Rating: 
Summary: Good...but
Review: Ok, so I will go with Eggers when he decides to write a book really fast and then publish it without editing, I'm there. So we have YSKOV. Ok, here we are, I'm reading...ok...and then I'm done and...nothing. NOTHING. Nothing happens in this book. It sits there circling itself like a plane waiting to land. It is awfully boring and any comparisons made to Kerouac are unjustly awarded and should be taken back quickly. Eggers suffers from, 'telling not showing' disease. He'd rather tell us about a death then feel it, and likewise, he'd rather not feel anything in these pages, just as he did in 'A Heartbreaking Work...' he never allows emotion to enter. You could call this post-mondernism at its finest, or you could call it sloppy writing. Literati have taken to the first one, I call it the second.
Rating:
Summary: No Comparison
Review: This is an enjoyable book worth reading. But in no way should Eggers be compared to Jack Kerouac. Kerouac--through all seventeen of his novels, not just On The Road--defined the literature of his generation. He tested the boundaries of the modern novel and created a unique style that is only now being recognized for its brilliance. Dave Eggers, though a very good writer, is not yet close to Kerouac's achievement as a novelist. Perhaps someday.
Rating:
Summary: Trim the fat and it would be 4 stars
Review: I will start by saying that I loved Eggers' first book, but apparently his life makes for a more interesting read than what is in his imagination. I have no complaints about the idea; it is original and well constructed. I simply have a problem with the way he writes this book. There are those flashes of brilliance that a great many writers occasionally encounter. Eggers has that ability. But it is my opinion that he also has the ability to be brilliant more frequently. This book needed about 80-100 pages of trimming, ridding itself of many superfluous passages. Many fanatics are reviewing this man's books as if he is destined to be the next Flaubert or Joyce or even Pynchon. Eggers possibly has the necessary talent, but now I can only see him continuing his career as one of our minor writers that was always on the verge, but never quite broke away and perfected his craft...That said, I really enjoyed parts of this book and I still cling to my hope that he WILL be the greatest writer of this generation. After all, it was only his first novel.The thing that Eggers can do that many of our present writers are unable to do is creating believable characters. Will and Hand are two of the better characters I've read in recent months. His minor characters are also fairly amusing, but I would really like to see Eggers try his hand at something a little bigger, yet keeping it a little smaller. He usually finds the right word for each situation, but as I have hinted at, he gets just a little carried away. Dave-Please write the novel we know you are capable of writing. I liked this book, but you can do something more interesting. Starting the book on the cover is another gimmick that was, at least, more interesting than your drawing of a stapler (but what a great drawing it was...Genius!).
Rating: 
Summary: You Shall Know His Indulgence
Review: Egger'sbook is remarkable mainly because it is so poor. The closest thing to a character in its pages is the voice of the narrator, by turns ironic and cute--but ever prodigal and undisciplined. The rest of the cast are either ciphers, like Hand, the narrator's travel companion, who exists merely as a detached voice mouthing spurts of vapid ping-pong dialogue, or objects appearing on the landscape, there but for the grace of the narrator's self-indulgence. Where most novels have a plot, this one comes with a wad of airline tickets and the excess baggage of a deceased best friend --a nod toward gravity in this otherwise lighter-than-air story. The only thing this book has going for it is its velocity--in the form of a breakneck travel itinery and the narrator's runaway mouth which, however agile and cute and clever, can never outrun its intemperance, or this reader's boredom. Egger's first book was indeed a heartbreaking one of staggering genius, which staggered to the ground half-way through. This one, being more ambitious (or at least in a bigger hurry) crashlands on take off. Wise readers will travel by slow boat.
Rating: 
Summary: A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius
Review: I still have chills from this book. Never since Kerouac has a simple story of life and a trip seemed so alive, so real. This book is a true piece of art, every line carefully crafted to make you stop and think and apply it to yourself. I recommend this book to any hopeless wandering romantic, or anyone who wishes they were. Please read it! It might change your perceptions, or if not, it will at least make you look deep within the core of your humanity.
Rating: 
Summary: Amusing and entertaining
Review: The last "road trip" novel I read was Kerouac's "On the Road" and having flipped (miraculously!) to the last page of that disaster, I vowed to steer clear of any work potentially resembling the mindless rambling of one event after another, hell with the storyline. Arghs! Hence, it was with much misgiving that I picked out this book from the shelf - was I really ready to plough through 400 pages of hellish literature? Thankfully, I didn't have to. "You Shall Know Our Velocity" IS about a roadtrip (where two friends embark on a seven-day whirlwind trip round the world to rid themselves of $38,000) but amidst many hilarious and memorable scenes, we sense that the they were merely trying to make sense out of the sudden demise of their best friend, Jack, in a car accident. Will, the narrator, struggles with voices in his head, which plague him with sense of deep mourning. At the same time, he loves and yet hates his travel companion for all that's happening to his world. He screams, he beats his chest, but there's only silence. It's bizzare but through Will's inner debates, Eggers lures the reader into the mind of his characters and manages to establish this crucial link -- an essential ingredient to any novel that I enjoy. Parts of the story appear rather "juvenile" (like the tree-leaping or cart-leaping scene) but heck, that's what makes it all the more entertaining. Overall, the book is refreshing and has lots to offer - it's funny, it's maniacal, it's sobering, it's saddening - all at once.
Rating:
Summary: People like us just don't emote in the way he describes
Review: Parts of "You Shall Know Our Velocity!" rank among the finest sentences of prose I've ever read. Early in the book, the narrator and his friend propose traveling around the world east to west. "We would oppose the turning of the planet, refuse the setting of the sun," he says. This is terrific stuff! I got out my highlight pen (which I *never* do with books) and marked off a couple dozen really good passages throughout, stuff I'm still working into conversations days later ("You are wearing the same jacket... you must be hidden from view"). The problem is, the rest of the book is what the Brits call a "slog". The idea is, narrator Will Chmielewski (the last name almost appears to be a joke on Eggers' part... investing months in his main character and then giving him an unpronouncable last name and using it only once) drags his friend "Hand" to the obscure corners of the globe, where they give away $32,000 in cash that he got for changing a light bulb. Will's haunted by survivor's guilt over the death of a friend, and Hand sees the cash giveaway as a religious experience. The rest of the book sees Will and Hand making every traveler's mistake possible... oversleeping, getting to the airport too late, going to the wrong country because they didn't know where Dakar was ... stuff like that. The book is half travelogue (a passage on Greenland; Hand's belief that you can actually climb the Great Pyramid), and half internal monologue. I really do think the way Will thinks. Will describes a memory palace in which soft-footed troll-like creatures archive all his pain, and remind him of his life's errors at every possible moment. Will's wrapped up in his own head, preoccupied with dying... like Eggers in his previous non-fiction book. The joke is, Will does die young, as we learn on page one. And then, just when you think Will's having a mental breakdown about 250 pages in... the narrative breaks, and we get a 20-page excerpt written by Hand, years later. Hand debunks most of what we've learned from Will, and, more important, shows why Will thought he had to alter the truth for his book. This is quite similar, of course, to the "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making" addendum to the "Staggering Genius" paperback. I was really bored by a lot of the individual adventures Will and Hand get up to. They're a couple of tools, doing silly things and making mistakes... but then Will comes right out and compliments a guy for using the word "derision", and says he always wanted to be the kind of guy who could conceive of aphorisms ("We are merely cargo") and work them into conversation. Heck. I always wanted to be a guy like that, too! You come to like Will. Towards the end of the novel, Will makes a lengthy invocation to his late friend, which is supposed to be the most powerful writing of the book. Or maybe Eggers thinks so. I skimmed through it... it was nearly unreadable. But then, a few pages later, he and Hand climb trees and jump from branch to branch, just to see if it can be done. They don't stay hurt long. "Velocity" is really uneven. I bought into most of Eggers' narrative tricks (or, if you will, post-modern panderings) in "Staggering Genius". This book is the roman a clef version of "Staggering", and lacks the originality. There's even a New York Times Book Review quote on the back about how "Velocity!" is "entirely honorable". Please. People like us just don't emote in the way book critics describe.
Rating:
Summary: Good start, sloppy finish
Review: Good writing that starts out with an interesting premise but sadly dissolves towards the end into endless psychobabble. Promising but flawed, yet still worth a read
Rating:
Summary: The new Eggers fanclub....
Review: Eggers-he's the voice. He's the word of my generation. I know people are saying that. The critics are saying that, and I hate to say something so cliche, but I just can't help it. That's what I feel. Maybe it's not true for everybody my age.(I'm 25.)Maybe we're not all so confused. I don't want to pigeonhole my generation. I know Eggers wouldn't- he doesn't. I feel like his words are pulled straight from my head, but maybe not everybody feels that way. I don't know. But that's just it isn't it? Eggers is just like me. He doesn't know either. He raves and ask questions and wonders; he questions everything. He constantly questions himself and his motives and ambitions and beliefs. He's naive. He doesn't seem to know his [tail] from his elbow. He has strong values and morals and loves them, but at the same time he doesn't want to be restricted by them. He wants to make his own values and live by them; not by the worlds values. He believes in God and, in his own way, loves him, too. But he doesn't understand him and he's scared of him and his rules and his puppet-master designs and doesn't want to be controlled by him. He wants God on his own terms. You know what I mean? I could go on like this forever about Eggers because there is so much contradiction and confusion in his character, Will, and I really feel that. That's what he is-a huge contradiction. He's walking in fog. He's a boy trying to become a man. Just like me. I see, from other reviews, that many readers are put off by the structure of the novel-by the rambling and, sometimes, seeming pointlessness, but that adds to the experience, I think. It reflects life doesn't it? Let's not forget that this is a work of very postmodern fiction. Which, in fact, strives to find meaning in an age of meaninglessness and boredom and confusion. These are changing times. Does anybody remember the line in the movie Adaptation where the character, Kaufman, says to his teacher, "I just want to want to write a story about nothing, where noone does anything and nothing is solved." That statement is at the heart of the moment's literature and it puts light on how my generation sees life and how writers like Eggers and Zadie Smith are tackling the issues of their hearts. We don't know what we want, we just want something more...meaningful, and this-this rambling is the only way to honestly express that feeling.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant in parts
Review: I have a first edition that I bought at one of the McSweeney's vs. TMBG shows. The graphic design is beautiful. But I have to admit I didn't enjoy it as much as AHWOSG. Still, it's absolutely brilliant in parts, and I certainly laughed out loud many times while reading it.
|
