You Shall Know Our Velocity

I don't know what book other reviewers have read, but I'm inclined to think it wasn't this one. Or, at the very least, they didn't pay all that much attention.
YSKOV is about a world wide jaunt. But as with any great book, it's about so much more.
Let me ask, do you think Old Man and the Sea was solely about an old man on a fishing trip?
The main plot in YSKOV, the trip and the subsequent random acts of charity therein, are secondary elements.
This book is about a trip, that much is true, but not just a trip to far off contries. It's about a trip through the wounded and recovering psyche of a lost soul. It's about the urge to find's oneself, and all the vain and unsuccessful attempts at doing so. It's about the need for freedom, while still craving structure. It's about the desire to better ourselves, and in doing so, bettering the world in which we live.
It's about confronting the past. It's about using sorrow instead of running from it. It's about taking a chance, risking failure, if for no other reason than chalking up another gained experience.
In the end, You Shall Know Our Velocity is about nothing more than love. Love for our brothers, friends, parents. Love for our pasts and love for our futures. Love for ourselves and love for humanity.

The good news. I liked it better than AHWOSG.
The bad news. I still don't care. I tried to give this book a fair shake after being so disappointed with 'Heartbreaking,' but it didn't redeem itself.
The probelm that I have with stories and novels of this ilk is that of the elements of a story - plot, characterization, conflict, etc. - is that they all tend to be missing one of more of those elements. There has to be growth, or change, a moment of clarity, something, but I just couldn't find it. And it is fine for an author to be experimental, play fast and loose with the rules, e.g. Joyce, Beckett, Salinger, etc., but I can't see Eggers doing more than the literary equivalent of mugging for the camera.

As others have said, there are parts of this book that are so original, they blow your mind. But, Eggers is so self-conscious in his writing, for every clever plot twist, the reader can almost envision Eggers, the wheels of his brain turning as he writes what he considers to be extremely clever passages. It gets old. As with HWOSG, the book is far better in the first half than in the second. It was a good read, but not the great read I had hoped.

I was amazed by Heartbreaking Work so I expected a lot of this book. It delivered. I hate predictability in writing and this definitely kept me guessing and never gave me a clear vision of what was to come. I was laughing out loud at some of the more outrageous parts (loved what the note said that they tried to tape to donkeys along the way). If you want to read something refreshing and original, you will love this book.

this book reminds me of theavocadopapers -- for all the attention that that website has gotten recently, most of that attention doesn't focus on what reviews of eggers' new book have also not focused on: for the first twenty or so pages, you're like "what the..." then things start to come together. totally original, completely subversive (and yet you're aware in some way of being subverted, and you don't mind), mind-bending (but it's not painful), and perhaps all, wholly engrossing. I'd have given it five stars, but for the fact that eggers hasn't yet figured out that he doesn't need to hide behind quite so much "cleverness."

Seriously, if you're young and you want to write "great literature" get a cheap used copy of this book and read it. Then do you very best to not write anything that remotely resembles the writing in this book.

The reason you'll want to own this book is so you can consult it should you think your writing might have become self indulgently artsy or you're dialog and plotting begin to feel like a "finding-myself-on-the-journey" indie film. Compare your writing to this book. If your writing sounds similar hit DELETE and start again.

Admittedly I only read 108 pages of this before my constant eye rolling made me give up. Maybe the book gets wildly better at page 109. (Actually, I glanced ahead a bit and don't think it does.)

But something else seems possible: Eggers set out to write the worst novel he could get away with actually seeing published. Maybe as a prank. Maybe as a way to reset the bar after AHWOSG made him into a young literary god. With nowhere to go from Olympus but down maybe he decided to go all the way down. Maybe.

Much of Egger's personality bleeds through his bursting heart straight into the pages of YSKOV, so if you found his previvous book enjoyable you will certainly enjoy elements of the latest.

I personally found myself waking early to read, and wishing I was home so I could continue.

Readers put off by what has been mentioned as an overly-showy style must first be open to interesting literary devices, and secondly must remember one of the books points: performance literature. It is indeed the point to get out and make things happen, interact, to do strange things and live as you did when you were a kid. Small victories, lots of them.

When you're not in agreement with the characters or have no frame of reference, you'll be laughing at the things they say and do.

Dave Eggers will win the Nobel Prize someday if they decide to award smugness. He is the master of being self-effacing, and at the very same time self-indulgent. He wants both sympathy and adulation. Dave Eggers should run for political office instead of write.
Eggers engages in what I call "prose babble" which is very common among today's writers. Prose babble is a disease that has brought American Literature to its grave. He does not know how to write well, as much as talk well, and then write down how he talks. So essentially you get a first-person talk-a-thon novel rather than a written novel. Things like economy, vocabulary, and style are gone from these works. But you got a good friend talking to you, but you may not want to hear him go on and on and on.

Why should you read this book? How bout these apples:

1.Cool title

2.Cool cover

3.$38,000 changes hands over 351 pages--which is roughly $100 a page

4.Frequent usage of profanity, but in an intelligent, creative way, although sometimes just in a profane way

5.Here I am rock you like a hurricane

6.Humor

7.Tragedy

8.Metaphor

9.Just, honestly, I mean, like Dave Eggers tears it up, straight up yo

10.You shall know it

11.You shall read it

If you are between the ages of, say, 15 and 30, and have as yet not read this book, I don't know what's the matter with you, and pity you. If you are not between those ages, I understand, but still pity you, and not because you're too old or too young, because all ages are cool and good, and I would not pity you anymore if you read You Shall Know Our Velocity. Come on, people! Get with it.

Eggers' first work of novel-length fiction is disappointing given the zealous reactions I've witnessed in people whom I've asked about "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". Mr. Eggers' prose is at times nothing short of annoying. I don't feel like I need an exclamation point at the end of a sentence to understand emphasis, and when he uses them with such frequency I feel like either I'm being patronized or Eggers' is being lazy (the emphasis should be contained within the prose, not the punctuation). "But we had to move on." is a sentence so full of melodrama I had to stop reading the book for a minute to try and understand why it wasn't just tacked on to the last sentence, as the sentiment would have been conveyed much more succinctly. I do find the concept to be very intriguing (which is why I bought the book in the first place), however, it's execution is so heavy-handed that again I don't feel like Eggers' has enough confidence in either his own writing or the reader (see any of Will's conversations with his mother in which she explicates his purpose and Will responds "That's the point." The reader should know what the point is without your main character stating it at several different junctures, Mr. Eggers.). His dialogue, on the otherhand is mostly unforgivable. Capturing the idiosyncrasies of your generations manner of speech is dull, familiar, and uninventive. Much like the men in the Budweiser commercial who say with absurd stateliness "How are you doing?", this dialogue is a parody of itself. This is not the worst book I have ever read, it merely has too many repeated small mistakes (many of which I actually left out, believe it or not) for me to consider it a highly readable novel. By the end of it, I was just glad I had seen my last exclamation point and I could put it away.

On a scale of one to ten...
Entertainment value: 10
Profundity: 10
Relevance: 10
Page-turner-ness (yes, it's a word, because I just created it!): 10
To Mr. Eggers: you have written a remarkable, beautiful, subtle, meaningful book. I will do my part to install you in the canon by listing this book on my high school advanced placement reading list. Please don't sign any movie deals; this book deserves to remain in your capable and trustworthy hands!

Throughout the book, the main character, Will makes several attempts to write postcards to his pals back home, but on each futile attempt he crumples the cards and tosses them in the back seat, unsatisfied with his prose. I wish Eggers took a page from his own book.
i loved the past book and am a huge fan of road stories, but this book didn't do anything for me. The characters' personalities and traits are too one dimensional and too heavy handed. As i read each page, i could see Eggers writing it. At no point was he able to suspend reality and make me believe in the story. I couldn't wait for it to end so I could move on.
A sophmore effort, i hope Dave has something better up his sleeve for his next go around.

I still have chills from this book. Never since Kerouac has a simple story of life and a trip seemed so alive, so real. This book is a true piece of art, every line carefully crafted to make you stop and think and apply it to yourself. I recommend this book to any hopeless wandering romantic, or anyone who wishes they were. Please read it! It might change your perceptions, or if not, it will at least make you look deep within the core of your humanity.

You Shall Know Our Velocity is a story about humanity more than it is a story about the world. Readers quickly get to know and relate to the characters, even before knowing their stories. Written with Egger's wonderfully fluid way of weaving a story and a person together. Incredibly enjoyable to read and travel through.

Dave Eggers who gave us a breakthrough masterpiece in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, is back with a wildly original whirlwind You Shall Know our Velocity. In the tradition of Kerouac's On the Road, Egger's tale of two friends journeying around the globe in a frenetic act of benevolence is set among a cast of perfectly imagined characters. Making us focus not on the acts but on the warm=hearted humanity of Will and Hand, despite their clumsy methods,is a rare talent of Mr. Eggers. A joy from cover to cover, You Shall Know.. is a brilliant sophomore effort.

This book is printed on lovely thick paper. That is about the highest compliment I can muster. I have only managed to read 160 pages, but I'm not sure I'll waste my time finishing. This book is nothing like AHWOSG. Do not buy this book if you are expecting a similar experience. Buy this book if you feel like owning a book printed in Iceland. Yahtzee!

Dave Eggers is wonderful in "You Shall Know Our Velocity". The book is very comical and sensitive. I have laughed outloud several times while reading. A great book for those interested in travel and those just looking for a engaging, humorous, and sensitive human story. Also suggest reading " A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Eggers. It's brilliant!

How can I describe? The paper is nice and pleasant to touch(very, very nice paper) I couldn't stop touching it . . .I liked the pictures. . . especially of the circled bird. . . (what a perfect circle!) I think you should read this book. . . it's an experience, but not for everyone. . . some will be bored. . . there doesn't seem to be much of a point. . . much the same as life. . . try it and you may like it.

Narcissistic tripe. Absolute garbage. Appropriately enough, I read most of it on the crapper. Had it been printed on toilet paper it might've been good for something. The late John Gardner once stated that most modern fiction barely approximates fiction. This doesn't even accomplish that much. It is indeed sad that something this bad merits publication.

It is rare that boastings like a perfect combinatíon of Kerouac and Salinger is true, but in this case it is.

Mr Eggers is a funny and engaging writer. I counted and found a funny quirk every four lines in the beginning of the book.

Mostly it tramples a cogenial middle ground of the funny and the sad making it tragically funny.

One thing really drove me crazy about this book.

There are these little pictures inserted into the text from time to time. Which is fine. But at one point, the main character describes seeing three new cream-colored Broncos. And then there are these little pictures of three little trucks in the text.

Problem? Well, first of all, the little pictures are actually Mercedes M-Class SUVs. And secondly, Ford stopped making Broncos well over a decade ago.

Eggers, if you don't know anything about cars, don't write about them. The Car-Nerds are watching!