I went to UDP&D and got the letters (5) and envelopes (3) printed.
I went to the post office, bought a stamp, and sent Dan Simon of Seven Stories Press a request to interview Kurt Vonnegut.
I walked halfway home, and realized I didn't sign that letter.
I went back to the post office, asked for the letter back, signed a different letter, sealed and stamped a new envelope, and actually sent Dan Simon of Seven Stories Press a request to interview Kurt Vonnegut.
Then I walked all the way home.
I also turned in my request form to teach a mini-course this year.
The interview I can live without. If that request gets shot down for some reason--like, for example, my utter lack of teaching credentials or experience--I'm boned.
I also got a sport coat in the mail today from my mommy. It's a little big in the shoulders, unbelievably, and it's kind of a purply color. It's nice, though. I'm wearing it right now.
AS IF THE VONNEGUT LETTER WAS NOT NEWS ENOUGH, I am also going to review Dave Eggers' book How We Are Hungry. Brace yourself as my two favorite authors--maybe two favorite living authors--combine to form some kind of meta-post.
Title: How We Are Hungry
Author: Dave Eggers
Publisher: Vintage Books, first printed and copyrighted by McSweeney's Publishing, 2004.
Story list:
1. Another
2. What It Means When a Crowd in a Faraway Nation Takes a Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him from His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him in the Dust
3. The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water
4. On Wanting to Have Three Walls Up Before She Gets Home
5. Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance
6. She Waits, Seething, Blooming
7. Quiet
8. Your Mother and I
9. Naveed
10. Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone
11. About the Man Who Began Flying After Meeting Her
12. Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly
13. When They Learned to Yelp
14. After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned
Maybe I should explain the format first. I think that will help.
Looking at the book as a whole, Eggers alternates between longer short stories--“Another,” “The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water,” “Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance,” etc.--and very short ones, usually only two pages. In my opinion, they are equally powerful, and I would say the characters can be just as well-developed in the short stories as in the longer ones.
I think some, short and long alike, are amazing. Absolutely beautiful.
Eggers’ style is unique and enthralling. His words come out in violent bursts, and reading is a jolting, breathtaking, physical experience. In “Quiet,” the moon says something--yes, the moon says something--to a character named Tom that pretty well summarizes Eggers’ writing: “It always looks so messy, and I think I might like that.” “It is messy, I guess.” “It looks awfully messy. It looks almost impossible to survive, to tell you the truth. The pain of it all.”
Maybe this passage from “When They Learned to Yelp” will do it more justice:
The words, questions and statements which are encompassed in one quick yelp: Fuck! Shit! Piss! How could you? How could you? How do your hands do such things? I won’t believe it. Stop it now. Please stop it now. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Motherfuckers! Animals! That poor man. Those poor women. Look at her arms. Look at his face. I cannot believe it. I will not believe it. Those bastards. Those motherfucking bastards. This is not how it should be. Nothing should ever be like this. Goddamn all this. I give up. No, I will fight. No, I will give up. No, I will fight.
He can handle twists and surprises brilliantly, and even a soft, relaxed, calm story like “Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone” is flooded with exciting, fascinating language. Everyone should write like Dave Eggers.
Eggers excels at seizing upon one or two details (“At Gizeh I walked with the horse man—he had no smell…” in “Another,” for example) that paint a sloppy, realistic picture of life in his stories. He loves to play games with names. Hand, the Irish woman Pilar, Fish, Catanese, Erin Mahatma Fullerton, Naveed, Basil, Godwill, Kassim, and all of the dogs in “After I Was Thrown....” It’s a hilarious little side note to his stories, to discover what name he will use--or what will become a name--next.
Now we should establish some theme common to the stories. I can think of a few--love, physical attraction, overcoming challenges--and the stories to go with them. But while the stories all work together, and they don’t exactly clash, they’re very separate, I think. They hardly touch.
But their messages are great. The content of these stories--each one in some way triumphant and uplifting--may overshadow the great style.
Let me give you a one-sentence summary of each. This is both to make you interested and to challenge me to summarize some of these stories in one sentence.
“Another”: An American in Egypt challenges himself and his nation’s image.
“What It Means…”: If I could improve on the story’s title, I would.
“The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water”: Pilar and Hand expand or end their friendship in Costa Rica.
“On Wanting to Have Three Walls…”: Eggers (maybe sarcastically) celebrates the suburbs.
“Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance”: Fish and his cousin Adam attempt to avoid suicide.
“She Waits, Seething, Blooming”: A single mother plots her revenge on a disobedient son.
“Quiet”: Tom and Erin expand or end their friendship in Scotland. If I can use two sentences, I should say this story is beautiful and definitely different from “The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water,” despite the…umm…similar descriptions.
“Your Mother and I”: A couple changes the world forever in thousands of ways.
“Naveed”: A woman plots her next sexual conquest…and her next.
“Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone”: Basil accepts his death, and decides to share it.
“About the Man Who Began Flying After Meeting Her”: A man constructs a new personality for a new attraction.
“Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly”: Rita and other climbers tackle Kilimanjaro for reasons that aren’t really clear to her.
“When They Learned to Yelp”: A nation reacts in pain.
“After I Was Thrown…”: A dog named Steven is intoxicated with the beauty of life.
I can’t recommend this book enough. I really believe Eggers can grasp attention and convey a feeling and a message stronger than just about anybody.
I think easily the most beautiful story is “After I Was Thrown….” It manages to communicate absolute joy and complete sadness at once. It is heartbreaking. It’s in my top three short stories of all time, with Of Mice and Men and maybe “Harrison Bergeron,” maybe “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” I adore it.
On the other hand, some of the shorter stories are less impressive. I mean, I like them and everything, but they just aren’t developed enough to be great. I have “She Waits, Seething, Blooming” and “Naveed” in mind here, as well as “On Wanting to Have Three Walls….” I like them, but they aren’t of the caliber of “Notes for a Story…” or “Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly.”
Summary: Eggers is a master. He can twist the English language to do incredible things, and his messages are complicated and brilliant. If only, if only, some of the stories were longer, or there were just more stories here. I wanted badly to keep reading after “After I Was Thrown…,” but all I could do was flip back to the beginning. Which I admit I did. Please, read How We Are Hungry if you care about being a human.
Grade: A.
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