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topic: Bear with it.
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The first third of the book is exceedingly depressing and sometimes disgusting, but bear with it. Eggers' true humor shines through and reveals a truly heartbreaking tale of family love and unity.
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I enjoyed the book, but never found it depressing. It's certainly not light material, but it never got me down.
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I *hated* this book more than any book I think I've ever read before. It's so cloying and painfully self-aware in the worst possible way.
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The first half is worth reading. When it starts to drag, and you will know it by its velocity, stop reading it. It doesn't get better.
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This is one of the most memorable books I have ever read. Eggers has a way of weaving tragedy with humor. And yes... he's pompous and self absorbed, but that certainly doesn't take away from my love of his material!
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I couldn't get through it. I tried, valiantly, and I am not one to give up readily. The first half, or maybe 2/3 was readable, but after that I just kept thinking "I don't care. Not a bit." So I quit.
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I am currently reading this book and fell in love with it in the beginning, but I think I have reached the part where it drags. I will definitely finish it...I just started struggling with it during the real world interview. Sometimes he is so long winded and it's hard to keep going with him when he is so obviously stretching it as far as he possibly can. I love the story though, and don't really find it depressing. I hope it picks up again and I can find the charm that I fell in love with in the beginning!
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"It's so cloying and painfully self-aware in the worst possible way."
I can't imagine many things that by definition, are more self-aware than a memoir.
And as a memoir it's a thing of beauty. Passages that you'll want to read aloud to somebody.
Much better than his follow-up.
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Yes. And yes.
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god, i never got bored during reading this book. and i adored all the small additions, like in the cover page where he wanted people to send pictures of themselves with the books, etc...i mean, really. and i feel like i said this somewhere else already, but if you don't sob during the last 2 pages of the book, you are a robot.
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I agree with mercy, I loved it. I laughed out loud many times, and I also cried at the end. I related to so many things in this book (no, my parents are not both dead, but I still related) and I think it helps to read it when you're young since it's written by a young person.
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I'm currently two-thirds of my way through this book, and I find myself not enjoying the second half nearly as much. He does get painfully self-absorbed, and the self-aware-book-thing is not as alluring as the narrative first half. Thanks to this discussion, I now know I have an ending worth working for, so I will stick with it.
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This is the stuff LIFE is made of....tragic, funny, tragically funny.
Maybe I like it so much because I completely related to his way of story-telling and that world inside one's head.
If you're expecting a plot, there isn't one. This is life captured in its tragedy, excitement and banality. But it is a witty ride.
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I agree that the second half as not as engaging as the first however Eggers himself acknowledges this and urges readers to stop reading at page 155 (or thereabout - I'm not currently holding my copy of the book) if they're only interested in the story of his becoming a "parent" to Toph. So, if the second half of the book is uninteresting to you put it down. Eggers will understand.
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message 15:
by
Mike
(last edited 06/10/2007 06:46PM)
06/10/2007 06:46PM
I completely agree with Gil (comment 4). I'm not sure of the writing gets worse, the story gets less interesting or the whole idea behind the book just becomes tiresome but thats definitely true.
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Whew, I'm glad I'm not the only one that fell into the rut of not being able to finish. So many people rave about this work and I wondered "did they finish it" because I found it so hard to. However, after reading these posts I'll try it again....just to see if perspective makes it palatable.
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I'm glad to hear someone agrees with me - I was starting to think I was the only one in the world who found it painful to read.
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What's with the ending? Help, please...
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I sadly wasn't able to "bear with it". I found it annoying and I was never looking forward to picking up the book, so I stopped. I may have given up too soon, but I doubt I'll ever try to find out if I was wrong. I do admit the content was interesting, but I just couldn`t keep going.
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I think it's hilarious that most people uniformly agree that the book fell apart in the middle.
I also loved the comment by Gil: "The first half is worth reading. When it starts to drag, and you will know it by its velocity, stop reading it. It doesn't get better."
You Shall Know Our Velocity by Eggers (is that the title?) was also... shall I say, a lot of words for no reason.
And talk about self-serving... that title is so grand.
Both titles are so grand. Why does he do that? To get our attention? Well, he got it, and most people on the thread weren't able to sustain the attention.
Of course, I say this, and I certainly have not produced a full-length book, so I don't want to complain too vociferously (I think that's the first time I've actually used that word in my own writing.)
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First, I'd like to point out that Eggers is a wonderful writer. I wholeheartedly recommend What is the What.
Otherwise, I'm in the Gil camp. Loved the concept of this experimental memoir, but was turned off by the internal dialogue when it became--as others pointed out--painfully self-conscious. Self-reflection turns into whiney self-absorption, a form of writing that is probably healing for the author, but not something I want to wade through ever again.
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"and you will know it by its velocity", ha!
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"Meh."
I wanted to like this book... I didn't exactly dislike it, but I was left feeling pretty ambivalent about it by the time I finished.
Eggars can form some pretty phrases- but I didn't really feel my emotions evoked (and I'm a fairly emotional person).
So despite the subjects, the real-life aspect, and the skill with words, I was left feeling a bit empty. by this one. I suppose it seemed just a bit too self-indulgent to me- as if he was writing for his own catharsis, and if someone else happened to enjoy it, so be it.
Obviously that worked out for many people- I just don't happen to be one of them.
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I agree that the book pretty much unravels in the middle, but I thought the first half was hilarious. The title, in my mind, is meant to be funny, not accurate. In fact I read the whole book as self-depracating rather than grandiose. I definately laughed out loud enough to recommend it to certain friends.
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I read it some time ago. It didn't leave much of an impression. I do recall being disappointed with it after so much hype.
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