Like many short story collections, I found this somewhat uneven. There are brilliant stories and beautiful turns of phrase. There’s also some stories where it’s difficult to grasp where Eggers is trying to go - if anywhere, and turns of phrase/writing style that is too artful to enjoy.

In this collection, Eggers (Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) is obviously straddling the line between being a writer__and a very talented one at that__and being the spokesman for the new age of self-conscious writing. Reviewers are unanimously unhappy with a few of his literary pranks here. "There Are Some Things He Should Keep to Himself," for example, offers up five blank pages. But when Eggers throws off our expectations and starts writing, he shines. His longer stories are original, witty, and truthful. As his characters search for transcendence, Eggers and his readers are right there with them.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

I have been reading this book really slowly across this whole year, and now I've come to the end of it I'm still not entirely sure what to think of it. Some of the stories were absolutely wonderful, some seemed like they were trying a bit too hard to be deep and meaningful. I definitely liked the shorter stories better than the longer ones, I think 'Your Mother and I' and 'After I was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned' were my favourites.

There was a line somewhere in 'The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water' which I totally can't find that I'm going back and looking about it, but it was something about how there 'the water wasn't a metaphor'. And that kinda reflected my experience with the book: sometimes you should just stop looking for symbolism/metaphors and read and let the words wash over you and enjoy.