Rating: 
Summary: Good but not
Review: The fact that I have looked up what others have to say about this book as I'm now in the middle of it does not bode well for a critique. Writing is good however story's plot leaves something to be desired.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is completely unforgettable
Review: When I heard Dave Eggers wrote another book, I immediately shelled out $20 for a copy of the first edition. The cool thing about the first edition is that the cover of the book is also the first page. I was hooked before I even opened the book. While A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius still feels more genuine, this fictional story about 2 friends who seek to get over the death of their tragically departed comrade, struck a chord with me that alternately had me laughing and almost to the point of crying in public as I read during my city commute. A lot of people find Dave Eggers' work pretentious, but I think Eggers breaks away from that ill-conceived notion by creating characters and situations that are so hilariously and brilliantly conceived, you can't help but feel that this is such an honest effort by an uber-talented writer.
You Shall Know Our Velocity touches upon the notions of charity, loss, pain, isolation, expanding one's cultural horizons, testing limits. These topics all blend flawlessly and entertainingly in this book. I can't recommend it enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Eggers gets it right this time...
Review: Ok, I'm not on the Dave Eggers is the greatest living writer bandwagon. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius turned me off...indeed, I could not read it. I passed it on to a friend, who I will admit is much smarter than I, and she loved it. Still, it was not for me. Still, when I saw this book in paperback, it was worth a try. I thought the concept was cool. It seems there is additional text in this edition that was not in the hardcover--about 40 pages worth. I'm not sure what the deal is with that--and the whole publishing only through McSweeney's, it is rather beyond me. So, I judge the novel on the "additional" material (assuming that report is indeed correct and it was not in the original).The book wears on you after awhile. I loved many of Will's internal dialogues, but after awhile they got to me (of course, I read the book in about a day and half, so I did not enhjoy it like a fine wine). Then suddenly, you have this new narrator, for, oh, a tenth of the novel, but this narrator breathes new life into the book. You look at it completely differently. You see more of the metaphor. You see Will's pain in a new light (I'm being purposely vague). The book has some interesting mistakes, which I think are intentional--factual things (was Hand's real name Justin or Francis?), but it makes it seem even better. There are some interesting lessons here and the journey may indeed be the salvation. I'm having trouble describing the book...sort of Brewster's Millions meets Ulysses meets Ronin meets Jack Keroukac? It is worth your time. Flawed and at times brilliant, far better than much of what is published today.
Rating:
Summary: Eggers gets it right this time...
Review: see above!
Rating:
Summary: Reviews for hardcover are unjust, this is not the same book.
Review: If your reading the reviews of this book and at the bottom it says "Refers to the Hardcover Edition", then you should pay no attention to that review. The actual text of the book is different in the paperback edition than in the hardcover. As you can't actually get the hardcover anymore on Amazon.com, the hardcover review is pretty worthless. This book was originally released under the same title as now, but it was recently rereleased under the name SACRAMENT, but only available through the publisher, McSweeney's. SACRAMENT contained additional text written by a completely different narrator, and it actually turns the novel into something quite different. Sure, the novel does get to a point where it becomes a series of foils and mishaps in various countries, but it is at that point, about two-thirds of the way into the book, that the new material takes place. This new material provides a completely different context for the actions that take place throughout the rest of the book. In a way, it makes the story more metafictional than I imagine it originally was. The paperback edition contains the additional text, about twenty pages or so, that was not in the hardcover printing of the novel. So, for those of you who have only read the hardcover edition, I would recommend rereading, since the book is actually quite different than when you probably read it. If you're interested in it and thinking about reading it, I would highly recommend this work. Eggers is more popularly known nowadays for his skills as a publisher of some of the greatest writing since the turn of the century, and editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, among other things. It's been a long time since his first book, and until I read this I thought his own work would simply be thrown by the wayside. This book proves, however, that he is at the forefront of the best writing being done today, and I would say that this is the most original work I've read in a long time, and I read books for a living. It's greatness in relation to modern fiction is surpassed perhaps only by Jeffrey Eugenides' MIDDLESEX, which is too great for words. In other words, read this book, it is beautiful and worthy of a religious amount of attention.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant - A Must Read
Review: Dave Eggers is captivating, funny, heartbreaking and down right brilliant. No one writes like him. He's the Jack Kerouac of the day. Adventurous, exciting - I wanted more!
Rating:
Summary: A decent first effort
Review: Eggers' first work of novel-length fiction is disappointing given the zealous reactions I've witnessed in people whom I've asked about "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". Mr. Eggers' prose is at times nothing short of annoying. I don't feel like I need an exclamation point at the end of a sentence to understand emphasis, and when he uses them with such frequency I feel like either I'm being patronized or Eggers' is being lazy (the emphasis should be contained within the prose, not the punctuation). "But we had to move on." is a sentence so full of melodrama I had to stop reading the book for a minute to try and understand why it wasn't just tacked on to the last sentence, as the sentiment would have been conveyed much more succinctly. I do find the concept to be very intriguing (which is why I bought the book in the first place), however, it's execution is so heavy-handed that again I don't feel like Eggers' has enough confidence in either his own writing or the reader (see any of Will's conversations with his mother in which she explicates his purpose and Will responds "That's the point." The reader should know what the point is without your main character stating it at several different junctures, Mr. Eggers.). His dialogue, on the otherhand is mostly unforgivable. Capturing the idiosyncrasies of your generations manner of speech is dull, familiar, and uninventive. Much like the men in the Budweiser commercial who say with absurd stateliness "How are you doing?", this dialogue is a parody of itself. This is not the worst book I have ever read, it merely has too many repeated small mistakes (many of which I actually left out, believe it or not) for me to consider it a highly readable novel. By the end of it, I was just glad I had seen my last exclamation point and I could put it away.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for the under-30 crowd
Review: Yes, in somewhat the same vein of Carolyn Hax, I, a 23-year old male identify quite a bit with Eggers' work. The amount of grief, inanity and more was touching, since I lost my brother recently, who's name eerily is Jack also. The title of the novel comes from a reference in the book to a South American tribe known as the Jumping People. Fictitious or real, this is not important, because the People represent an attempt of these people to attempt to learn how to fly. From trying to swallow air, to perfecting jumping patterns, the People carved "You Shall Know Our Velocity" into one of their cliff-sides in defiance and almost an obstreperous slap to the invading Spaniards. Eggers creates a likable character in this book and the concept of speed, relativity and the flow of time are all symbols and metaphors that mix easily ina swirl in this book. I'm definitely looking forward to Eggers' follow up to this. Somehow, all we know is that he will drown with his mother in Columbia within another two months end of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Novel About the Limitlessness of Grief
Review: You Shall Know Our Velocity is an excellent novel dealing with the grief Will, the novel's narrator, and his best friend Hand experience after the sudden, tragic death of Jack, the third in their former threesome. The three had been friends since childhood and had always expected to be together, until Jack is suddenly killed in an accident hwen they are in their mid-twenties. To deal with their grief, or maybe to run away from it, Hand and Will haphazardly plan a trip around the world in one week to give away $80,000 Will has acquired almost by accident. The novel concerns both this trip and Will's story of his friendship with Jack. Their travels never go as intended (because they never, ever make any plans). Will's reflections on Jack's death are devastatingly evocative. Eggers is an excellent writer and the novel is, for the most part, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. It will make you laugh and break your heart in the same paragraph many times. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: this book is a bore
Review: Throughout the book, the main character, Will makes several attempts to write postcards to his pals back home, but on each futile attempt he crumples the cards and tosses them in the back seat, unsatisfied with his prose. I wish Eggers took a page from his own book. i loved the past book and am a huge fan of road stories, but this book didn't do anything for me. The characters' personalities and traits are too one dimensional and too heavy handed. As i read each page, i could see Eggers writing it. At no point was he able to suspend reality and make me believe in the story. I couldn't wait for it to end so I could move on. A sophmore effort, i hope Dave has something better up his sleeve for his next go around.
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