- Hardcover: 371 pages
- Publisher: McSweeney's (Sep 1 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0970335555
- ISBN-13: 978-0970335555
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 15.4 x 3.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 658 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #306,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
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 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"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 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
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.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Shall Know Our Velocity,
By A Customer
This review is from: You Shall Know Our Velocity! (Paperback)
Possibly the best book I've read in a long while. The style and the story combine in such an amazing way. For a first novel this is exceptional! Buy this book!!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful tour de force about grief!,
This review is from: You Shall Know Our Velocity! (Hardcover)
You Shall Know Our Velocity is an excellent novel dealing with the grieving Will, the novel's narrator, and his best friend Hand experience after the tragic death of Jack, the third in their former threesome. The three had been friends since childhood and had always expected to be together, until Jack is suddenly killed in an accident. To deal with their grief, or maybe to escape from it, Hand and Will plan a trip around the world in one week to give away the $80,000 that Will has acquired almost by accident. The novel concerns both this trip and Will's story of his friendship with Jack. Their travels never go as intended, but self-discovery is forthcoming. Will's reflections on Jack's death are devastatingly touching. Dave Eggers is an excellent writer and the novel is, for the most part, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. It will make you laugh and break your heart in the same paragraph many times. I couldn't put this novel down. Highly recommended...
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kerouac meets Lonely Planet,
By
This review is from: You Shall Know Our Velocity! (Hardcover)
I may be reading Eggers in the wrong order, since I'm one of the six people who haven't read A Heartbreaking etc. However this may really be a first novel that was kept in desk drawer until the second one got published. It has many of the characteristics of a first novel; patches of brilliant writing,clever aphorisms, smart dialog, coming-of-age autobiography, stream of consciousness flashbacks, high moral attitudes, and poor plot structure.What I suspect to be the basic plot is that a young American travels the world. He is monolingual,ignorant of the countries he is travelling to, takes a travelling companion and plenty of travellers' checks, makes telephone calls home to mother, crashes in a luxury hotel from times to time, meets interesting characters in hotel bars, is perplexed by finding how much richer Americans are than anybody else, and has trouble dealing with beggars, touts, salesmen, policemen and prostitutes. Super-imposed on this are two other themes or sub-plots. He is griefstricken by the recent loss of a friend in a traffic accident. He has acquired a lot of money, feels guilty about it, and has made a vow to spend it all within seven days. He and his travelling companion are clever people who exchange smart remarks and profound philosophical reflections. They visit Senegal, Morocco, Latvia, Estonia and Mexico. Some of the travel observations are interesting and would have been more entertaining with a less pretentious framework. This is a review of the hardcover edition. Apparently there's a somewhat different paperback version.
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