You Shall Know Our Velocity

If you liked 'Everything Is Illuminated' and 'Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim', you will probably like this too.

Was somewhat disappointed, but liked it. Seemed to be a bit over-reaching. Got the signed 1st ed of this and Sacrament (same book with the addendum that sorta changes everything, but not really) from McSweeney's when they first came out, and like I did with my 1st issue of McSweeney's, these will probably end up on eBay. I'll want a copy of sacrament in paperback first, and will probably...more

Was somewhat disappointed, but liked it. Seemed to be a bit over-reaching. Got the signed 1st ed of this and Sacrament (same book with the addendum that sorta changes everything, but not really) from McSweeney's when they first came out, and like I did with my 1st issue of McSweeney's, these will probably end up on eBay. I'll want a copy of sacrament in paperback first, and will probably re-read this again in another 5-10 years, but this just didn't really do it for me the way AHWOSG did.   hide

It was actually a bit disappointing. It has the same refreshing tone of How We Are Hungry but it is little long-lasting whithout a particular goal or something. All his other books are better (those that I have read so far)

I liked this. I love the concept. I've always wanted to do something like that, go around the world and give people presents in the middle of the night. I really like how he dealt with the struggle of deciding who was "worth" it. But, when you read Hand's story and how supposedly so much of what Will said was made up- I felt tricked. Similar to Auster's Oracle Night. Having...more

I liked this. I love the concept. I've always wanted to do something like that, go around the world and give people presents in the middle of the night. I really like how he dealt with the struggle of deciding who was "worth" it. But, when you read Hand's story and how supposedly so much of what Will said was made up- I felt tricked. Similar to Auster's Oracle Night. Having read several of Egger's books, I feel like his one flaw is he doesn't know when to stop.   hide

The first fifty pages of this book had me believing it might become one of my all-time favorites. These hopes were ill rewarded. Despite the appealing peripatetic theme and Eggers' obvious talent for manically creative modern prose, "Velocity" flies along about 50-100 pages too far, is never sure where it wants to go and lacks anything resembling a resolution. I'm tired of having literary blue...more

The first fifty pages of this book had me believing it might become one of my all-time favorites. These hopes were ill rewarded. Despite the appealing peripatetic theme and Eggers' obvious talent for manically creative modern prose, "Velocity" flies along about 50-100 pages too far, is never sure where it wants to go and lacks anything resembling a resolution. I'm tired of having literary blue balls.   hide

Not quite as moving.

I was really impressed with the power of his writing, use of description to develop characters and move the story along BUT 2/3 of the way in something so disgusting happened that I wanted to abandon the book BUT I didn't BUT I can't figure out the purpose of this very disturbing and (to me) extraneous detail

Eggers is a boss. sweet as hell

This book drove me crazy. The immaturity and god-complex of the main character is everything that is wrong with our generation. We don't have any real desire to help people, we just use philanthropy to make ourselves feel good or unique. The main character, instead of giving his surplus of money to a legit organization that is actually helping people, he goes around and drops life changing sums...more

This book drove me crazy. The immaturity and god-complex of the main character is everything that is wrong with our generation. We don't have any real desire to help people, we just use philanthropy to make ourselves feel good or unique. The main character, instead of giving his surplus of money to a legit organization that is actually helping people, he goes around and drops life changing sums of money on people who do not have the maturity or wisdom to not ruin their lives with it.   hide