Ungrateful Mammals

by Dave Eggers

Overview

Eggers is one of the most notable writers of his generation, recognized for such bestsell­ing and critically acclaimed books as A Hologram for the King, What Is the What, and The Circle. Before he embarked on his writing career, Eggers was classically trained as a draftsman and painter. He then spent many years as a professional illus­trator and graphic designer before turning to writ­ing full-time. More recently, in order to raise money for ScholarMatch, his college-access nonprofit, he returned to visual art, and the results have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the country. Usually involving the pairing of an animal with humorous or biblical text, the results are wry, oddly anthropomorphic tableaus that create a very entertaining and eccentric body of work from one of today’s leading culture makers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683350248
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dave Eggers is the author of seven bestselling and award-winning books. He is also the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces a quarterly journal and a monthly magazine (The Believer). In 2002, he cofounded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth in San Francisco, which has spawned six affiliate 826 centers nationally.

Editorial Reviews

11/13/2017
Prior to becoming an author and editor, Eggers (The Circle) was trained as a visual artist. Here, he offers a collection of his animal portraits accompanied by dry-witted handwritten captions. Eggers’s drawings, which have the improvisational quality of wildlife sketches, include animals as different as jumping spiders and aardvarks. The written components are a mix of patently absurd pronouncements, metaphysical ponderings, and ominous declarations scrawled out at world’s end. A naked mole rat, for example, is rendered in red pencil and accompanied by the words “He sent me to you because he knew we’d have so much to talk about.” Elsewhere, a silky terrier is perfectly paired with the question “Would not weeping be redundant?” Readers will get a sense that the joke isn’t on the animals but on humans and their endless probing for meaning. At the same time, it’s a loving tribute to the animals that Eggers clearly admires. Illus. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly