The Eyes & the Impossible by Dave Eggers

My favorite 7 (almost 8) year old friend, let me borrow one of his recently acquired books.

One glance at this stunning book and I had to look further. Luckily, my young friend trusts me and let me bring it home to read by myself.

The photos here don’t do it justice. This is a special edition of The Eyes — and it is a most beautiful book.

Let me try and describe it’s beauty. It has a die-cut wood front cover, with a painting showing through. The back cover is also made of wood. There are gleaming gold embossed edges, and double paged-edge-to-edge painted illustrations from 1600’s – 1800’s into which illustrator, Shawn Harris, has cleverly placed our hero, Johannes (more about him later).

This remarkable edition is only available at independent bookstores (yes!) for an amazing $28 cover price (the price of any other, run-of-the-mill hardback).

Mr. Eggers is a literary force here in San Francisco/Bay Area. Not only is he an award winning author, he is also the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company, co-founder of 826 Valencia, a non-profit youth writing center, and a major force among our literary community — from supporting independent bookstores, to funding new writers.

So, let me tell you about the story — which is just as beautiful as the book’s production value.

Johannes is a free dog, who lives in an urban park by the sea, thinly disguised as our own Golden Gate Park. His job is to be the Eyes—to see everything that happens within the park and report back to the park’s elders, three ancient Bison. His friends—a seagull, a raccoon, a squirrel, and a pelican—work with him as the Assistant Eyes, observing the humans and other animals who share the park and making sure the equilibrium is in balance. 

But changes are afoot. More humans, including Trouble Travelers, arrive in the park. A new building, containing mysterious and hypnotic rectangles, goes up. And then there are the goats—an actual boatload of goats—who appear, along with a shocking revelation that changes Johannes’s view of the world.

It’s a delightful story, with adventure and strong themes of friendship. And I laughed out loud as Johannes directly addresses the reader in a very folksy (and funny) voice throughout the novel. And whether it’s his inability to estimate numbers, or his antipathy towards ducks (don’t trust the ducks!), I was enchanted.

I had a wonderful time with this middle-grade book, and I was happily in the hands of a gifted storyteller. The tale of free dog Johannes is profound, poignant, and very, very clever (what do you have against ducks, Mr. Eggers?). An exhilarating read about friendship, beauty, freedom, and running very, very fast:

“When I run, I pull at the earth and make it turn”

Everyone should read The Eyes & the Impossible – a story that will have readers of all ages seeing the world around them in a wholly new way

My friends copy* was personally autographed by Mr. Eggers at an author event with that same duck warning. You’ll have to read the book to understand the problem with ducks (I’ll never look at ducks again without smiling).

*I’ve blocked his name for obvious reasons

Now I’m on to some Christmas reads — two mine and one from the library – now which one first?