Meh. An 00s word for a very 00s book. Like Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity (2002), it has a pre-lapsarian naivety: stories of middle-class white Americans who, before the crash, rarely worry about money, and who go on holiday to exotic locations and stay wrapped up in their own worlds. A narrative that is embarrassingly honest and likely accurate, but would be unfashionable and frequently vilified online now - especially as it doesn't actively signpost embarrassment and guilt as much as one is supposed to. One could argue that Eggers' writing career has followed that modern therapeutic maxim (that isn't right for everyone, for sometimes these things aid each other simultaneously): deal with your own shit before trying to help others: his early books looked at self, family and friends of similar backgrounds, then he moved on to big political, sometimes global themes.I enjoyed Velocity a few years ago, but many of these short stories I found quite boring. I used to really like Eggers (also Heartbreaking Work - evidently right for the 'loved-it-at-the-time' tag) and remember saying, possibly not on here, it might have been on a creative writing course pre-GR, that he perfectly captured how things feel and I wished I could write that way. I read about half of How We Are Hungry in 2011 and was fairly impressed then. Now I find it mostly flat and detached emotionally, and characters are dull because they're rarely interested in anything except themselves, family and friends, and express it in a numbed, ordinary way. Which is at least fast to read. They're still working out how they feel about everyday stuff in a late-twenties way - a noticeably bad fit for the characters aged 40+, whose voices rarely sound like they are that age. Currently, Richard Powers is the author who fits ... how I see life, which isn't quite the right phrase, and anyway the very idea of writers fitting your life or outlook at certain points sounds like something from a rubbish, wanky MFA in a comment thread: but emotions and experiences in Powers' fiction are more vivid than in early Eggers, and he and his characters are fascinated by complex topics outside themselves. Stuff I did like in How We Are Hungry:-'Your Mother and I': a father, probably 40ish, is reminiscing about life to a pre-teen kid, except he and his wife literally 'put the world to rights' as one can only do in daydreams. Some of it's big stuff, other little personal irritations. It's charming and unexpected, and it clicked with conversations I have with friends about stuff we wish we could change.Quote: About then, we had a real productive period. In about six months, we established a global minimum wage, we made it so smoke detectors could be turned off without having to rip them from the ceiling, and we got Soros to buy the Amazon to preserve it.-'Naveed'. A girl, twenties presumably, realises she's about to sleep with her thirteenth person and resolves to pull a fourteenth ASAP so her 'number' won't be 13 and she won't have to hear jokes about a 'baker's dozen' and so on. Her expectation of judgement was a shame - in my circle that wasn't a big number at all, and no one was judgemental about that stuff anyway, [who are these people who are still like that and young and not religious?] so being on '13' for as short a time as possible was simply superstition - but it was one of those funny little internal thoughts that one never expects to see in writing.- 'Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly'. Really should be bracketed with the dull stories about Americans on exotic holidays. But more interesting personally as it's about mountaineering & trekking, stuff that, if I were fit and well, I'd rather be doing in my spare time than sitting about on GR - albeit in less environmentally fucked ways than this expedition. I liked the mundane accounts of things one usually hears in a different style and with more drama in non-fiction, and attention to experiential details that those writers either ignore or are too seasoned to have to deal with in the first place.- 'After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned'. Depressingly titled story, but actually rather exhilarating even where the circumstances don't ring true. Told from dog POV (Kafka inspiration?). Hint: the two events are years apart.- I marked the only two things that made me laugh. They make me sound like a bit of a sicko, but anyway. She wanted to open umbrellas in the faces of cats, make them scurry and scream. Wot? And a little less bizarrely: The problem is that Fish has never had a fascination with people who try to kill themselves. Maybe if he took more of an interest in the concept, Adam wouldn't keep trying to prove how intriguing it is.Elsewhere, it does one of two things that really annoy me in fiction just now. At least the collection doesn't contain any dreams or fortune telling scenes that come true. (Will someone PLEASE write more stories in which they don't.) But there are characters who say they know what will happen in a new friendship, e.g. I knew then that I would get her a job where I worked, that she and I would become closer, that I would know the things I want to know about her. I tend to know instantly if I like people IRL, so that basic feeling I've no problem with - but this stuff, no. And it's getting boring the frequency with which it appears in books. There are more interesting ways for writers to show their working if they want to do some meta reveal of their storyboard. Like 'Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone' - cool plan structure, which half reminded me why I used to like Eggers. A mis-step though to make the man a retired ob-gyn (it's hard for a male one not to seem a little odd, and anyone who'd had much to do with healthcare would see dying as a messier and less predictable business than the character does). The plot was kind of charming along the lines of Dave Gorman / Danny Wallace projects, but I wondered if I would have noticed ten years ago how crashingly egotistical the character's idea was; now that realisation spoilt the potentially endearing nature of the piece. In both its good and bad points it seemed remarkably of its time.I only read this because I'd started it in the past - and it's short. Not sure I'd recommend it for anyone other than Eggers completists.
Dave Eggers es uno de los mejores escritores jóvenes norteamericanos del momento. Perteneciente a la next generation, junto a autores de la talla de David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen o Jonathan Lethem, Eggers ha sabido buscarse un hueco entre tan grandes compañeros.Eggers nos habla en ‘Guardianes de la intimidad’ del absurdo de la vida contemporánea, del sinsentido de la época que nos ha tocado vivir. Mediante frases cortas, precisas y elegantes, Eggers nos deslumbra con sus ideas e inteligencia a la hora de abordar las historias de estos cuentos. Porque Eggers escribe muy bien. Aparte de algún que otro cuento experimental, la mayoría de relatos son de corte convencional, regalándonos escenas realmente memorables. Eggers sabe bien lo que quiere transmitir y sabe llegar al lector en cada uno de sus cuentos, mostrándonos lo que hay en ellos, y más importante, lo que hay más allá de ellos.Encuentro varios puntos en común en sus cuentos, empezando por la presencia constante de animales, desde caballos hasta ovejas, pasando por extraños pájaros. Y también el comportamiento de los norteamericanos en países extranjeros, como Tanzania, Egipto o Escocia, pero sin dejar de lado las historias que suceden en la misma Norteamérica. Eggers busca el Cuento Total, y a fe mía que en algunos de ellos lo consigue. Reseñar también los títulos de los cuentos, perfectamente escogidos.Estos son los quince relatos incluidos en ‘Guardianes de la intimidad’:Otra. (**) El protagonista llega a Egipto para pasar las vacaciones, en busca de algo exótico, y cree haberlo encontrado en un guía y sus caballos.Lo que significa que una muchedumbre de un país lejano atrape a un soldado que representa a tu país, le dispare, lo saque a rastras de su vehículo y luego lo mutile entre el polvo. (***) Brevísimo relato de apenas una página, y una dura reflexión sobre la guerra vista desde la lejanía.El único significado del agua oleosa. (***) Hand y Pilar se encuentran en Costa Rica para practicar surf. Son viejos amigos. Pilar, con una vida insatisfecha, cree que puede tener algo con Hand.Sobre querer tener al menos tres paredes levantadas antes de que ella llegue a casa. (***) Otro brevísimo pero significativo cuento.Trepar a la ventana fingiendo bailar. (*****) Mi cuento favorito del libro, en el que se narra el viaje de Fish, el protagonista, para visitar a su primo, que ha tenido otro suicidio frustrado. Fish está conduciendo, abofeteándose para mantenerse alerta, y mientras cuenta para asegurarse de que Adam lleva siete. Uno: las muñecas (con una sierra pequeña contra sus brazos delgados y blancos como el papel). Dos: veneno (bebió cera para el suelo servida en un vaso de tubo transparente). Tres: disparo al estómago. O a un lado del estómago; la bala le rozó, atravesó la ventana y llegó a la iglesia episcopaliana de la casa de al lado. No hubo muertos ni heridos, pero Adam se sintió tan mal que, cuatro: se apuñaló en la pierna con una cuchilla de carnicero. Cinco: intentó meter un secador de pelo en la bañera con él dentro, pero por lo visto el aparato era a prueba de suicidios –se apagó solo y Adam se quedó tiritando en el agua, que se había enfriado mientras él reunía el valor para suicidarse-. Seis: ¿cuál fue el sexto? ¿Empotrar un coche contra un árbol? No quedó claro si el accidente había sido intencionado.Espera furiosa, floreciendo. (****) Otro breve cuento, en el que una madre soltera espera impaciente de madrugada el regreso de su hijo.Silencio. (*****) Erin invita a Tom a un viaje por Escocia. Erin le está muy agradecida a Tom por su apoyo en los últimos meses, y Tom espera mucho de este encuentro. Muy buen cuento, donde salen a relucir ciertos secretos.Tu madre y yo. (**) Pequeña fábula donde un padre cuenta a su hijo todo lo que han hecho por el mundo y la humanidad en su conjunto.Naveed. (***) Stephanie reflexiona sobre las relaciones sexuales que ha mantenido hasta ahora, y no le convence el número.Apuntes para un cuento de un hombre que no morirá solo. (****) Eggers nos muestra la construcción de un cuento desde el inicio, un cuento que tratará sobre un hombre que no quiere morir solo.Acerca del hombre que comenzó a volar después de conocerla. (**) Pues eso.Montaña arriba, en lento descenso. (*****) Rita llega a Moshi, Tanzania, con la intención de subir a la cima del Kilimanjaro, y siente mucha seguridad en lo que va hacer. Esta será toda una aventura, donde conocerá a la gente del lugar, tan distinta a ella (o no), aventura que le ayudará a decidir sobre su vida futura. Se trata de un cuento impresionante.Hay algunas cosas que debería callarse. ¿?Cuando aprendieron a aullar. (***) Reflexión sobre las generaciones más recientes, que no habían conocido lo que era el Dolor hasta hace bien poco.Después de que me lanzarán al río y antes de ahogarme. (***) Esta es la historia de un perro narrada por él mismo, un perro al que le gusta correr.
What do You think about How We Are Hungry (2005)?
Oh, Eggers. I don't want to admit it - but some of these are so close to being good.There were four shorts in particular I enjoyed:"She Waits, Seething, Blooming""Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone""About the Man Who Began Flying After Meeting Her"Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"Or I should say, enjoyed until I remembered Eggers wrote them.Thing is, Eggers has skill as a writer. He's just so much more goddamn full of himself, is the problem, I think. He meanders and he wanders and he writes 'ooh, look at me and how I can cleverly turn a phrase,' and then he just pisses me as the reader off and I kind of want to kick him in the face. Maybe that's a bit strong, as reactions go... but that's increasingly how I feel about Eggers.I don't even care if he's some sort of cult hero or something. He's like that group of hipsters that turns your favorite neighborhood dive into some sort of jean short mustachioed insider 'oh, aren't I ironic?' joke... and completely ruin cheap beer. I hate him, I think. I hate him.Fucker. (It doesn't help his cause that I just read You Shall Know Our Velocity not so long ago. Pretentious bullshit, every single word of it. I hate him.)
—Matt
I definitely preferred some of the story lines more than others. And for some reason I can never remember the name of this book. I think because the names of the stories inside the book are so intriguing. For Example: "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". I loved his language and simple technique of writing in 'Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will not Die Alone' I feel like Dave Eggers REALLY can interpret voices well. And definitely get the hard back version, because the paperback version is missing 1 story.
—Lacey
Sure, not every short story here will move each reader, but even with the ones that make you think "okay...what was the point of that?" its hard to deny Dave Eggers' unique gift with words, his interesting and well-formed characters, and his admirable creativity when it comes to manifesting abstract ideas and emotions into the mind and heart of his readers.My favorite story, I think, was "Quiet" because it reached deep and resurrected some painfully real emotions on a personal level. I can't promise everyone will feel them, but I did, and I needed it.There are a few stories which I maybe didn't "get" with the first reading, but will probably re-read in the future and hopefully enjoy.I also appreciated the various story lengths. They come in all sizes, so you can basically choose one depending on how much time you have to read...just a convenience, really.
—Jordan
