5.0 out of 5 stars
You Shall Know Our Velocity, Dec 13 2003
By A Customer
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!!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful tour de force about grief!, Nov 22 2003
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...
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Kerouac meets Lonely Planet, Nov 11 2003
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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