller coaster of life - Josie's story is never dull, the twists and turns of her life are often unexpected and move rapidly between tragedy and comedy but the indomitable nature of the human spirit usually wins through and this makes the novel so heart-warming. The ending is a tour de force. I had no idea how the book would draw to a close but it is perfect. An excellent read - what are you waiting for?

Great story, a family's escape into the unknown. The characters of Josie and her children are engagingly well drawn, and there is genuine suspense in every encounter. I read it in two sessions. Brilliant.

I enjoyed it very much in parts. My main criticism is the repetition of so many things re the characterisations, it was as if the reader had no capacity to hold onto any information .

Good read and thought provoking

I just couldn't get into the way this author constructs sentences and that got in the way of the story. A haphazard read.