Craig's review

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4955.How_We_Are_Hungry?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="How We Are Hungry" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1165516037m/4955.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4955.How_We_Are_Hungry?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">How We Are Hungry</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3371.Dave_Eggers">Dave Eggers</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18735027?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>Dave Eggers... Years ago, I read the short story "After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned" (which just so happens to be in this collection) in Nick Hornby's collection Speaking With the Angel and enjoyed it. It wasn't my favorite piece in the collection, but I enjoyed it. I had never heard of Dave Eggers at that point. <br/> <br/>Shortly after that, I started hearing *a lot* about him. Friends were recommending him to me, I heard interviews on the radio, read reviews and many, many arguments. I read several issues of McSweeney's and enjoyed them. I enjoyed his editorials in The Best American Non Required Reading series. I bought A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and couldn't bring myself to read it. (Don't ask me why, but it is still in my 'to-read' pile. I will get to it this year, I swear, but I still can't explain my reluctance to dive into it.) <br/> <br/>When this collection of short stories came out, I snatched it up. I am a huge fan of short story collections, usually preferring them to novels. Of course, it sat in my to-read pile for quite awhile too. <br/> <br/>But I finally read it. And I enjoyed it. I particularly liked "The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water," and "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly." I think the combination of the intensely personal with the (nicely understated) world politics of class worked very well in these two pieces. I also liked "Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone" for its experimentation. While not the craziest piece I've ever read, it told its own story while pretending to be only a list of possibilities for a story. Many of the other pieces were enjoyable, but also less interesting. <br/> <br/>What I feel did not work at all were the flash fiction pieces woven throughout. I've read one flash piece by Eggers before (which I can't remember the title of for the life of me) and loved it, but these fell flat, in my opinion. Typically, I am a fan of the genre. A good flash fiction piece is very powerful -- it has to be to work in such a small timeframe. These just didn't feel like they had that power, that punch to them. <br/> <br/>Overall, I enjoyed the collection and will definitely read more Eggers in the future. Once I catch up, perhaps I can join in on the great Dave Eggers debate. <br/> <br/>Edit: and p.s. I love the cover, whether the book may be judged by it or not. <br/> <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/665947?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>