You Shall Know Our Velocity

A novel by Dave Eggers

This book is powerful. How do you write a powerful book? Mr. Eggers does this by taking a back seat. He does not grandstand and fill the book with morals. Very little is clear cut in this novel unless you really start to pick it apart. I don't know yet if this is a book you can pick apart.

You Shall Know Our Velocity follows two American boys in their 20's. Will, the narrator, and Hand, his best friend. Will has deep physical wounds from a beating and psychological ones from losing their other best friend, Jack, in a car accident. The book follows these two as they try to travel around the world in a week, and in the process, spend a chunk of money that Will came into, almost by accident.

Dave Eggers seems caught with analyzing the thinking of 20-something Americans. He focuses on the feeling of being almost invincible, mixed with an increasing sensitivity to the world that's brought on by leaving home for the first time. His first publication, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, was about his own experiences at this age.

The book focuses on Will and Hand's desire to make sense of their friend's death as they move on. Their moving on in brings up a desire to live a more moral, purposeful, and unscripted life. Egger's scenery is wonderful, and while it seems aimed at keeping Hand and Will in the most awkward situation possible, it helps raise ideas that wouldn't be so delicious or easily provoked in an American setting.

I've read a couple reviews where the reviewer get's kind of pissed off that a writer as talented as Dave Eggers has apparently wasted his talent by writing a "cliche buddy story". It's not though, or maybe it is and it just doesn't bother me. If you don't focus as much on Eggers giving you a story, but instead look at the book as presenting a set of ideas within a delightful scenario, you'll have a good time with You Shall Know Our Velocity.