You Shall Know Our Velocity
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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 andsingle-mindedly, for American writing?" -- "Time
"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 andsingle-mindedly, for American writing?" -- "Time
Product Description
Will and Hand are burdened by $38,000 and the memory of their friend Jack. Taking a week out of their lives, they decide to travel around the world to give the money away. They can't really say why they're doing it, just that it needs to be done. Perhaps it's something to do with Jack's death - perhaps they'll find the reason later. But as their plans are frustrated, twisted and altered at every step and the natives prove far from grateful to their benefactors, Will and Hand find that the world is an infinitely bigger, more surreal and exhilarating place than they ever realised. In fact, it's somewhere to get lost in ...
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First Sentence
I was talking to Hand, one of my two best friends, the one still alive, and we were planning to leave. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I was talking to Hand, one of my two best friends, the one still alive, and we were planning to leave. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had high hopes for this novel, having greatly enjoyed Eggers's clever, intricate, self-referential A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. A lot of other people liked that remarkable book too, so I wasn't the only one wondering how he'd be able to maintain that high standard in the transition from a semi-autobiographical work to a novel.
The initial idea is promising: Will and Hand attempt to recover from the trauma of their friend Jack's death by travelling round the world giving away money. Characteristically, Eggers inserts a rider before the story begins, informing the reader that the narrator is now deceased too - i.e. the story is being told from beyond the grave. Not all of Eggers's daring stylistic tricks are successful, and I'm not entirely sure of the validity of this one as it felt more like an unnecessary complication which had been bolted on at the beginning in an effort to make the story more quirky - certainly, I didn't think of it as having any effect on the way I read the following pages.
The writing in the following pages is very good: I thought he was particularly adept at conjouring up the sense of wistfulness that travel in a foreign land can engender, as you look from (for example) the window of a speeding car at people, streets, buildings, animals and landscapes that you're seeing for the first and - almost certainly - last time. This was the aspect of the book that I enjoyed the most, as I found I wasn't all that interested in the adventures of Will and Hand: anyone who apparently thinks that they can just turn up to an airport in the Third World and complain that their expectations of being able to fly off to anywhere they choose aren't being met isn't doing a good job at exciting my sympathy.
The initial idea is promising: Will and Hand attempt to recover from the trauma of their friend Jack's death by travelling round the world giving away money. Characteristically, Eggers inserts a rider before the story begins, informing the reader that the narrator is now deceased too - i.e. the story is being told from beyond the grave. Not all of Eggers's daring stylistic tricks are successful, and I'm not entirely sure of the validity of this one as it felt more like an unnecessary complication which had been bolted on at the beginning in an effort to make the story more quirky - certainly, I didn't think of it as having any effect on the way I read the following pages.
The writing in the following pages is very good: I thought he was particularly adept at conjouring up the sense of wistfulness that travel in a foreign land can engender, as you look from (for example) the window of a speeding car at people, streets, buildings, animals and landscapes that you're seeing for the first and - almost certainly - last time. This was the aspect of the book that I enjoyed the most, as I found I wasn't all that interested in the adventures of Will and Hand: anyone who apparently thinks that they can just turn up to an airport in the Third World and complain that their expectations of being able to fly off to anywhere they choose aren't being met isn't doing a good job at exciting my sympathy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I finished this book very quickly. It was an easy read and I was spurred on to the end. It is about two young men struggling to cope with their emotions surrounding the death of a friend. They try to make sense of them through travel. One in particular is very lonely and tries to reach out to people by giving away money.Some people have said the characters are immature but I don't think they are; Eggers is just very honest about human emotion and confusion. Parts of the book are very sad but there is also humour to be found in the details of the travel plans gone wrong etc. This book reminds me of the beats - particularly On the Road by Jack Kerouac. It also reminds me of Generation X by Douglas Coupland. The travel goes hand in hand with the emotions of the characters - the one is a reason and motive for the other. This is what makes the book flow so well. If you like your books plot driven then this probably won't be your thing. However, if you like similar authors as mentioned earlier, and Eggers other works, then you will probably like this. I would also say this book is probably more aimed at twenty somethings as they may be able to relate to it more.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found the book to be an enjoyable read. These two men are essentially products of an era where there has been no real conflict or revolution in the world, at least not the world they live in - cold northern America - and so they decided to shake things up, while the characters are unstable and at times act moronically I believe this is actually the point of the story: they are so fed up with normality that they seek chaos in a strange environment. It's all just triggered by guilt and misery really.
Eggers has a writing style which transcends normality, like a small selection of his peers, he is taking writing out of the "book" or the "novel" format and bringing it into reality in a way which is highly readable, profound in many ways and also humorous.
I gave it 4 stars, simply because there are better books out there.
Eggers has a writing style which transcends normality, like a small selection of his peers, he is taking writing out of the "book" or the "novel" format and bringing it into reality in a way which is highly readable, profound in many ways and also humorous.
I gave it 4 stars, simply because there are better books out there.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I couldn't get on with this book
Let me start by saying, that I absolutely love one of Dave Egger's other books, 'A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius' so I was really looking forward to reading this... Read more
Published on 9 May 2008 by Ms. J. Elliott
Money to give away
Will, burdened with a large inheritance, sets off round the world with his friend Hand with the aim of giving it away. Read more
Published on 13 Aug 2007 by Benjamin
utter tosh!
This particular piece was unfortunately chosen by our newly formed book club, I have no idea what other reviewers are talking about?...with the exception of messrs z. folkmanis. Read more
Published on 21 July 2006 by Robin Stevenson
never been so bored in my life
it's a book where very little happens very slowly. A psychoanalyst would expect to be paid some kind of money to listen to something so tedious as this - why not just write... Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2005 by Mr. Z. Folkmanis
an american with a passport
So few Americans travel well that they're easy game for po-faced Europeans. In truth, few 'sophisticated' Europeans could hope to communicate the joys behind this book. Read more
Published on 26 Dec 2004 by 2cleverbyhalf
Well worth travelling with
You Shall Know Our Velocity was one of my more literary holiday reads and it's a bit of a road trip by genre: Will's dragging his friend around the world getting rid of a large... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2004 by Stephen Newton
Strange
This is an odd sort of book. It switches between being a story about 2 friends' adventures as they travel remote parts of the world to a psychoanalysis of the main character, Will. Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2004 by Jamo
Buy it!
You Shall Know Our Velocity is Dave Eggers' follow-up to his Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Genius from 2000. Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2004 by "calvino_morena77"
Full Throttle
For all my attempts at the classics I know I'm a neophile at heart. I don't know why but the sight of a new new book will always instil that thrill in a way an old new book, or... Read more
Published on 20 May 2004 by John Self
A perfect travel companion...
Picked up this book by accident when a friend recommended it. It's one of those books where you don't want it to end, the desperation of knowing there are only a few pages left,... Read more
Published on 26 Feb 2004 by "j-claxton"
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