Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by yostertag
Your Fathers, Where Are They? and the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers
4.0
Writing a book that's all in dialogue? Sounds like a play! Eggers' latest is a collection of two person scenes that quickly beget an intricate tale of a young man on the brink of something seemingly magnificent, though alternately troubling to the people he's taken captive.
What dist distinguishes this from a mass trade paperback thriller is the grand globular contextualizing of one man's problems. It's both intimate and opaquely grandiose. Sure it's a dialectic that many psychotic manifesto-y types are sure to have captured before. The isolation between captives simply humanized the plot to a degree not often traversed by pulp horror factories. I never got to a point where I could empathize enough with Thomas (the captor) to see that his actions may be justifiable, though I don't think Eggers wanted the reader to side with the semi-antihero.
The denouement was satisfying and not utterly predictable, even in it's partial lack of clarity. It's much better paced than "A Hologram For The King" and I wonder if Thomas's existential futility intentionally mirrors the lack of resolution.
Worth reading and it's definitely a quick read if you're looking to feel accomplished.
What dist distinguishes this from a mass trade paperback thriller is the grand globular contextualizing of one man's problems. It's both intimate and opaquely grandiose. Sure it's a dialectic that many psychotic manifesto-y types are sure to have captured before. The isolation between captives simply humanized the plot to a degree not often traversed by pulp horror factories. I never got to a point where I could empathize enough with Thomas (the captor) to see that his actions may be justifiable, though I don't think Eggers wanted the reader to side with the semi-antihero.
The denouement was satisfying and not utterly predictable, even in it's partial lack of clarity. It's much better paced than "A Hologram For The King" and I wonder if Thomas's existential futility intentionally mirrors the lack of resolution.
Worth reading and it's definitely a quick read if you're looking to feel accomplished.