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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
Dave Eggars is a gorgeous writer. That much is clear. He writes more like a poet than an actual novelist, which is beautiful to read. However, at times it gets a bit much. 350 pages of vague, flowery, stream-of-conscious writing gets tiring after a while. It's a book that was pretty to read and even poignant, but if I had put it down I most likely wouldn't have picked it back up. I'm also still grappling what the point of the book itself was, I'll have to think about it some more before I decide.
Overall, I enjoyed this work as much as I could and recognize the aesthetic and even deeper quality of it, but it's a book that you have to have patience with. Or maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to read pieces that straddle the border between poetry and prose.
Overall, I enjoyed this work as much as I could and recognize the aesthetic and even deeper quality of it, but it's a book that you have to have patience with. Or maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to read pieces that straddle the border between poetry and prose.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You Shall Know Our Velocity!: Or, An Aimless Trip of Trippers
I knew this already and yet I still read this book. Dave Eggers is NOT for me. I do not do well with stories that are aimless, plotless, and have no direction. This novel is exactly that. Two friends on a trip, doing all sorts of nonsensical things. And for what? I think I'm just so far removed from EVER doing anything like this that it was hard for me to relate. I just didn't care and wanted this trip to end...
I get that there is a point behind all the aimlessness, but it's not a point I care to read more about. The book just rambled on and... for what? And why?! BLAH.
I knew this already and yet I still read this book. Dave Eggers is NOT for me. I do not do well with stories that are aimless, plotless, and have no direction. This novel is exactly that. Two friends on a trip, doing all sorts of nonsensical things. And for what? I think I'm just so far removed from EVER doing anything like this that it was hard for me to relate. I just didn't care and wanted this trip to end...
I get that there is a point behind all the aimlessness, but it's not a point I care to read more about. The book just rambled on and... for what? And why?! BLAH.
Early on the book showed typical DE promise, but it just spiraled precipitously at the halfway mark. Main characters wholly unlike able and their plight uninteresting. Just brutal.
There was a shocking amount of my hometown for a book I bought randomly, without any information about it's contents...
The difficulty that I always have with David Eggers applies just as much with this book...it's challenging to separate the author's personality from the main character/protagonist. It's like he's clever but is a little too aware of it..he's anticlimactic on purpose. He's cocky but somehow full of self doubt. If that doesn't make much sense, then you should read a few pages of this to understand.
The premise of this one is very interesting...basically, two friends have lost one of their best friends at the start. The protagonist has recently inherited a great deal of money ($80,000 plus stock options) for being the inspiration for a silhouetted logo for a product. Understanding the full absurdity of life's dealings and having no other capable way of coping, the protagonist with his best friend venture forth to third world countries to find random ways to give the money away.
What's interesting here is that Eggers probably did actually go to these countries as there are snapshots from time to time that don't look like the kind of photoshopped beautiful things but experiential sorts that come from a writer who has a point and shoot camera to bring out once and awhile..in other words, it's believable. It's also interesting what dilemmas the main character puts himself through because of his American capitalist guilt. Mainly, though, it's the characters you meet on the way and the similarities and criticisms that are drawn of each place. It's worthwhile reading, for sure, but not exactly groundbreaking or teaching anyone anything new (unless you know absolutely nothing about wealth vs. poverty, for instance.) Still, the keen sense of adventure makes it more engaging than quite a few novels being written today. There's also alot of nice long rambles and disconcerting flashbacks.
Some quotes I liked:
p. 43 "I was being blindsided by familiar things. I was pulling over to the side of the road, my head resting on the side window, trying to understand why things could be so green. Songs were knocking me from wall to wall, certain songs in certain progressions strained my eyes, roughed up my throat, brought me near tears without delivering me to any kind of catharsis."
...
"(I) dreamt of a rainstorm where the drops were big as cars. I was watching the storm, full of burgundies and blues, from a bunker and was safe, but people were getting killed, and I was feeling terrible because it was all so beautiful, the drops perfectly and roundly reflecting and distorting the world below before crashing atop those expecting life from rain."
p.62 "It was the end of an epoch and I didn't want to be around to see it happen; we'd traded anonymity for access."
p.67 "You invite things to happen. You open the door. You inhale. And if you inhale the chaos, you give the chaos, the chaos gives back."
p.74 "The point is to offer yourself to death and see if you're chosen."
p.140 "For no reason I pictured raccoons, that under the water and through the wormhole, there would be a society of talking raccoons, who smoked pipes and laughed at the happenings on what they called The Upper World, meaning my world. I would live with them for a while, and the queen, older but not too old, imperious but not unkind, would fall for me and insist on my being her male concubine, ad all in that regard would be just fine, the perks impressive and life in general very good -until she tired of me one day when another prospect arrived, a Jordanian man via a Dead Sea passageway."
p. 203 "Ella Fitzgerald was singing from a small speaker over our heads. Maybe Sarah Vaughn. I worried briefly that they, Sarah and Ella, knew I didn't know the difference, and were angry.
p.229 "The only infallible truth of our lives is that everything we love in life will be taken from us."
p.315 "You can't ever guess at life, at pain. All pain is real, and all pain is personal. It's the most personal thing we have. It eats each of us differently. You cannot know-"
***
"The road was tedious, without light or interruption. For awhile, we drove with our tongues."
The premise of this one is very interesting...basically, two friends have lost one of their best friends at the start. The protagonist has recently inherited a great deal of money ($80,000 plus stock options) for being the inspiration for a silhouetted logo for a product. Understanding the full absurdity of life's dealings and having no other capable way of coping, the protagonist with his best friend venture forth to third world countries to find random ways to give the money away.
What's interesting here is that Eggers probably did actually go to these countries as there are snapshots from time to time that don't look like the kind of photoshopped beautiful things but experiential sorts that come from a writer who has a point and shoot camera to bring out once and awhile..in other words, it's believable. It's also interesting what dilemmas the main character puts himself through because of his American capitalist guilt. Mainly, though, it's the characters you meet on the way and the similarities and criticisms that are drawn of each place. It's worthwhile reading, for sure, but not exactly groundbreaking or teaching anyone anything new (unless you know absolutely nothing about wealth vs. poverty, for instance.) Still, the keen sense of adventure makes it more engaging than quite a few novels being written today. There's also alot of nice long rambles and disconcerting flashbacks.
Some quotes I liked:
p. 43 "I was being blindsided by familiar things. I was pulling over to the side of the road, my head resting on the side window, trying to understand why things could be so green. Songs were knocking me from wall to wall, certain songs in certain progressions strained my eyes, roughed up my throat, brought me near tears without delivering me to any kind of catharsis."
...
"(I) dreamt of a rainstorm where the drops were big as cars. I was watching the storm, full of burgundies and blues, from a bunker and was safe, but people were getting killed, and I was feeling terrible because it was all so beautiful, the drops perfectly and roundly reflecting and distorting the world below before crashing atop those expecting life from rain."
p.62 "It was the end of an epoch and I didn't want to be around to see it happen; we'd traded anonymity for access."
p.67 "You invite things to happen. You open the door. You inhale. And if you inhale the chaos, you give the chaos, the chaos gives back."
p.74 "The point is to offer yourself to death and see if you're chosen."
p.140 "For no reason I pictured raccoons, that under the water and through the wormhole, there would be a society of talking raccoons, who smoked pipes and laughed at the happenings on what they called The Upper World, meaning my world. I would live with them for a while, and the queen, older but not too old, imperious but not unkind, would fall for me and insist on my being her male concubine, ad all in that regard would be just fine, the perks impressive and life in general very good -until she tired of me one day when another prospect arrived, a Jordanian man via a Dead Sea passageway."
p. 203 "Ella Fitzgerald was singing from a small speaker over our heads. Maybe Sarah Vaughn. I worried briefly that they, Sarah and Ella, knew I didn't know the difference, and were angry.
p.229 "The only infallible truth of our lives is that everything we love in life will be taken from us."
p.315 "You can't ever guess at life, at pain. All pain is real, and all pain is personal. It's the most personal thing we have. It eats each of us differently. You cannot know-"
***
"The road was tedious, without light or interruption. For awhile, we drove with our tongues."
Very first Dave Eggers book after wanting to read him for a while. Really enjoyed it! I read it quite fast because it was easy and enjoyable to read. His writing style is beautiful. Some parts of it kinda sounded like a much better, more thought out and far better written Perks of Being a Wallflower (loathed that book). I only had one main issue with the book, which I can't really talk about because of possibly spoilers. It just sort of felt like the classic no-no of "And then I woke up" jolt ending. But I can see also why he did it and why it added to the book!
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this book! It was a perfect book to read while travelling: fast paced and perfectly exciting. This book follows 2 characters, Hand and Will, on their trip across the globe. Their travel encounters are equal parts humorous, devastating, and authentic. As they travel across the world on a strict time restriction and no concrete plan, their goal is to give away the money left over from their friend's death. Truly an interesting plot and fun read.
I can't handle another minute of these stupid men agonizing over where to travel to next.
Disappointing :( I loved Heartbreaking Work, and this, sir, is no Heartbreaking Work.
I feel like this book is an underachieving student. Has potential! Needs improvement! The characters and the concept were both theoretically interesting, and yet I never really cared too much.
Perhaps my expectations were too high? I did enjoy reading it. I finished it. To quote Avril, this book is like so whatever.
I feel like this book is an underachieving student. Has potential! Needs improvement! The characters and the concept were both theoretically interesting, and yet I never really cared too much.
Perhaps my expectations were too high? I did enjoy reading it. I finished it. To quote Avril, this book is like so whatever.