>Well, he skipped the short stories and went straight into
>writing something really thoughtful and lovely.

the reason i was interested in reading the rest of his stuff is because i hoped that the things that gave me qualms about the book would be ironed out. it's obviously a very good novel but he wrote in a way that made me want to consider why it missed the mark of being great. it's a damn good first novel. most of my issues with the book i attribute to the experience factor. talent matures in a funny way; obscurely. i personally think that there are some things going on with eei that maybe weren't possible for him to see. about the only thing that gels stuff for some writers is time and the mysterious movement of the writing powers that be. for that reason, i would have predicted a novel out of him, but i thought it could've just as easily have been a continuation-working-through of what he's got going on with eei, as it could've been a confident articulation of his offering to the table about the contemporary novel. i was curious to see how a mysterious process would play out, if at all, w/ foers. i was hopeful that he was the real deal. your comment about his next novel is encouraging.

when i was thinking about the book, i factored in the eggers-mcsweeney influence, too. and maybe that's unfair. i hear foers in the book and i like what i hear. his tinkering with technique/structure will catch up to the other stuff, i figure. maybe somehow things will click instead of going clunk. or maybe he'll drop some stuff. i have no idea. he's a writer i'll keep tabs on. i might be so far left field, but i think he's a generational voice. time will tell.