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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
This is my mixed take: I read it to the end, but I did not care for the main characters. I hoped they would find some answers or land someplace and find their direction. They wandered and got list and met people. Then they ran out of time, so the journey was done. The author kept me reading but left me wanting a better ending.
I want to like Dave Eggers so bad. He is a really good writer and does really great things for kids and literacy and stuff. But his books seem so meta and pretentious. Like, there are parts that I love, but also parts I just want to punch because they are so grandiose and elaborate. The thing is, I know that's how I feel sometimes, that's how I think sometimes, a little too in-depth. But it gets a little annoying after a while.
I liked this book. It was interesting. I appreciated the "interlude" even though that was a little rambly and disconnected too. But, eh. Sometimes it was just too much.
I liked this book. It was interesting. I appreciated the "interlude" even though that was a little rambly and disconnected too. But, eh. Sometimes it was just too much.
This book is brilliantly written, with sentences and paragraphs that took my breath away. Unfortunately, I found the narrator so deeply depressing and broken that I was actually cheering for his quick death. I have never felt that way before about anyone, alive or fictional. This is definitely the saddest book I have ever read.
Seemed to be an immature follow-up to an amazingly mature, insightful, and provoking memoir.
It's hard to know what to say about this one, and I'm not going to be able to sum it up in any meaningful way. I really enjoy the way that Dave Eggers writes most of the time, but often I want to grab him by the shoulders and suggest he calm down a little. His characters are so full of big ideas it's easy to get caught up in their enthusiasm, but sometimes they seem to display a complete absence of good sense and that can get frustrating after awhile. On the whole, I liked and was somewhat confused by this book.
Like Heartbreaking Work, I read this book shortly after moving, as well. This time, however, it was after my move back to MN. Dave Eggers must be good for transition times in life. After reading Heartbreaking, this was a bit different. It was interesting to read a novel, rather than a "memoir" if you can call Heartbreaking that. Though it was completely fictional and about a different character, it still read like a Dave Eggers book, and it only made me want to read more from the man.
I just couldn't get into this. I wanted to like it, but I couldn't finish it.
Although it drags itself along at a remarkably slow pace and ultimately defeats its own purpose with the insertion of a second narrator to correct the imaginative plot and motivations set out by the first narrator, there is something redeeming about YSKOV. A better editing job would have been of benefit, as there are spelling, grammar, and pagination errors and what seems like a mountain of excess narrative. I enjoyed the ride most of the way, but once I got to the end I felt as though I took nothing from the experience, knowing that the exposition according to the much more interested first narrator was only a fabrication.
I didn't get all the symbols and it made me feel dumb.
Really 2 1/2 stars
I'm not sure what to say about this book really. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. I very often found myself enjoying Eggers's writing style while being annoyed with the story itself.
I don't really understand what it is with male writers that makes them want so badly to write these books about disillusioned young men who are basically losers. I mean this book is essentially Catcher in the Rye for people in their late 20s. I don't know I just have a problem with characters in books who are clearly losers and have clearly done nothing with their lives and then go about philosophizing about how life is meaningless and how there is so much pain and suffering blah blah blah.
I got the distinct feeling from this book that Jack was the only one who had made anything of himself. That Will and Hand are those friends you had in high school who will never move past their minimum wage jobs and will always be bitter about not reaching the potential they felt they were promised.
I'm not sure what to say about this book really. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. I very often found myself enjoying Eggers's writing style while being annoyed with the story itself.
I don't really understand what it is with male writers that makes them want so badly to write these books about disillusioned young men who are basically losers. I mean this book is essentially Catcher in the Rye for people in their late 20s. I don't know I just have a problem with characters in books who are clearly losers and have clearly done nothing with their lives and then go about philosophizing about how life is meaningless and how there is so much pain and suffering blah blah blah.
I got the distinct feeling from this book that Jack was the only one who had made anything of himself. That Will and Hand are those friends you had in high school who will never move past their minimum wage jobs and will always be bitter about not reaching the potential they felt they were promised.