Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding Eggers - Get Your Dave Fix!
Review: For those of you have been waiting for more writing from the brilliant Dave Eggers you won't be dissapointed. The other reviewers who did NOT give this 5 stars must have read a different book. This one is better and more readable than AHWOSG - which I thought was remarkable as well. If you can get a copy, read it, enjoy, they are tough to get because of the limited press run from Iceland.
Rating: 
Summary: Average Reading
Review: I haven't read Eggers' supposedly stunning memoir about a "Staggering Heartbroken Genius" so I had no preconceptions beginning this book--other than I figured it'd be clever based on the absence of a dust jacket and the intriguing beginning told on the cover. Anyhow, I picked this one up and read it from start to finish (it took about 7 days).This novel (I suspect the author intended the reader to get more out of it than I did) is focused on grief, overcoming (or rather not overcoming) grief, and friendship. It's also a bit of a travel novel and makes an attempt to discuss the effects of unwarrented, rapidly obtained wealth. A summary (note: This is not a spoiler; read on): Three guys grow up together and are very good friends. One gets killed in a horrible traffic accident (the fault of a careless trucker). One (the narrator, Will) comes into a large sum of money (the result of chance--his silhouette is used on light bulb packages). The other (he is called Hand), is your basic sidekick and a bit of a troublemaker. The two survivors embark on a fugue of healing--they want to travel the world in seven days. They have some adventures, do some stupid things, meet some quirky internationals, drink some booze, give all Will's money away, and continue to grieve. The week ends with separate destinations (they live in different cities) as the narrator heads to a wedding of another friend (the sidekick was not invited). Well, that's about it. There are some amusing incidents along the way, a few ruminations about the meaning of life, wealth, poverty, chance, death, etc. None of the insights is particularly illuminating, none of the humor side splittingly hilarious, and I don't have an urge to read it again. There are some spelling errors (so what) and the writing is pretty good overall. The description of a beating the narrator took several weeks before the trip is particularly well done. I'm not sorry I read this book and I can recommend it. Just don't expect greatness. It's average.
Rating: 
Summary: all over the place, but in a good way
Review: this book reminds me of theavocadopapers -- for all the attention that that website has gotten recently, most of that attention doesn't focus on what reviews of eggers' new book have also not focused on: for the first twenty or so pages, you're like "what the..." then things start to come together. totally original, completely subversive (and yet you're aware in some way of being subverted, and you don't mind), mind-bending (but it's not painful), and perhaps all, wholly engrossing. I'd have given it five stars, but for the fact that eggers hasn't yet figured out that he doesn't need to hide behind quite so much "cleverness."
Rating:
Summary: Eggers reigns again
Review: This is a great read with many of the Eggerisms we come to expect
but, in my opinion, it does not come near to "A Heartbreaking Work" which is about as perfect a piece of writing as ever you will find. How Dave could top this is hard to imagine.
Rating:
Summary: Symbolic of Nothing Less Than the Entire Human Existence
Review: Can it be a coincidence that the protagonist's name is Will? YSKOV is about 2 guys travelling around the world, but it is also about the pleasure and pain of sentient existance. The overwhelming nature of freedom, the unfairness of fate, and the sorrow of mortality are all themes.
Will often mentions the different kinds of lives he'd like to leading but he doesn't act on those desires because they would rule out all of the other life stories he wants to have. He also talks a lot about the dream careers of his youth, like being a stuntman or an astronaut. Life has so much potential but so many of us refuse to commit to an exciting career simply out of uncertainty, until soon enough, we're 30ish and beyond and settled into mundane lives. Will, who has recently lost a best friend to a car accident, becomes more painfully aware of this than most people his age.
The friend's death, along with taking a beating from some guys who his other best friend had angered by teasing them in a convenience store, suddenly show life's fragility to Will, and he cannot stop thinking about it. Mortality is pushed to the fore of his conciousness again and again, causing him great psychological distress.
All these sort of weighty themes are dealt with in Eggers's typical humorous and enjoyable style. If you liked his writing in AHWOSG, you'll like it here. He pulls off a novel every bit as well as he pulled off his memoir. I'd really like to go on gushing about it, but just don't have time. I highly recommend this brilliant little literary gem!
Rating: 
Summary: A tragic disappointment
Review: After being stunned by A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, I found Eggers' second book to be intensely poorly written. Throughout reading it, I tried not to judge YSKOV against it's predecessor, but reading it objectively made it that much worse: the characters are poorly developed (or rather, are well developed, but then betray that development with out-of-character actions and thoughts later on), the writing is spotty and intensely claustrophobic (far too much time is spent in the lead character's head, dwelling on the trivial), and the book overall is poorly resolved-- the ending feels like Eggers was writing what he thought the reader would like. Add to this horrendous editing (the errors are everywhere and glaring; rather than being a minor inconvenience, the discontinuities make it hard to focus on the prose), and one has to wonder if this book was rushed to meet a deadline. It's cute that he linked the ending, briefly, with the first sentence, but it fails to justify the book as a whole. It's sad to say about a book by Dave Eggers, but I'm afraid I'd recommend this book be avoided.
Rating:
Summary: More substance, less style please
Review: A decent enough read, but in the end it is sad that a writer as talented as Eggers feels it necessary to resort to gimmicks and 'look at me' silliness to display his undeniable art. Right now, we are blessed by a number of young writers who possess talent but fortunately for us, don't feel the need to hit us over the head with their notions of restructuring an art form that has worked for ..oh...a few centuries now. Eggers could learn from the Hornbys and Franzens of the world and concentrate more on boring ideas like characterization and a little less on marketing an image. Thus, recommended but with reservations.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing but flat
Review: A story about 2 young Americans traveling around the globe while attempting to give away money to strangers. The money came from a silly example of corporate excess, hence the desire to rid themselves of it. At the same our intrepid pair are struggling with the sorrow of losing a friend. One thing after another goes wrong, as they try to get rid of the money. OK, if you are expecting something comparable to AHWOSG (Egger's first book) you will be let down. This book doesn't have the zip & edge of his first, but it does have a few sparkling moments. All in all it is worth a read, but it won't have the impact of AHWOSG.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment and Admiration
Review: A.H.W.O.S.G. was just that: heartbreaking, genius. The title of Eggers's new book is just as telling. You SHALL know the books velocity, and it shall sweep you away. I have immense admiration for Eggers's marketing quirks and the wya he's rattling a tradition-bound publishing industry; but speaking in strict literary terms, this one is a let down. It moves so fast that I found myself trying to grab on to something--an image, a character, a subplot--but failing miserably. There are moments of pure reading joy here, mostly when Will (the narrator) lets his mind run and describes these intricate and detailed fantasies that do more to reveal what this book is about than any of the "plot" does. The probelm is that Will is fighting with himself, for almost the entire story, NOT to indulge his thoughts, always saying he wishes he could get rid of his head. The story itself, though, is somewhat dull. So much happens--so much of little importance, too--that readers might find themselves wondering what the point is. When I first started in on the book, I was imagining a modern, global ON THE ROAD, but what I got instead was all the plot of OTR with little of the verbal pinache. Eggers knows how to work a metaphor, for example, but he drops them in at such odd places that I'm not sure what Will considers important and what he doesn't. It's a frustrating book, especially in the wake of the beauty of A.H.W.O.S.G. Oh, and the tricks become tedious. When two pages are completely blank (save the page number) to indicate what it was like when the boat Will and Hand were in "caught air" across a few waves, I found myself rolling my eyes. It didn't DO much aside froom draw attention to the fact that Eggers knows how to play around with design and wordplay. Same goes for the illustrations. At one point he mentions seeing 3 white Ford Broncos (or Explorers, I don't remember) and then, smack dab in the middle of the sentence, are three, tinny pictures of white Ford Broncos (or Explorers, I don't remember). It's silly, and, I'm sorry to say, it distracts. Finally, the thing is poorly copyedited. This is one of the pitfalls of Eggers approach to publishing, I guess, but maybe that doesn't excuse misplaced words, confusing syntax, etc. The number of errors is overwhelming, but it's noticeable and somewhat disapointing for an author who I admire for not only his style but his attention to detail. This book's worth reading. For sure. But don't expect to be carried away like you may have been with Eggers last book.
Rating:
Summary: great entertainment
Review: Poignant and extremely funny, this is even better than AHWOSG. It is part travelogue and part social commentary, with two bumbling but endearing guys who just can't make this trip work out the way they planned.
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