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60th out of 117 books
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You Shall Know Our Velocity!
by
Dave Eggers
In his first novel, Dave Eggers has written a moving and hilarious tale of two friends who fly around the world trying to give away a lot of money and free themselves from a profound loss. It reminds us once again what an important, necessary talent Dave Eggers is.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
November 4th 2009
by Vintage
(first published January 1st 2002)
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Preface to the fourth edition:
I wrote this a few years ago, back when I had just finished reading the book, but before I had died. I still haven't died so that's beside the point. I'm procrastinating right now, and copying this from another site where this originally appeared.
Original Preface
There are three ways that I pick out books to read. One is through the convoluted and serpentine way that I choose most of my books. The second way is by catchy covers promisi...more
I wrote this a few years ago, back when I had just finished reading the book, but before I had died. I still haven't died so that's beside the point. I'm procrastinating right now, and copying this from another site where this originally appeared.
Original Preface
There are three ways that I pick out books to read. One is through the convoluted and serpentine way that I choose most of my books. The second way is by catchy covers promisi...more
view all 13 comments
Hey main character, are you upset about something? Is nothing working out for you? AWWWWWW poor baby! Did you experience a personal loss that you found painful? Oh no! You must be the first person ever to feel pain! I feeeeeel sooooooo baaaaaaaaad for you! Are you going to tell us what happened? Oh, you'd rather give it to us bit by bit to keep up the suspense? Ok, that works (pbbbbttttt). Do you find things in normal everyday life hard to take, Holden Caulfield? Do you want to share with us exp...more
The title of this novel is a misnomer. The protagonists -- Will and Hand -- are miserably slow and plodding. Full of piss and vinegar, but with little to actually back it up.
Basically, they plan to fly around the world in a week and give away $32,000. They make it to Africa and Eastern Europe. That's it. And the back of the book reads, "$32,000 must be given away in a week, around the world. But why?" That question is never answered.
Not only is the book's flow...more
Basically, they plan to fly around the world in a week and give away $32,000. They make it to Africa and Eastern Europe. That's it. And the back of the book reads, "$32,000 must be given away in a week, around the world. But why?" That question is never answered.
Not only is the book's flow...more
I'm a little torn here, because I feel like I was supposed to like this book, so part of me wants to pretend that I didn't like it. It just seems so blatantly directed at exactly who I am, a late 20's person confused about what direction to take in life. It's like a movie where you know they are trying to make you cry, and you do cry, and then feel bad about it because you know that they played you like a fiddle.
But as much as I'd like to resist it, I am a fiddle and this book played me. ...more
But as much as I'd like to resist it, I am a fiddle and this book played me. ...more
I heart Dave Eggers. This book is awesome, especially if you enjoy traveling in obscure countries and dissecting ridiculous adventures for meaning. Eggers' style is very sticky and his humor is right in my wheelhouse. I liked this book significantly more than "A Heartbreaking Work..." (which was a fun read nonetheless). Something about the fact that it's a true novel and not quite as self-indulgent and autobiographical.
Anyway, I only feel slightly silly saying this is one o...more
Anyway, I only feel slightly silly saying this is one o...more
Before I get into the story of this book, and what I thought about it, I have to start with this. I LOVE the paper it's made of!! Really! It makes me want to write, in a typewriter, and live in some far off place, the color, the texture, wow, I tried to find out what they used but there is no information on the subject. I think I probably finished the book because of that wonderful paper it is made of. With paper like this, how can I even consider going on to electronic books?
Now, f...more
Now, f...more
Love the style of the prose, it is at times erudite and at times completely utterly batshit insane! I've only read about 20% so far and this is what I've gathered: Will, the protagonist and narrator posed for a light bulb advertisement (a silhouette of himself fixing a bulb while on a step ladder) by Leo Burnett and as payment for his services received a stock option in the light bulb company. In short he is 80K richer and hasn't figured out what to do with all the money also he got "the sh...more
Two close friends decide to travel around the world in a week and give away $32,000 to random people. This includes creating a treasure map for children in Estonia and delivering a bouquet of flowers to a sleeping family in Senegal. Their adventures are comical, and easy to relate to if you've ever gone on a trip with not much planning. The results of this journey are unexpected eye-opening experiences and a few disappointments (Morocco looks a little like Arizona). Through all their travels...more
I loved the writing, I really did. Imaginative and colorful and funny. There was just too much of it.
I think the whole book could have been trimmed by 20 to 30 percent and been much more enjoyable. It’s divided into 3 parts, and in my edition they have ratios that are almost too mathematically precise to be a coincidence. The first 250 pages were Will’s first person account of his and his friend Hand’s frantic, limited-to-one-week, global travels trying to unload $32,000 in cas...more
I think the whole book could have been trimmed by 20 to 30 percent and been much more enjoyable. It’s divided into 3 parts, and in my edition they have ratios that are almost too mathematically precise to be a coincidence. The first 250 pages were Will’s first person account of his and his friend Hand’s frantic, limited-to-one-week, global travels trying to unload $32,000 in cas...more
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I’m glad I read this although I had conflicting opinions all throughout the book.
The writing is unique and interesting and Eggers clearly has a powerful gift with words. The story is also challenging and thoughtful and I was continually fascinated by the concept. I loved the journey they took, and the juxtaposition Eggers creates between their being both constrained and liberated in their travels.
However, I don’t know if I love the execution. I found it to be a real effo...more
The writing is unique and interesting and Eggers clearly has a powerful gift with words. The story is also challenging and thoughtful and I was continually fascinated by the concept. I loved the journey they took, and the juxtaposition Eggers creates between their being both constrained and liberated in their travels.
However, I don’t know if I love the execution. I found it to be a real effo...more
I’ve been reading You Shall Know Our Velocity (currently re-titled to Sacrament) for over a month. Usually, when school is out, and it is, I average about a week to a week and a half on any given book. I haven’t finished it and I must tell you, the problem isn’t me. For once.
I’m half-way through the book and thus far, aside from traveling to a few countries and trying to tape money on goats (I’m pretty sure it was goats), nothing has happened. I know that the main character’s face is...more
I’m half-way through the book and thus far, aside from traveling to a few countries and trying to tape money on goats (I’m pretty sure it was goats), nothing has happened. I know that the main character’s face is...more
I was hesitant to read this upon Julie's recommendation, because the basic premise turned me off. A pair of friends have just lost their other best mate. They hatch a plan to travel around various corners of the world handing out at random large sums of money, until they have completely exhausted their quite significant savings. By the way, that is all revealed in the first few pages, so nothing is spoiled.
My first reaction was that this seemingly cathartic and symbolic gesture di...more
My first reaction was that this seemingly cathartic and symbolic gesture di...more
Though this book is compared to On The Road, the similarities stop at both books being about travelling. While Kerouac describes, with compassion and care, his fellow human beings, Eggers draws broad sketches of the people he meets.
The main character, Will, doesn't change. The most worthwhile conversations he has are in his own mind, in which he makes up responses for the people he is talking to. This does absolutely nothing to further the plot.
There are some truly beaut...more
The main character, Will, doesn't change. The most worthwhile conversations he has are in his own mind, in which he makes up responses for the people he is talking to. This does absolutely nothing to further the plot.
There are some truly beaut...more
Dave Eggers is my favorite author. Witty, insightful, self mocking and disturbingly familiar. Anyone who has read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius knows what I’m talking about. A blurb on the back claims Eggers can “inspire a generation as much as document it,” that seems pretty apt. Maybe we are of the same generation and this feeling of insufferable privileged ennui is a common thread of our time.
Given $80,000 for the use of his silhouette on the side of a box of light bulbs, W...more
Given $80,000 for the use of his silhouette on the side of a box of light bulbs, W...more
i love dave eggers. this is the main character describing how his mind works (he sits at a desk at the top of a grassy hill overlooking a meadow and stream, and the library is inside the hill and is staffed by little pale, oily, hairless people that look like moles):
"And as much as I value the efficiency and professional elan of the library staff, I'd begun recently to worry about a new wrinkle in their procedures. For the most part, they're supposed to act on my requests when I...more
"And as much as I value the efficiency and professional elan of the library staff, I'd begun recently to worry about a new wrinkle in their procedures. For the most part, they're supposed to act on my requests when I...more
Dave Eggers writes beautifully, yet his novel never seems to inspire any connection between the reader and the characters. The plot line seemed familiar, two young men, without plans traveling the world. The impetus for the trip seems to be the death of a childhood friend. The two remaining friends, the main Character who hasn't done much with his life and Hand, a good looking, risk taking, non motivated individual decide to give away a large sum of cash that the main character has acquired. ...more
I stumbled across this book randomly at the bookstore. I had read mcsweenys and the believer a few times here and there but i actually had no idea that Dave Eggers had any novels. I got excited when i saw his name on the front of the book so I scooped it right up and I am glad I did.
I think had a read this book three months ago I wouldn't have appreciated it the same way i do now but it came into my life at a time when I was having a lot of the same feelings as the books main chara...more
I think had a read this book three months ago I wouldn't have appreciated it the same way i do now but it came into my life at a time when I was having a lot of the same feelings as the books main chara...more
There's something a little frustrating about Dave Eggers. I genuinely think that he is a wonderful, gifted writer. He captures certain moments so completely and beautifully that I'm astounded past the point of envy. But he doesn't know when to quit. This is a fault I'm finding in a lot of contemporary writers like Michael Chabon and David Foster Wallace; as gifted as they are, they seem to lose their focus in the enjoyment of hearing/reading themselves. Wallace is particularly bad at this (I don...more
An unfortunate sophmore slump. Eggers tries to follow up the critically acclaimed and highly enjoyable A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius with a more trifling novel, but he aims for nothing and hits just that. The premise kept me hoping for a catharsis or point of any kind but the novel just goes nowhere.
The hardback edition, however, is one of the coolest books that I own. The text actually starts on the front cover of the book and continues from there. His unusual font choic...more
The hardback edition, however, is one of the coolest books that I own. The text actually starts on the front cover of the book and continues from there. His unusual font choic...more
It's hard to know what to say about this one, and I'm not going to be able to sum it up in any meaningful way. I really enjoy the way that Dave Eggers writes most of the time, but often I want to grab him by the shoulders and suggest he calm down a little. His characters are so full of big ideas it's easy to get caught up in their enthusiasm, but sometimes they seem to display a complete absence of good sense and that can get frustrating after awhile. On the whole, I liked and was somewhat confu...more
Sometimes, I feel guilty about traveling and not appreciating where I'm at. Especially when I find myself shuffling through slush at all hours of the day and night in this all too familiar corner of the world. But nevertheless, when confronted with great beauty, I'm sometimes looking for a more fulfilling achievement or vista. Like, "this view is nice, but it does lack a certain couch-like feel that I've grown fond of, or at least accustomed to." Dave Eggers' fiction work here feel...more
“Thoughts are made of water and water always finds a way.” — Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity
I started reading this in Bahrain. I got on a plane to London. I read it on the tube a lot. I read it in a cab. I read on the train out to a friend’s. I read it in the cinema when the attendant fell asleep and started the movie a half hour late. I had gone alone, but there was a camaraderie between the twenty or thirty of us that were sitting there waiting for the movie to play, and my ...more
I started reading this in Bahrain. I got on a plane to London. I read it on the tube a lot. I read it in a cab. I read on the train out to a friend’s. I read it in the cinema when the attendant fell asleep and started the movie a half hour late. I had gone alone, but there was a camaraderie between the twenty or thirty of us that were sitting there waiting for the movie to play, and my ...more
While I still think that A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is Eggers’ best work to date, You Shall Know Our Velocity! isn’t far behind. The book is about two best friends, Will and Hand, who have decided to travel around the world in a week and give away $32,000 in the process. The characters are young, somewhere in their twenties, and don’t seem to be doing anything meaningful with their lives. I believe that, while Eggers never blatantly states this to the reader, the lack of meaning i...more
I loved Eggar's What Is the What?, the novelized memoir of a "lost boy of Sudan." I hated Eggar's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. So I picked up You Shall Know Our Velocity with trepidation -- and hated it immediately. I forced myself to finish it -- unlike Heartbreaking Work, which I put down after three chapters -- out of a sense of fairness to Eggar's reputation. As with Heartbreaking Work, Eggars writes about characters who are purposely unable to cope, young men who ...more
I was lent this book by a friend, and to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. I think Dave Eggers is brilliant. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is not just a clever title, it's one of the most entertaining and profound memoirs I've ever read. I also liked the movie Away We Go (written by Eggers), and I've heard his screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are is quite good as well. So my opinion of Eggers' writing is quite high.
However, I also have read enough about him to ...more
However, I also have read enough about him to ...more
The difficulty that I always have with David Eggers applies just as much with this book...it's challenging to separate the author's personality from the main character/protagonist. It's like he's clever but is a little too aware of it..he's anticlimactic on purpose. He's cocky but somehow full of self doubt. If that doesn't make much sense, then you should read a few pages of this to understand.
The premise of this one is very interesting...basically, two friends have lost one of th...more
The premise of this one is very interesting...basically, two friends have lost one of th...more
I can honestly say that I've never thought about visiting Dakar. Or Morroco. Or Estonia. Latvia, maybe.
After reading "You Shall Know Our Velocity" by Dave Eggers, though, I'm pretty sure I'd be willing to travel anywhere as long as I had someone along for the ride and a goal for the trip.
This book completely changed my perceptions of international travel, challenged some of my assumptions about what it means to have your life "figured out" and "all together...more
After reading "You Shall Know Our Velocity" by Dave Eggers, though, I'm pretty sure I'd be willing to travel anywhere as long as I had someone along for the ride and a goal for the trip.
This book completely changed my perceptions of international travel, challenged some of my assumptions about what it means to have your life "figured out" and "all together...more
Dave Eggers, with YSKOV!, has written a moving and hilarious novel about two friends traveling around the world to give away 32,000 dollars and free themselves from a profound loss. The book explains the grief of dealing with the death of a friend who was far too young to die -- deep down it's about friendship and love and all that you hold dear. But it's also about living life and enjoying the time we have by living out dreams, or in the case of the two main characters Will and Hand, creating t...more
I find myself both loving and hating this book; totally swept up in the story and intense emotions and, at the same time, disappointed in the emptiness of the plot. The characters are overly intense, and as a reader I was hit over the head again and again with dramatic emotions, shocking revelations, flagrant detail, and nerve-racking incessant internal dialogue. To its credit, in a book about escape and movement the writing style lives up to a feeling of velocity. It's disappointing to acknow...more
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Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books, including his most recent, Zeitoun, a nonfiction account a Syrian-American immigrant and his extraordinary experience during Hurricane Katrina and What Is the What, a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award. That book, about Valentino Achak Deng, a survivor of the civil war in southern Sudan, gave birth to the Valentino Achak Deng F...more
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“All I ever wanted was to know what to do.”
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“You invite things to happen. You open the door. You inhale. And if you inhale the chaos, you give the chaos, the chaos gives back.”
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