The Honor of Your Presence

The Forgetters

by Dave Eggers

In this long short story, or short novella, Dave Eggers gives us an unforgettable duo, Helen and Peter Mahoney, a homebody niece and her adventurous, almost-British uncle. Helen designs invitations to parties and galas to which she is not welcome, and is quite comfortable with that. One day, though, Peter wonders, "Why not print an extra invite and I'll be your plus one?" What starts out as an innocuous lark becomes much more -- a very funny and lyrical referendum on why humans congregate and celebrate.

Genres: Fiction, Novella, Short Stories, LGBT, Humor, Adult, Family

90 pages, Hardcover

First published November 14, 2023

About the author

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all]]

This collection of shorts from Dave Eggers have been charming and cozy. Centering on the basics of human needs for connection and self-acceptance, Egger’s The Honor of Your Presence makes for another lovely little slice of life as the overworked and introverted Helen begins an adventure of crashing parties with her Uncle Peter back from the London theater scene. Set just following the COVID era of self-isolation, its a tale about coming back out of one’s shell and embracing the world and all it’s splendors. Cozy and cute in a way like stumbling across an old cardigan you once loved and letting it wrap you in warmth on a winter’s night, but also realizing the cardigan is rather threadbare and your joy with it will be short lived. I love how heartfelt this was and the coming of life and queer love and while it may be a bit slight it was also a great way to pass an evening with this single-sit read.

3.5/5

[Ezra]

Now this was a fun novella! I hadn't read anything by Eggers previously, and the cover completely fooled me (I thought it was historical fiction, and was surprised to find it takes place sometime after the start of the Covid pandemic) but it was a comedic and entertaining read! Every now and then, as other librarians will know, you stumble across a gem in the book drop and pick it up to read for yourself - this was one of those!

[Lisa]

This is another sweet novella by Dave Eggers. I had the good fortune to hear him speak & be interviewed last year, and ever since have been enjoying his writing even more than I did before. This was a delightful diversion and a glide of a read. Bravo.

[Kristi]

I'd call it a good start. Described as a long short story, or a novella, it needs more development to really catch a reader. I would have continued with it though, if there was more.

The BEST part I found in the book was this, from the acknowledgments: 'All proceeds from this book go to McSweeney's, a nonprofit publishing company in San Francisco that for twenty-five years has sought to find and amplify new voices.'

[Sarah]

Enjoyed the cover more than the content.

[Dave]

Good, creative writing. When you're not sure if you liked a book or really liked it, but find yourself thinking about it a few days after finishing it, you probably really liked it. I think it was mostly the prose, but, spoiler alert, it's nice to read a book with a "happy ending" every now and again.

[Suzy Kopf]

A very short read, perhaps 70 mins max, this has potential but falls flat and ends very abruptly. Humorous moments reminded me a little of PG Wodehouse. Great cover art as other readers have said.

[TIFFY 👻🎃🖤]

DNF at 80% I just really couldn’t get into this world, yes it’s a novella but it doesn’t have small chapters I’m picky lol 😂 the only thing I kinda liked is how Helen and her uncle sneak into parties they weren’t invited to

[Summer Mengarelli]

Has Dave ever met a woman?

[Giuseppe]

I love reading these tiny books. Something cute to read when you don't know what else to read.

[Arend]

Brief novella. Charming COVID-era tale. Also, Gilroy.

[classicmyassics]

DNF at 50% even though it’s so short. But you know what else is short? Life. And life is too short to slog through dumb books. Especially dumb books set during Covid. Sorry Dave! Not really.

[Moriyah]

I picked this novella up at the library due to the beautiful cover…I do judge books by their cover.
I imagined a Regency-era spinster, breaking the societal mold and secretly enjoying the splendors of balls while winning over the hearts of her ‘betters.’ Alas. It was a ‘in the time of Covid’ story where an erratic Uncle harasses his homebody niece into using her invitation company to making her own invites and exploring what the world had to offer. Cute premise. I was annoyed by the main characters insta-love that made her journey out again to another event, and how when that doesn’t work out she attaches her hopes on a completely different person who gives her attention. It all seemed a bit rushed and to show underlying issues that were never dealt with. I wanted more from it. ⭐️ ⭐️ 2/5

[Michelle]

I forgot to bring my book to work so I had nothing to read at lunch. I didn't want to start another novel so i found this charming novella on the new book shelf. It is not super developed at only 100 pages but it was entertaining enough for an hour of reading. Ended abruptly but I assume we all live happily ever after!

[Neha Thakkar]

This book reads like a fever dream. And I’m still not sure if I like that or not. 😂

[Phyllis]

It was . . . fine. A novella, about crashing parties at the end of Covid-as-a-plague.

[jaz]

these books are so fun its like looking into a car and realizing everyone has their own home and their own life

[Richa Bhattarai]

A little dazzling, a little boring.

[Traevon Bohannon]

Short & fun but not memorable. About 70 or so pages.

Nice read to have on a little day in.

[Jacob Glover]

This was good, it is my third of the eight books in the Forgetters, I think it’s called, series. I feel that Helen was not the most alluring character and instead it was Peter. Be more like Peter

[Sophie]

I was originally excited to read this book because it was so small that I could finish it in one sitting. I base off of the cover, so I assumed it would have to do with a 1920s time period. The cover is deceiving. The book is based on covid time. It started out as a quirky 30 year old who had a crush on a guy she had just met to her making out with a 60-something year old female bartender in a parking lot. It was crude and discussing.

[John Fossett]

Genre:
Literary fiction in a Novella
Overview:
A niece and her uncle crash invite only parties together.
Story:
After a decade of camaraderie and friendship, Helen’s small town shrinks substantially when her friend’s move to seek opportunities in a post-COVID world. Her uncle Pete, doing theater work in London for the past 30 years, returns to the states and lives in Helen’s garage. Helen designs posh invitations for upscale events. They begin to print invitations for themselves and start crashing parties.
Character:
Helen is lonely. Her community disintegrated as a result of the pandemic and her friends have moved away. Uncle Pete is great, but he’s an uncle. While both have had their lives upended, Pete is navigating the new terrain without much challenge, while Helen struggles with insecurity and loneliness and possibly losing her job if they are caught crashing parties. But Pete’s infatuation with invitations and events opens doors for change for both of them.
Setting:
Post-COVID California.
Language:
I’m a huge Eggers fan, love the simplicity of his writing, love his subtle adding of layers to give the tale depth and breadth. His books seem to stay with me longer. I think about the writing more than I do for many other authors. And the proceeds from sales of this series go to McSweeney’s, a small publisher in San Francisco 'finding and amplifying new voices' What's not to like about that!

[Dann LaGratta]

The copyright page says “This book is the second in a series of stories that will, god willing, become a larger thing called ‘The Forgetters’.”

Calling this book anything other than a short story is disingenuous. I knew the page count going into it, but the book itself is not much larger than a mass market paperback.

The story itself just kind of sits there directionless too. The synopsis promises a “meditation on why humans congregate and celebrate”, but the vibe just feels very much like it was written during the Covid shutdown and just kind of thrown out there.

I’m enough of an Eggers fan that I’m not upset that I bought it or anything, but I definitely wish that I waited for the eventual Forgetters short story collection that it will eventually be a part of.

[Kelly]

I would have enjoyed this story without the Terry-moments. Gus and Peter were kinda fun, but the interaction with Terry and Helen’s response to her was out of context with the rest of the writing. It was just a quirky little story and then suddenly we jump into “grabbing her lips with my teeth” and feeling her up and stuff. Like what??? Yeah, I didn’t like this.

[Mrs. Chow]

I feel like I’m cheating by counting this as a book, but I’m glad the proceeds are going to Mc Sweeney’s. I adore anything Dave Eggers writes and this is no exception.

[Sam Quixote]

Helen is a designer specialising in high-end event invites (weddings, galas, etc.). Business was obliterated during COVID, but, post-pandemic and with the world opening back up, events are starting to happen once more and Helen’s back to work. Her cheeky older uncle Peter, recently returned back to ‘murica from Blighty, suggests she print off an extra invite and go to these events herself - with him as her plus one, naturally. Hesitant at first, Helen goes along with it - what mischief awaits these two and will she get caught by her boss?

Dave Eggers has been publishing a series of novellas called The Forgetters since 2021 - seven to date with more to come - via his McSweeney’s Publishing imprint. Not sure if the end game is to publish them all together in one big collection or a thematically-linked novel, but it seems like a cool project. You rarely see this Victorian kind of fictional serialisation anymore these days.

The Honor of Your Presence is the second in The Forgetters series and, despite winning an O. Henry Prize, it’s not that good. The premise isn’t an especially enticing one, Helen and Peter aren’t great characters, and nothing much happens.

The message is a positive one, particularly as this came out at a time when the pandemic restrictions had just ended and people were starting to return to normal life again: that is, the importance of physical connection with real people. And Eggers’ writing is faultless, as ever. I was just underwhelmed by the slight story and felt disappointed by its unimpressiveness.

I tend to like Dave Eggers’ fiction so, even if The Honor of Your Presence is a dud, I’ll check out some more of The Forgetters at some point. But if you’re interested in his novella series, I’d start elsewhere.

[Heather]

This is a pleasing little Covid-era novella. I hadn't realized when I saw it at the library that this book was "the second in a series of stories" that Eggers is planning to eventually combine into a larger work, but that doesn't really matter: it feels like a standalone thing, though now I'm curious to read the first one as well.

The book opens with Helen, a 31-year-old graphic designer whose specialty is "event invitations of the high-end category", pondering her Uncle Peter, who is 61 and has come back to California after decades in London. Peter, we learn, who is "known as a wild card, a character, a piece of work," now lives in Helen's garage; he'd been a set painter in London but spent his savings since he was out of work when theaters shut down for Covid. Peter is social; Helen is generally not; Peter tells her she's alone too much, and says they should go to one of the events she designed the invites for. Not a wedding, but maybe a fundraising gala. Helen is worried about getting caught and getting in trouble, but Peter talks her into going to a costume party at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and events ensue from there.

I don't want to say a ton about the book's plot, but: I like the descriptions of the party at the aquarium (and, spoiler alert, the other parties that Peter and Helen crash) a lot, and I also like the way the novel ends.

[Carrie]

Really a short story in single book form - first written by Eggers as part of the One Story collection, and then picked up and bound here by McSweeney's. Clever premise: Helen is a 31 year old homebody, working as a graphic designer creating invitations for various organizations and their events in the CA/San Fran area. She is pretty set in her ways and happy with her routines and her work, but that all gets shaken up by her Uncle Peter who is crashing with her for an indefinite amount of time, 'a shaggy hippie with no particular place to be.' Twice her age, he has lived much more excitement - a stage hand in England for decades - so his presence is a lot to get used to. He is intent on getting her out of her house/shell - so he suggests she print just one extra invitation for the next high-end event she designs, and they can go together, even though they weren't technically invited. Helen is aghast at this suggestion and originally resists, but he wears her down - and soon it becomes a habit, crashing events from a Monterey aquarium fundraiser/costume party to the Gilroy Garlic Festival (which I am personally familiar with!) and she finds herself having fun and finding romance. The dynamic between Helen and Uncle Peter is hilarious, and the events spark humor too - it just felt like the whole small book concept was a little contrived.

[Kevin Doherty]

Oh Dave Eggers. I find a certain joy whenever I find an unread Eggers book. I found this one at McNally Jackson two weeks ago, waffled over buying it, left, thought about it frequently over the next weeks, meandered around on Saturday, returned, bought it, read it in one sitting. The Honor of Your Presence is apparently book 2 of a new series of novellas called The Forgetters. The cover art is beautiful.

It's a quick-hitter, a long short-story, about this woman who makes invitations and her whimsical uncle. Her uncle convinces her to sneak into one of the parties and hilarity ensues. Eggers wrote it post-COVID, and it's about all the things that can happen when you leave your house.

I love supporting Eggers and McSweeney's because of his commitment to literacy, to amplifying voices, to shining light in dark places. Teaching English now, I think more and more of the importance of literacy, of being able to read and really understand, of being able to think. Eggers lives out that mission.

[Natalia]

Homebody Helen is hosting Peter, her adventurous uncle who left London during the pandemic. From her California home she designs invitations to parties and galas, to which she is not welcome. But at the insistence of Peter, who does not loath gatherings the same way she does, she reluctantly prints an extra invite and allows him to drag her to an event to which they were not invited. This short novel, or long short story, was a perfect palate cleanser for the more difficult nonfiction I usually read. I related to Helen's reluctance to "get out there" and join the world, as well as Peter's joie de vivre. This quick read was a lovely exploration of human celebrations and the pros and cons of leaving the house at all.