Took this off the shelf at our current housesit in NZ because I’ve read two other Dave Eggers books and figured there was a good chance I’d enjoy it. In fact, probably the perfect time to read it - a story about friends in their 20s traveling (in a much more chaotic way than us, true) and not knowing what they’re doing or what they want.

I think the thread of grief and how it manifests really brings it all together though - as far as I can tell this isn’t true in every edition of this book but in mine the book starts literally on the cover of the book and continues on the inside cover - no title pages, copyright, or anything. Seeing the ‘end’ of the story in the first line right on the cover and slowly learning the timeline and details worked really well for me. Mourning and processing the death of your friend and the loss of possibility in your life bc of it without knowing you’re months from death too. Wanting answers or direct purpose and knowing you really won’t be getting any.

Very amused by the pictures & scanned documents scattered throughout - I’m curious about the origins of the photos especially. Scene description written around them or photos taken for pre existing writing?

“I wanted something to happen so my choices would be fewer, so my map would have a route straight through, in red. I wanted limitations, boundaries, to ease the burden, because the agony, Jack, when we were up there in the dark, was in the silence! All I ever wanted was to know what to do.” ———> getting at some of the same stuff that I really love in Fleabag - knowing you have the options and opportunities that others (your dead friend) don’t anymore but feeling unable to grasp that and do anything you think matters with it - wishing it was clearer, that there was a reason and a purpose, feeling like you’re wasting something someone else would have done a better job with.

This was one hell of a travel companion.

There was something strangely absent from this. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was a great read, but it wasn't fiction. I wonder whether a) he can't write fiction, b) the pressure was too great after the success of his non-fiction breakthrough book or c) he hit lucky with that first book.

I think it was the characters and their motivation. I didn't feel the characters were believable.

Welllllll.....What I loved about this book was the imagination, the humor, and the inspiration. Eggers must have had a great time writing this, his first novel. But geez, where was the editor. I could have lost 100 pages--esp. in the last 1/4. I skimmed the last eighth of the novel and I doubt I missed anything. There were hilarious, laugh out loud scenes. It just needed an editor on board who, well, edited. So the four stars is for the imagination and the sense of humor and heartfelt insanity. Even so, it was too long.

Dave Eggers writes beautifully, yet his novel never seems to inspire any connection between the reader and the characters. The plot line seemed familiar, two young men, without plans traveling the world. The impetus for the trip seems to be the death of a childhood friend. The two remaining friends, the main Character who hasn't done much with his life and Hand, a good looking, risk taking, non motivated individual decide to give away a large sum of cash that the main character has acquired. They choose to do this overseas without any set goal or plans. Of course, interesting situations arise and the book keeps the reader entertained. However, through out the book, one wonders, what is the point? Why should I care? Neither of the places visited or the people met or the characters makes the reader care too much about any of it. It isn't a horrible book, it is readable, but does not leave one feeling as if they have learned anything worth while.

A twentysomething kid from Wisconsin, along with a friend, travels across the world to give away money and cope with the death of his brother. Inconsistent overall. Eggers composed some great passages, but these were interspersed with some awfully preachy writing that I found unappealing. The character were so, so naive. Without the brother subplot to provide some much-needed heft to the story, this would have been a bad road-trip novel. Overall, though, I still liked the book.

What an amazing book! I had a hard time putting it down, and whenever I did, I still felt like the book was with me, influencing my thoughts and actions. This is the kind of book I wish I could write, about the kinds of experiences I wish I could have.

The difficulty that I always have with David Eggers applies just as much with this book...it's challenging to separate the author's personality from the main character/protagonist. It's like he's clever but is a little too aware of it..he's anticlimactic on purpose. He's cocky but somehow full of self doubt. If that doesn't make much sense, then you should read a few pages of this to understand.

The premise of this one is very interesting...basically, two friends have lost one of their best friends at the start. The protagonist has recently inherited a great deal of money ($80,000 plus stock options) for being the inspiration for a silhouetted logo for a product. Understanding the full absurdity of life's dealings and having no other capable way of coping, the protagonist with his best friend venture forth to third world countries to find random ways to give the money away.

What's interesting here is that Eggers probably did actually go to these countries as there are snapshots from time to time that don't look like the kind of photoshopped beautiful things but experiential sorts that come from a writer who has a point and shoot camera to bring out once and awhile..in other words, it's believable. It's also interesting what dilemmas the main character puts himself through because of his American capitalist guilt. Mainly, though, it's the characters you meet on the way and the similarities and criticisms that are drawn of each place. It's worthwhile reading, for sure, but not exactly groundbreaking or teaching anyone anything new (unless you know absolutely nothing about wealth vs. poverty, for instance.) Still, the keen sense of adventure makes it more engaging than quite a few novels being written today. There's also alot of nice long rambles and disconcerting flashbacks.

Some quotes I liked:

p. 43 "I was being blindsided by familiar things. I was pulling over to the side of the road, my head resting on the side window, trying to understand why things could be so green. Songs were knocking me from wall to wall, certain songs in certain progressions strained my eyes, roughed up my throat, brought me near tears without delivering me to any kind of catharsis."

...

"(I) dreamt of a rainstorm where the drops were big as cars. I was watching the storm, full of burgundies and blues, from a bunker and was safe, but people were getting killed, and I was feeling terrible because it was all so beautiful, the drops perfectly and roundly reflecting and distorting the world below before crashing atop those expecting life from rain."

p.62 "It was the end of an epoch and I didn't want to be around to see it happen; we'd traded anonymity for access."

p.67 "You invite things to happen. You open the door. You inhale. And if you inhale the chaos, you give the chaos, the chaos gives back."

p.74 "The point is to offer yourself to death and see if you're chosen."

p.140 "For no reason I pictured raccoons, that under the water and through the wormhole, there would be a society of talking raccoons, who smoked pipes and laughed at the happenings on what they called The Upper World, meaning my world. I would live with them for a while, and the queen, older but not too old, imperious but not unkind, would fall for me and insist on my being her male concubine, ad all in that regard would be just fine, the perks impressive and life in general very good -until she tired of me one day when another prospect arrived, a Jordanian man via a Dead Sea passageway."

p. 203 "Ella Fitzgerald was singing from a small speaker over our heads. Maybe Sarah Vaughn. I worried briefly that they, Sarah and Ella, knew I didn't know the difference, and were angry.

p.229 "The only infallible truth of our lives is that everything we love in life will be taken from us."

p.315 "You can't ever guess at life, at pain. All pain is real, and all pain is personal. It's the most personal thing we have. It eats each of us differently. You cannot know-"

***

"The road was tedious, without light or interruption. For awhile, we drove with our tongues."

I enjoy Eggers. I should have written about this right after I read it. I enjoyed it very much! It makes you want to hop on a plane and travel everywhere and anywhere. I like books that have kind of a clock in the background ticking. Adventure! It raises the stakes.

Strange, fun, sad, compelling

If you’ve ever travelled free, with a backpack and not too many plans, this will often feel very familiar. The strangeness, the confusion, the emotion. It’s not often you feel totally rudderless and this book captures that compellingly. If you’ve loved and hated and lost friends forever, this will feel familiar. If you’re not sure why we are here and why you have so much more than many on the planet, this will feel familiar. If you’ve felt insane joy at losing yourself in an experience, this will feel familiar.

Highly recommend.

It's hard to know what to say about this one, and I'm not going to be able to sum it up in any meaningful way. I really enjoy the way that Dave Eggers writes most of the time, but often I want to grab him by the shoulders and suggest he calm down a little. His characters are so full of big ideas it's easy to get caught up in their enthusiasm, but sometimes they seem to display a complete absence of good sense and that can get frustrating after awhile. On the whole, I liked and was somewhat confused by this book.

Life changing in its messge. If it doesn't change your life, at least it will provide you with amazing prose.