OK, OK...these are often rather good - I might need to concede a genuine, if not yet wholehearted, slide in the direction of 'Eggers good' at this point (though I haven't read You Shall Know Our Velocity yet, and it was his other long form, AHWOSG, that most vexed me even as I enjoyed it). They really are short short stories, averaging at about 400 or so words, I reckon. There are the quirky ones, which are the ones I like best ("What the Water Feels Like to the Fishes", or "Of Gretchen and de Gaulle", say). There are the vaguely Carver-esque ones ("Georgia Is Lost" being the most obvious, and one of the weaker entries; "How Long It Took" is another). Overlapping a bit with those, there are the often angry social observation ones ("A Circle Like Some Circles", "You'll Have to Save That for Another Time"). There are the political ones ("Sleep to Dreamier Sleep Be Wed" wears its sentiments a bit on its sleeve, but its heart is in the right place; "It Is Finally Time to Tell the Story" is pure and simple a joy).
For mine, there are two pieces here which rank with the 'letters to captains of industry from Steven, a dog', in the Burned Children of America anthology, as my favourite-to-date Eggers pieces of writing - "What the Water Feels Like to the Fishes" and "Weird Wife". Both are whimsical and light but come off as oddly, almost incidentally profound as well - which is a damn good trick in writing of any form.
