You Shall Know Our Velocity!
Dave Eggers, 2002
Knopf Doubleday
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400033546
Summary
Will has surprisingly come into a large amount of money. His photograph screwing in a lightbulb has been made a silhouette and is being used as a picture for the company's lightbulb boxes.
Will with his friend, Hand, buy plane tickets to the most obscure countries possible, wherein they will give the money away, bit by bit, to people whom they arbitrarily decide are most deserving. According to Hand, they gave to people for the benefit of both parties—as a sacrament with the purpose of restoring a faith in humanity.
Without a solid set of criteria, or a definitive direction in their plan, this proves surprisingly difficult, and they experience much awkward confusion and moral uncertainty. Barely able to achieve their goal of giving away their money, the two are reduced to pretending to ask for directions, and taping money to barn animals. The plot is both a log of the journey, as well as a look into the mind of the narrator, Will, who often feels isolated, confused, and shy. (From the publisher.)