Dave Eggers

You shall know our velocity!

Tobias V. Langhoff

I will write my thoughts on the book here after my next re-read.

But for the record (my own as well as others', since I own both a paperback and Kindle version): There are two different versions of this book. The original is named You Shall Know Our Velocity. The second, revised edition is named either Sacrament (McSweeney's, February 2003) or You Shall Know Our Velocity! (Vintage, 2003; note the exclamation mark in the title). The latter edition contains additions to the text that put the story in a new light.

Mary Rose Luksha

Though this book is compared to On The Road, the similarities stop at both books being about travelling. While Kerouac describes, with compassion and care, his fellow human beings, Eggers draws broad sketches of the people he meets. 

The main character, Will, doesn't change. The most worthwhile conversations he has are in his own mind, in which he makes up responses for the people he is talking to. This does absolutely nothing to further the plot.

There are some truly beautiful moments in the book, and if the reader has ever lost someone close to them suddenly, can certainly relate.

But (and this is my personal belief) when I read a book, when I have finished I ask myself the question "What was the point?" What was the point of the story, what point does the author want to make. And I am just not personally interested in books where the point made is "Life's a bitch and then you die," or when there is no point at all. Velocity seems to be a mixture of the two. 

Though I think this is still an important book to read because I think Eggers really is documenting this generation, and the problem isn't in his writing, it's in society.

Daryl Houston

I didn't love Eggers's AHWOSG, and I've always found a lot of what I understand to be associated with him to be a little twee, but I also admire what he's done for children's literacy, and I was skeptical but also open-minded about this book.

I liked it quite a lot. It made me think a lot about how we construct narratives and even the narratives about narratives. Some of the digression that starts about halfway through was really great. If the characters are a little juvenile for their ages, there's also a fair amount of waggish charm to some of their escapades. I don't love the book, but I'm glad I read it; I doubt I'll read the whole thing again, but I might flip through to reread some of the more stand-out parts sometime. The book inclines me more toward Eggers than away, so a net positive.

You shall know our velocity!

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