10 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
BOOKS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2003
'Velocity' funny at first,but repetitive
REVIEW
Dave Eggers' 2000 debut, A Heartbreak Working of Staggering Genius, was well received by critics and the public and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Aaron Passman apassman@kansan.com
It was a monster of a book, a memoir of Eggers' first years after the death of his parents, in which in his early 20s he became the primary caretaker of his 7-year-old brother.
The book was all over the place stylistically, both hilarious and, as the title implies (somewhat pretentiously), heartbreaking.
Now comes Eggers' first novel, You Shall Know Our Velocity, published in Fall 2002 by Eggers' own publishing house, McSweeney's. Velocity tells of two best friends, Will (the novel's narrator) and Hand, and their On The Road-esque efforts to travel around the world in seven days and give away $32,000.
The irony is that while it sounds as if giving away that much money would be easy, Will and Hand find it extremely difficult.
In order to maintain "velocity", Will and Hand intend to move as quickly as possible, trying to get to specific countries they
Dave Eggers' first novel, You Shall Know Our Velocity,tells of two best friends and their On The Road-esque efforts to travel across the globe in seven days and give away $32,000.
want to visit and countries not requiring visas for entry.
It's funny at first, as Will and Hand's plans are thwarted by bad weather, cranky travel agents, injuries, botched travel plans and nearly anything else that comes to Eggers' mind, but after a
while, it gets repetitive.
The story, the protagonists and even the author all seem to fall into a routine with each day of Will and Hand's trip, and after awhile there's the feeling of "Haven't we been here before?"
Will and Hand are the novel's protagonists, but there is a third character, unseen, who is almost more important to Will's story than sidekick Hand.
Much of their trip is motivated by a desire to maintain the memory of their mutual best friend Jack, who died in a car wreck before the novel's action.
Will is still trying to cope with his friend's death, and he's furiously angry about it, but the novel doesn't give enough of Will's inner anger until too late.
Eggers provides lots of internal monologue for Will as he wrestles with Jack's death and with his own demons, but it's often overshadowed by shallower, less interesting plot concerns.
But the relationship between Will and Hand makes up the substantive bulk of the novel.
Hand is wild, impetuous, daring, personable and everything else that Will isn't
YOU SHALL KNOW OUR
VELOCITY
Author: Dave Eggers
350 pages, hardback
Publisher: McSweeney's
GRADE: B-
but wishes he was. It's almost as if for Will their trip around the globe is more about changing himself than just giving away money to whomever he and Hand find deserving of it.
Perhaps the trickiest part of Velocity is actually getting a hold of it.
Rather than publish his novel through a major publishing house (which surely would've paid him handsomely for his efforts), Eggers published the novel through his own publishing house, McSweeney's.
So don't go looking for a copy at the local Borders — the novel is only available in selected independent bookstores or at www.mcsweeneys.net.
Passman is a Towanda senior in journalism and film.