Since I read and loved Dave Egger’s The Circle a couple of years back, I have been trying to give him another chance. I finished The Circle in one weekend on a girls’ trip to the beach, so I tried a few of his other books… no success. When I saw this one at the library (again at lunchtime), I decided to give it another go. It helped that the book was relatively short. After reading it, I’m not sure whether I liked it, disliked it, or am just confused about what happened.

Book Read: Your Fathers, Where Are They? And The Prophets, Do They Live Forever?
Author: Dave Eggers
Books Read: 9

On an abandoned military base, Thomas brings an astronaut he kidnapped, shackles him to a post, feeds the astronaut granola bars, and looks for answers to his questions. Those questions lead to a congressmen, which leads to an elementary school teacher, leading to Thomas’s mother, then to a cop, which leads to a hospital worker, then to a woman he met on the beach. All in separate building on an abandoned military base, miles from civilization.

Each person brought to the abandoned base is brought for a reason – because Thomas has questions that need to be answered. Whether it be how an astronaut feels about not being able to go on a shuttle, why they stopped the shuttle, why his mother is the way she is, why something happened to his friend, the details of an encounter, if things went too far, Thomas is asking it. He promises not to hurt them… he is just seeking answers the way he knows how.

Eggers writes this strictly in a conversation format. You learn what goes on between each building through these conversations. Example:

-Hello.

-Can I ask you a question?

-Sure.

-Ok, here goes….

(Well, that’s not exactly how it goes, but if I included parts of the book, I may give away too much!)

But, seriously. That is the format for 212 pages. It actually makes the book move relatively fast considering I was confused most of the time. Until I had finished over half of the book, I could not figure out what questions Thomas needs answered. He did repeat that by doing this, he froze time, just so he could get answers. 212 pages later… still slightly wondering. There was only one set of questions I thought got Thomas the answers he was looking for.

Either way, this was a relatively fast moving read that made me think. If you pick it up, let me know if you figure it out. I’m curious.

Next Read: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green