You Shall Know Our Velocity [Paperback]

Dave Eggers (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 1, 2003

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Headlong, heartsick and footsore.... Frisbee sentences that sail, spin, hover, circle and come back to the reader like gifts of gravity and grace.... Nobody writes better than Dave Eggers about young men who aspire to be, at the same time, authentic and sincere.” —The New York Times Book Review

"You Shall Know Our Velocity! is the work of a wildly talented writer.... Like Kerouac's book, Eggers's could inspire a generation as much as it documents it." —LA Weekly

"There's an echolet of James Joyce there and something of Saul Bellow's Chinatown bounce, but we're carried into the narrative by a fluidity of line that is Eggers's own." —Entertainment Weekly

"Eggers is a wonderful writer, bold and inventive, with the technique of a magic realist." —Salon

"An entertaining and profoundly original tale." —San Francisco Chronicle

“Eggers ’s writing really takes off -- his forte is the messy, funny tirade, stuffed with convincing pain and wry observations.” —Newsday

“Often rousing ... achieves a kind of anguished, profane poetry.” —Newsweek

“The bottom line that matters is this: Eggers has written a terrific novel, an entertaining and imaginative tale.” —The Boston Globe

“There are some wonderful set-pieces here, and memorable phrases tossed on the ground like unwanted pennies from the guy who runs the mint.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Powerful.... Eggers’s strengths as a writer are real: his funny pitch-perfect dialog; the way his prose delicately captures the bumblebee blundering of Will’s thoughts; ... and the stream-water clarity of his descriptions.... There is genius here.... Who is doing more, single-handedly and single-mindedly, for American writing?” —Time

From the Back Cover

“Headlong, heartsick and footsore....Frisbee sentences that sail, spin, hover, circle and come back to the reader like gifts of gravity and grace....Nobody writes better than Dave Eggers about young men who aspire to be, at the same time, authentic and sincere.” -- The New York Times Book Review

"You Shall Know Our Velocity! is the work of a wildly talented writer... Like Kerouac's book, Eggers's could inspire a generation as much as it documents it." -- LA Weekly

"There's an echolet of James Joyce there and something of Saul Bellow's Chinatown bounce, but we're carried into the narrative by a fluidity of line that is Eggers's own." -- Entertainment Weekly

"Eggers is a wonderful writer, bold and inventive, with the technique of a magic realist." -- Salon

"An entertaining and profoundly original tale." -- San Francisco Chronicle

“Eggers ’s writing really takes off -- his forte is the messy, funny tirade, stuffed with convincing pain and wry observations.” -- Newsday

“Often rousing ...achieves a kind of anguished, profane poetry.” -- Newsweek

“The bottom line that matters is this: Eggers has written a terrific novel, an entertaining and imaginative tale.” -- The Boston Globe

“There are some wonderful set-pieces here, and memorable phrases tossed on the ground like unwanted pennies from the guy who runs the mint.” -- The Washington Post Book World

“Powerful.... Eggers’s strengths as a writer are real: his funny pitch-perfect dialog; the way his prose delicately captures the bumblebee blundering of Will’s thoughts; ... and the stream-water clarity of his descriptions.... There is genius here.... Who is doing more, single-handedly and single-mindedly, for American writing?” -- Time

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400033543
• ISBN-13: 978-1400033546
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (149 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books, including "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 Foundation, run by Mr. Deng and dedicated to building secondary schools in southern Sudan. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney's, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces a quarterly journal, a monthly magazine ("The Believer"), and "Wholphin," a quarterly DVD of short films and documentaries. In 2002, with Nínive Calegari he co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth in the Mission District of San Francisco. Local communities have since opened sister 826 centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Ann Arbor, Seattle, and Boston. In 2004, Eggers taught at the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and there, with Dr. Lola Vollen, he co-founded Voice of Witness, a series of books using oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. A native of Chicago, Eggers graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The fourth world October 20, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

In many ways, YSKOV is the polar opposite of AHWOSG. While Eggers' first book was angry and bustling with energy and chaos, here he takes a more leisurely pace, no less staggering, but in a more subtle and less fanfare way. The main character, Will, is diametrically different: he is melancholy and lonely, having recently lost his best friend and been physically beaten by a couple of anonymous attackers. So he decides to travel around the world handing out money to poor strangers with his friend Hand. They do it spontaneously, however, hoping that Providence will guide them to where they are supposed to be. So most of the places they decide to go to - Greenland, Siberia, Egypt, Mongolia, etc. - they never reach. Instead they end up in Senegal, Morocco, Estonia, and Latvia, and unlike most adventure stories, rather than finding adventure they find only a dead end. Their trip is a failure from start to finish - they never escape what they want to leave behind, and they never find where they want to be. They constantly abort their plans. Their philanthropy seems to help no one. Will tries to hop a horse buggy to hand the driver some cash, but falls on his face instead; they drive to the top of a mountain at night, looking for poor mountaindwellers, but find it empty and silent. This is a travel-adventure story made up of airport terminals, hotel rooms, empty beaches, vacant bars, desolate mountaintops and lonely woods. It is the 'fourth world', the desolate regions of the world where people rarely ever come and rarely ever stay.

Yet the fact that Will and Hand don't succeed is really the success of the story. It is not about the destinations, or the journey there, but about the things that lie in the past. Will's rememberance of his childhood are the most beautiful passages. It is enjoyable just to be in the company of the characters and the antics they pull. Eggers' paints a beautiful picture, if less loudly innovative, at least as heartbreaking and emotional as his memoir. And even if it is a little modernistic or existentialistic, Eggers' combination of such with his own style of wit and irony make it genuine. It is definately a superbly crafted work.

39 of 44 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars I think Eggers is great, but really, this book... June 28, 2004

By Sarah Hill

Format:Paperback

I've watched Dave Eggers rise to fame from our shared corner of the world, and I thought his first novel was brilliant, but something has happened to Eggers' writing in this novel. What was once quirky and refreshing about his writing seems more like artifice in this book. More often than not, Eggers' writing and plot twists are less profound than they are show-offy. While I was reading the book, I felt like Eggers was a two-year-old prancing around in front of the reading public saying, "Look at me! Aren't I cute? Look at the adorable tricks I can do!"

Admittedly, some of Eggers' literary tricks in this book are cute, and there are moments of touching and hilarious prose. (My favorite line: "I opened my mouth but couldn't think of any way to answer. Someone was using my head to power a coffeemaker.")

But in the end, the plot feels too forced, the writing too self-conscious. Dave Eggers is a good writer. This book doesn't, sadly, fully reflect that. _

46 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviews for hardcover are unjust, this is not the same book. July 9, 2003

By Zachary Vogt

Format:Paperback

If your reading the reviews of this book and at the bottom it says "Refers to the Hardcover Edition", then you should pay no attention to that review. The actual text of the book is different in the paperback edition than in the hardcover. As you can't actually get the hardcover anymore on Amazon.com, the hardcover review is pretty worthless. This book was originally released under the same title as now, but it was recently rereleased under the name SACRAMENT, but only available through the publisher, McSweeney's. SACRAMENT contained additional text written by a completely different narrator, and it actually turns the novel into something quite different.

Sure, the novel does get to a point where it becomes a series of foils and mishaps in various countries, but it is at that point, about two-thirds of the way into the book, that the new material takes place. This new material provides a completely different context for the actions that take place throughout the rest of the book. In a way, it makes the story more metafictional than I imagine it originally was.

The paperback edition contains the additional text, about twenty pages or so, that was not in the hardcover printing of the novel. So, for those of you who have only read the hardcover edition, I would recommend rereading, since the book is actually quite different than when you probably read it. If you're interested in it and thinking about reading it, I would highly recommend this work.

Eggers is more popularly known nowadays for his skills as a publisher of some of the greatest writing since the turn of the century, and editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, among other things. It's been a long time since his first book, and until I read this I thought his own work would simply be thrown by the wayside. This book proves, however, that he is at the forefront of the best writing being done today, and I would say that this is the most original work I've read in a long time, and I read books for a living. It's greatness in relation to modern fiction is surpassed perhaps only by Jeffrey Eugenides' MIDDLESEX, which is too great for words.

In other words, read this book, it is beautiful and worthy of a religious amount of attention.