You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers

You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers

The novel captures the reader from the first line. The narrator, Will Chmlielewski, reveals that he’s already dead. But his premature demise isn’t related to the story that follows.

The prose is elegant and beautiful, describing a series of events and motivations that could only make sense in the absurdly real universe the author creates. The protagonist and his sidekick navigate a world full of eccentricities and characters that resonate in a profound, off-kilter and intensely humorous fashion. They are trying to give away $80,000, a sum that Will unexpectedly earned by supplying a likeness of his silhouette to a corporate advertising campaign. This task is rendered more difficult than I could possibly imagine. Through it all, Will contemplates the meaning of loss, memory, friendship, family and life, among other things. Meanwhile his friend, Hand, urges continuous action, the better not to think, the perfect anti-heroic role model for the ADD-afflicted.

A shift in narrator, however, forces the reader to re-evaluate what this novel means. If it meant anything. Or what the truth is in our disturbed world.

This is the must-read novel for a self-absorbed generation.