You Shall Know Our Velocity (edition 2003)

I just didn't get it. What was the point of all this? I feel like I'm missing something wonderful, but don't think so. I tried Eggers biography a while back and it landed on my drinking couldn't read list. I pulled it off my discard pile to give it another try at some point because of the many great reviews. I read this for a book group, so I guess it made the trip worthwhile, unlike the trip made by Will and Hand! ( )

Will carries a guilt load after failing to get his brother to a Mexican hospital. The brother was fatally injured, but survived for a few days, later Will came into $80,000 and decides to give the money away to the poor and strictan in africa and the Baltic states of Europe.

I love Eggers writing. This definitely left me pondering things as usual. The ending is a bit vague as I suppose it was meant to be. I wanted to hear from Hand one last time before it ended. ( )

I love Eggers writing. This definitely left me pondering things as usual. The ending is a bit vague as I suppose it was meant to be. I wanted to hear from Hand one last time before it ended. ( )

I had some problems with this book. I certainly did not come away with the impression that Eggers is a good writer. I will make a big delineation here between good writing and funny writing. Most people mistake one for the other because being funny is not easy, but being funny, quirky, or otherwise hipsterish doesn't make you good at what you do. Doesn't make you bad either, but the likelihood increases simply at the effort to be popular.

Eggers' narrative is swift and humorous, but not cutting, inviting, insightful, or even all that interesting. And all that is aside from his inability to tell an interesting story.

My major problem was with the voice of the character. Will is supposed to be an idiot. If not an idiot then painfully common, yet he comes up with these poetic musings and these colorations that simply would not run through the mind of such a common character.

Through the whole thing I kept thinking that Eggers was just trying to show us how cute he could be, like that idiot Zooey Deshanal (sp?) who just looks as if she's so impressed with how cute she is. I'm really not down with this kind of loose, plain-speech narrative that passes as great literature nowadays. Everyone talks like this, what is so special about writing it down if the character doesn't have anything special about them? What exactly is there to read about here?

The conflict was loose, the characters unremarkable, the voice funny at times but mostly square and depressing, and the story ... what story? The only thing I wanted to was how he died (This is on the first page, no spoiler here) and Eggers didn't even get to it. Fucking lame, man.

I do not recommend this book. It'll be a while before Eggers gets another 20 dollar bill out of me. I'm just not into Hipster-Lit. If you are, great, but lets not go handing out Pulitzers over it.

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