- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: McSweeney's (July 10 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1932416137
- ISBN-13: 978-1932416138
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 14.7 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #309,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
In his first collection of short stories, Eggers shows himself to be, well, serious. Gone is the charming, smirky, self-conscious narrative voice that helped make A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (1999) so popular. Aside from the story "There Are Some Things He Should Keep to Himself," which consists of five blank pages, these short stories are unrelentingly sincere--sometimes too much so. Many of these stories feature Americans abroad--a man alone in Egypt, a woman (also alone) in Tanzania preparing to climb Kilimanjaro. In the collection's best story, "The Only Meaning of Oil-Wet Water," two old friends reunite in Costa Rica for a kind of loveless love affair. The accumulation of details--surfing together in the oil-wet water, an injured anteater in their hotel room--brings the story a haunting power. But some of the stories don't come together as well, and Eggers' fans may be disappointed that almost none crack a smile. Still, Eggers imagines emotionally and symbolically resonant scenes as well as any of his contemporaries, and this collection has several great ones. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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
"A tour de force. . . . [Eggers'] prose is supple, transparent and surprising." —The New York Times Book Review
"The man can simply write extraordinarily well. . . . How We Are Hungry is a triumph of both form and content. . . . Dave Eggers is the real thing." —The Guardian (London)
"Beautiful stories, anchored in the real world, with more bodies and objects than concepts or abstractions. There is a sense of human exuberance in the clean, swift language. . . . It looks like a classic." —The Oregonian
"It's [the] tension between our base and noble impulses, our so-called animal and refined natures, that gives How We Are Hungry its momentum. . . . Eggers is phenomenally talented--maybe uniquely so." —The Washington Post
"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, working, that's what fiction is. But it feels raw, and it's exhilarating. . . . And that's not even getting into how electrically funny Eggers can be." —The Globe and Mail
"'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 vigor and genuine emotion." —The New York Times
"Haunting character-driven narratives. . . . Eggers is a master." —Entertainment Weekly
"['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 (London)
"One of the many pleasures in reading How We Are Hungry, Eggers' recent collection of stories, is that it reminds you of his abilities as a writer. He can dazzle . . . he can move effortlessly between classic storytelling and the more experimental." —Salon
"There's stunning writing here. Subtle, epigrammatic, candid and thoughtful." —Herald (London)
"While some story collections forsake the everyday for the exotic, Dave Eggers' How We Are Hungry finds meaning in the back yards of America as easily as amidst the surf of Costa Rica–with the revelation that sometimes, the heaviest things we carry on a journey are our own thoughts." —The Philadelphia City Paper
"As always, Eggers finds his place between outrageous humor and disastrous sadness. . . . [His stories] don't quit resonating until long after the last sentence is finished." —Newcity Chicago
"It's not surprising that short stories would turn out to be [Eggers'] best fiction milieu. . . . He plays with format and content alike, and the results are as remarkable as they are intrepid." —The Onion
"[These] stories and sequences . . . move and disturb in unexpected, even shocking ways." —Times Literary Supplement (U.K.)
"If all writing had the sense of moral purpose Eggers displays, the world would be a sharper, livelier place." —The Journal News
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Heartbreaking works of moderate genius,
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: How We Are Hungry: Stories (Hardcover)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great collection,
By Jock A. Rand (Moosejaw) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How We Are Hungry: Stories (Hardcover)
First introduced to Mr. Eggers via his "A Heartbreaking work" I was intrigued when I saw these stories listed and had to buy them. So many have failed at "collections" but Eggers is not one of them. This really has to be the most ingenius putting-together of ideas since his first book. Having initially read "The Only Meaning" in Zoetrope, I was expecting the rest of the bunch to be stellar, but nothing like what I got. As another reviewer said, "Not a bad one in the bunch." Also very much liked another collection titled "The Children's Corner" by Jackson McCrae. The stories are about loss and everything you can imagine. Very well done also.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (35 customer reviews) 28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Left "Hungry",
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How We Are Hungry (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. 26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great writing, interesting characters, occasional plots,
By J. Bosiljevac - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: How We Are Hungry: Stories (Hardcover)
Eggers's first book, A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS, was amazing (although I've talked to several people about it and nobody can really remember what the story is about-it's just great style). His second book wasn't as fresh, mostly because the style was no longer new.This, his third book, a collection of short stories, reads more like a collection of ideas that never grew up to be bigger. Some, only a page or two long, never even made it to short-storyhood. His writing is fantastic, but I felt like, for most of the stories, I was reading about him or someone he knows. The characters are interesting, but all tend to act and sound the same. His stories have a bit of desperate sadness to them, but they never really go anywhere. Sometimes this is nice. Other times it would be nice to go somewhere with these interesting people. I was a little disappointed that my favorite story in the book is one I read years ago in a short story anthology. It's a great story told from the point of view of a dog. Perhaps I'm being unfair to expect to be blown away by everything Eggar's writes, but there are so many fantastic lines, brilliant descriptions and details laced throughout his stories that I want the stories themselves to be as good. 31 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Staggering genius.,
By S. Schohn - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How We Are Hungry: Stories (Hardcover)
Dave Eggers has always been too clever by half, and often that resulted in prose getting in the way of plot. Short stories, therefore, are the perfect medium for him, as he can dazzle with words without being bound to develop characters or advance a story (although the few longer stories in the book are surprisingly good). There's not a dud in the book; I'd love to see him publish another volume.
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