Customer Reviews

You Shall Know Our Velocity

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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.

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. _

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.

For those of you that have not seen the hardcover edition, it needs an explanation. The book starts right there on the cover. There is no title, no auther, nothing like that -- just text. Then you open the book and on the inside cover is more text. Never a coverpage or anything, YSKOV speeds right into story.

The story itself is fast-paced and wonderful. Based on this and his previous work (Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), I believe that Eggers may well prove to be one of the enduring authors in my generation. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen was heralded as a great American Novel. Don't let publicity fool you: YSKOV is easily its equal. Eggers' writing is extremely smart -- making it all the more enjoyable. Never is he dull.

In YSKOV, the narrator fascinated me for his thought process. Eggers constructs a man who wants to find his place in the world, so he travels it. Yet for all of his travels, he doesn't seem to have any idea what to do when he gets there. As a result, the story is often humourous and often poignant.

While I recommend it to a broad audience, as a gift YSKOV would certainly resonate with the armchair traveler longing for his own whirlwind tour or the young graduate ready to start out in the world. As a final note, if you are considering this as a gift, I strongly suggest the hardback edition. Its presentation aligns nicely with Eggers' draw-you-right-in style, as well as being unique. I believe that the hardback editions were only released to "independent" bookstores -- a fact that may be appreciated by a budding idealist/activist.

However, please note that there have been changes between editions and the hardback and paperback aren't quite the same book. An interesting reason to buy your favorite booklover both editions.

This is no question in this reader's mind that Dave Eggers is a talented and engaging writer. There are sections of this book, as there were in AHWOSG, that are amazingly conceived and executed, as perfectly written as anything I've read. When I get to one of those sections -- be it a paragraph or 20 pages -- I feel like I'm in the story, it's so personal and sincere. However, and with Eggers there always seems to be a however, there aren't enough of those sections to overcome an only better than average plot and really [bad] editing to lift this book into 4 or 5 star territory.

Still, I happy to admit I did enjoy this book. The characters are consistent and truly imagined. The self-doubt and confusion of Will is easy to understand, though his inner conversations tended to get on my nerves a little bit and parts of this internal dialogue tended toward preachy. The fact that it literally took mne around the world is worth something too.

Go ahead and read this book. It's worth it. Just be prepared to find a lot of typos, bad pagination, etc. I suppose those are the perils of self-publishing, but they do detract from an otherwise well-done novel.

Eggers is a genius. Don't expect this to show up next to Da Vinci Code on a bestseller list though. Apparently nowadays people care quite a bit about plot, and while this book certainly has a plot, and a very good one at that, it is entertaining in a very very different way. This is real literature here, folks. If you like multiple layers of meaning, read this. But if you're stuck on books that read like action films, maybe this isn't for you. Then again, if you enjoy honest, sincere literature that celebrates life and makes tired and mundane things seem new again, maybe you should read this after all.

I loved this book. I think it is my all time favorite, though I need to give it more time to sink in.

In this review I would rather talk about an issue that deeply confused me when reading this book: there are two versions out.

My first copy, which I purchased new at a Barnes and Noble had 351 pages, my second copy had exactly 400. The difference is a chapter called "An Interruption" narrated by one of the characters, which was about 50 pages long, and goes from page 250 to 300. Many say that this passage severely alters the story, but I believe it is really just affirming that the book is fiction, and making a joke about the connections people make with the book and his personal life. I don't want to say any more because I don't want to spoil it however, I feel that it is not really an important passage either way.

This was especially confusing to me because I believed that all paperbacks had the alteration, however, they don't. Both say "Vintage Books First Edition July 2003" and both books contain a note that the text was altered from the original version; however both do not contain the interruption.

I do not know which version Amazon.com is selling as it claims the book has 368 pages while that number differs from both of my copies.

Either way this is a great book. I read it first without the interruption, and I think it may read best if you skip it, then read it at the end, as another Amazon reviewer suggested. It almost seems as if the tone of that part expects you to have read the whole story. However, it is not my place to question the work of a genius like Eggers so maybe we should read it the way he (eventually) intended.

This is no question in this reader's mind that Dave Eggers is a talented and engaging writer. There are sections of this book, as there were in AHWOSG, that are amazingly conceived and executed, as perfectly written as anything I've read. When I get to one of those sections -- be it a paragraph or 20 pages -- I feel like I'm in the story, it's so personal and sincere. However, and with Eggers there always seems to be a however, there aren't enough of those sections to overcome an only better than average plot and really "bad" editing to lift this book into 4 or 5 star territory.

Still, I happy to admit I did enjoy this book. The characters are consistent and truly imagined. The self-doubt and confusion of Will is easy to understand, though his inner conversations tended to get on my nerves a little bit and parts of this internal dialogue tended toward preachy. The fact that it literally took mne around the world is worth something too.

Go ahead and read this book. It's worth it. Just be prepared to find a lot of typos, bad pagination, etc. I suppose those are the perils of self-publishing, but they do detract from an otherwise well-done novel.

Dave Eggers will win the Nobel Prize someday if they decide to award smugness. He is the master of being self-effacing, and at the very same time self-indulgent. He wants both sympathy and adulation. Dave Eggers should run for political office instead of write.

Eggers engages in what I call "prose babble" which is very common among today's writers. Prose babble is a disease that has brought American Literature to its grave. He does not know how to write well, as much as talk well, and then write down how he talks. So essentially you get a first-person talk-a-thon novel rather than a written novel. Things like economy, vocabulary, and style are gone from these works. But you got a good friend talking to you, but you may not want to hear him go on and on and on.

After reading Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius I was expecting this book to be a great entertainment, however, I was greatly disappointed. Even though most people gave it great reviews, I know I am not alone in thinking this book sucked. It was hard for me to finish this book because I was waiting for something interesting to happen. It has plenty of random things in the story that make it somewhat humorous but nothing of substance. I guess the point was to create a book that does not have to say anything (breaking conformity so to speak) but I didn't enjoy it here. So disappointed in fact, that I sold the book immediately after finishing it. I will say it is unique but definitely not interesting to read.