How We Are Hungry: Stories by Dave Eggers [Import] [Paperback]

Dave Eggers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2005

How We Are Hungry is a gripping, lyrical and soulful collection of stories from the acclaimed author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Ranging from a doomed Irish setter’s tales of running and jumping (“After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned”) to a bitterly comic meditation on suicide and friendship (“Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance”), and from the Egyptian desert to the asphalt of Interstate 5, these stories are Eggers at his finest. By turns devastating, clear-eyed and funn – incredibly funny – this collection is a marvel.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“These tales reinvigorate that staid old form, the short story, with a jittery sense of adventure.... Eggers does things that should be impossible, and he does them gracefully.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Beautiful stories, anchored in the real world…. How We Are Hungry looks like a classic.”
—The Oregonian

“A tour de force.... These pieces demonstrate the same startling geographic range and sly descriptive acuity that animated You Shall Know Our Velocity.... [Eggers’s] prose is supple, transparent and surprising.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Electrically funny ... full of the raw stuff of lives. The pain and the anger. Emotions that get mixed up and change from one minute to the next. The wonder and the joy. It’s all condensed and crafted, worked, that’s what fiction is. But it feels raw, and it’s exhilarating.”
—The Globe and Mail

“There’s plenty in this collection to remind us that, for all his noodling around, Eggers is phenomenally talented.”
—Washington Post

“[The story ‘Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly’ is] a masterpiece ... the narration is magisterial, without a false note.... It may well be the last great twentieth-century short story.”
—The Observer (UK)

"'After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned’ is a small tour de force that ratifies [Eggers’s] ability to write about anything with style and vigour and genuine emotion.”
—The New York Times

About the Author

Dave Eggers and his wife live in Northern California. He edits a magazine, McSweeney's, and teaches at 826 Valencia in San Francisco.

www.mcsweeneys.net

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Canada; 1ST edition (October 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0676977804
• ISBN-13: 978-0676977806
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,502,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Left "Hungry", July 2, 2005

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How We Are Hungry: Stories by Dave Eggers (Paperback)

Dave Eggers first caught the world's attention with the semi-autobiographical "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." With the release of "How We Are Hungry," we get to see Eggers in a slightly new light -- these stories possess his usual postmodern skill and pensive intelligence, but lack the gentle humor and wit.

In this collection, Eggers examines various people who try to escape their difficulties, whether climbing mountains or roaming through rural Scotland. These people may be searching for love, for glory, for release, a burst of adrenaline in the desert, or for just a fling by the beach -- however, their problems and pasts will not go away.

Eggers does occasionally dip into gimmickry, such as "There Are Some Things He Should Keep to Himself." Don't expect much -- it's a few blank pages, which made me smile. But I feel a little cheated. He's at his best when he's unconsciously quirky, such as a cute conversation between God and the ocean in one short story.

Eggers has done well in his past novel and memoir, but some of the themes of "How We Are Hungry" feel worn -- this man has a unique writing talent, but writers have to grow, and this writing doesn't show his mind or soul growing. The themes have not changed, and that lack of movement and growth makes it feel like he's just... stuck.

That said, Eggers' writing is genuinely compelling and rich; in his rambly way, he's incredibly eloquent. His descriptions have a raw energy that can take your breath away, such as riding a horse in the desert. At the same time, he can wrap his characters in so much finely-drawn misery that it is difficult to not be moved by them. It's also the one area where Eggers stumbles -- despite the whimsy of the occasional "gimmick" story, the writing is dark and rather depressed. I'm not asking for sunshine and butterflies, but it lacks quips, wit and human insight.

Those characters tend to feel like reflections of Eggers himself -- rather world-wear and melancholy. One woman, who climbs a legendary mountain in search of a purpose, is perhaps the richest character -- her inner thoughts are so real that they fly off the page. And she, like all the other characters, is hungry. Not for food, but to fill some emptiness inside that can't be named.

Perhaps it's that inner hole that preoccupies Eggers' work, and the endless search is what keeps it from exploring the world. Despite a hint of stagnation, "How We Are Hungry" is a rich and engaging collection of stories. It leaves me wondering where -- if anywhere -- Eggers will go as a writer.