What is the What
by Dave Eggers
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Book Reviews of What is the What
Book Review: What was the What?
Summary: 5 Stars
Valentino Achak Deng's story alone would have been enough to win my approval of this fine piece of literature. Although What is the What by Dave Eggers was officially published as a novel, it is the true survival story of a Sudanese boy and his eventual transition to American culture. This is the type of book that can make you laugh and cry. Although it is a tragic story, Eggers includes scenes that show life in such a dark time, which can leave a smile on the reader's face.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this first person novel is that it is not an autobiography. Although Eggers writes Valentino's story, Eggers masterfully takes on Valentino's voice. As I read the novel, I completely forgot that 8 year old Valentino himself had not authored the book.
Through the doorway I saw some kind of airplane, coming low over the village. It was a fascinating kind of plane, black everywhere and dull, unreflective. The planes I had seen before resembled birds in a rudimentary way, with noses and wings and chests, but this machine looked nothing so much as a cricket (75).
Eggers is one of the few talented writes that can maintain the simplicity of a child point of view, and simultaneously use the skill of a great writer to create a sophisticated passage. The helicopters that attacked Valentino's village look like "crickets," but only in a "rudimentary way." Eggers's contrast in diction in this scene shows his talent to merge simplicity and complexity.
The book is essentially two different stories that are beautifully woven together. The first is about Valentino's childhood hardships as a refugee, and the second is about some of the hardships he experiences once living in America. Eggers transitions between the two flawlessly which implicitly compares and contrasts the two worlds Valentino struggled through. He even completely combines present and past when he tells Valentino's past to various characters in present America including Julian, a hospital attendant: "The walk to Ethiopia, Julian, was only the beginning. Yes we had walked for months across deserts and wetlands, our ranks thinned daily. There was war all over southern Sudan... (256)." The story is not being told to the reader, but rather to Julian. Julian is an insignificant character to the story, but using him as a listener creates informality in the writing. Because Eggers writes to a certain person, he can really expand on the emotions that Valentino felt as he fled his country. It was a brilliant way for Eggers to narrate the story.
What is the What is a literary masterpiece with an epic story. It is written in such a beautiful way and describes such a moving story that this book cannot be left unread once started. It teaches the reader much about Sudanese history, human rights, and assimilation to American culture. Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng share with us a magnificent story that should have a place on every bookshelf.
Book Review: upsetting, hopefull, funny
Summary: 5 Stars
An incredible book. In the prologue it is explained that while this is called a novel, it is actually based on a real person's life as a young child in Sudan through arriving in the U.S as a refugee. In my mind, this seems more of a memoir, in that some had to be constructed from childhood memories but all the significant events are real.
It is hard to understand how much a young boy can live through and keep going. The main character actually has several different names as it changes as he moves through geography and life. (my favorite is Gone Far) No one raised in the western world can comprehend what the the "Lost boys of Sudan" went through to simply survive long enough to walk to refugee camps. I also don't think many of us realize the length of stay many refugees have in camps before they are accepted into the the US or other western countries. That anyone physically survived the walk through Sudan (the author actually watched as boys were plucked from the line of walkers and carried off by lions), then survived the nutritional and hygiene deprivations of refugee camps is amazing. All this without parents or siblings, just other boys.
Their arrival in the US is just another beginning of a difficult foreign walk. I heard of a local group in my home town, their sponsor would visit their apartment and re-explain what foods went in the refrigerator and what went in the cupboard. In the book, Achak marvels that his neighbor would rather call him on the phone then walk 2 doors down to speak with him. The efforts it takes to receive an education from the refugee camp to American colleges makes me feel a bit ashamed for the attitude many Americans take towards school. It also makes me wonder how many of the refugee students in our district have significant PTSD. How do you learn your way around a new world with the legacy of war and refugee camps, to say nothing of poor perinatal and childhood nutrition?
The book simultaneously covers the time from normal childhood in Sudan to the refugee camp and very difficult times once arriving in the states. It is obvious that Achak will arrive in the US, but there are so many obstacles in his way, that I found myself holding my breath, in my pajamas, reading the last chapters well into a summer afternoon.
The book is very upsetting, and yet very hopeful with moments of humor. The best news is what happens after the book ends. Achak returns to Sudan to build a school in his home town and to encourage education for girls. Check out: [...] Proceeds for book sales go to his foundation.
I am going to recommend this book to everyone, and especially my School Nursing friends on the front lines with refugee families.
Book Review: A Lost Boy's Journey
Summary: 5 Stars
What is the What is the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, which is also a novel by Dave Eggers, the brilliantly gifted author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Eggers met Deng, one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan, in 2003. Inspired by the story of Deng's life, Eggers resolved to write a biography. Instead, he created a work of fiction with the major events of Deng's life as a touchstone.
Eggers writes in the voice of Deng's thoughts as he is being held captive in his Atlanta apartment by burglars. This device allows for a simple, straightforward, yet shifting style that allows the narrative to jump from historical account to coming of age story to love story to assimilation story and nearly everything in between. This style also reflects the oral tradition of African folklore, with moments and descriptions carved to their essence. The novel is alternately heartwrenching, uplifting, wry, thoughtful, and blunt.
It's not only the style of the writing that is effective, but the story itself is affecting. We follow Deng's journey from the destruction of his idyllic village, Marial Bal, to his present circumstances in America. Alternately known as Achak, Dominic, Valentino, Gone Far, and Sleeper, depending on the company, Deng fled the sudden and violent destruction of his village in a wild run into the blackness of night and found himself walking among untold numbers of other boys to Ethiopa. The images Eggers gives of this walk will remain firmly implanted in your memory--holding the boy in front in the blind night, the desperate scramble when a lion or helicopter appears, and, most disturbing, the images of boys simply stopping, giving up, and resting their heads against trees never to be seen again. Deng eventually makes it to a refugee camp in Kenya and is finally on the list of refugees relocated to America. There is too much that occurs to describe here and no description that would equal the grace, simplicity, and care of Eggers writing.
"I speak to these people, and I speak to you because I cannot help it. It gives me strength, almost unbelievable strength, to know that you are there." Deng and Eggers state simply at the end of the novel. "How can I pretend you do not exist? It would be almost as impossible as pretending that I do not exist." Deng's story, in the closing, turns into a plea for acknowledgement, for sharing, and hope for a people and region all too often ignored. This story, as well written and as affecting as it is, makes it all but impossible to forget that people like Deng exist and travesties like those in Sudan occur.
Book Review: A Memoir/Novel - One of my Favorite Books!
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't emphasize how much I loved this book. It is written in the form of a novel but reads like a memoir. It is about a man named Valentino Deng who, as a young man, recalls his time as one of the lost boys in Sudan.
Mr. Deng is brought to the U.S. by some charitable organization and set up in an apartment in Atlanta, Georgia and enrolled in community college. Unfortunately, he is not given much instruction about American culture and the ways to keep himself safe. He has made friends and is connected with some host families that care for him genuinely and deeply. He himself is a remarkable man - kind, intelligent, hopeful, and motivated to succeed.
In the first few pages of the book, Mr. Deng answers a knock on his door without asking who it is. He opens the door and intruders enter and mug him. He is tied up on the floor, unable to speak or move for several days as the intruders slowly rob what little possessions he owns. While a prisoner of the muggers/robbers he reminisces on his childhood in Sudan and his time as one of the lost boys who has lost his family and is alone making his way across Sudan and facing many horrific dangers. He survives starvation, lion attacks, illness, the loss of close friends and suffers greatly until he reaches a refugee camp. There he remains for years in utter despair and deplorable conditions until he gets to the U.S.
The book describes how Valentino watches his parents, indiginous farmers of the Dinka tribe, executed in front of him by intruders from the north (most likely Darfur).
The title of the book is derived from a Dinka mythology. The Dinkas are indiginous people in southern Sudan. It is said that God came to them and asked them if they wanted to have life the way it was or if they wanted the 'What'. Naturally, they asked what the what was. God said he could not say. The Dinkas chose to keep the agrarian society that had worked for them over generations and the northern Sudanese were given the 'what'. I am assuming it was oil and wealth.
This book is an homage to courage, resilience and the ability to survive in the most horrific of circumstances. Mr. Eggers' writing is superb. I can't recommend this book more highly. It is brilliant, readable and will change the way you view human nature. Like me, I believe it will stay with you for a very long time.
Book Review: Experience the Horrors of the Lost Boys
Summary: 4 Stars
The story is about Valentino Achak Deng who was a refugee from the Sudanese Civil War, which happened in the 1980s and 90s before the problems in Darfur. This is almost a memoir, retold by the author after hours of conversations with the Valentino Achak. The book, however, is a novel, with added dialogue, and some characters created from composites of people Achak knew. Also, since some of this tale was written when Achak was quite young, some of the events are recreations that may not be exactly as they happened. As one of the "Lost Boys", who separated from their families, traveled miles to find safety, you will learn of the horrors that beset these people through Achak's narration. I had some understanding of this situation before reading the book, but this book really brings what happened home in a way that the news never did, and that I will never forget. Many of these young boys did not make it to safety, often simply unable to continue on due to disease, starvation and lack of water, they simply sat down and died. The rebels killed some, and lions or crocodiles ate others. The book then follows Achak and his fellow "Lost Boys" to the refugee camps where they find life is not what they had imagined, but instead is full of hardships, and years of waiting and hoping for a way out. We then travel with Achak to the United States, where he finds life continues to be a challenge, and his dream of going to college, would not come as soon as he had expected. This was an excellent book that will bring home to you the horrors of what has happened and continues to happen in Sudan and Darfur today. I had a little trouble with the narrative style of the book, where Achak, who is tied and lying on the floor of his own apartment as it is being robbed, narrates the story in his head to a young boy who is left to guard him as the other's leave the apartment for a time. I would be deeply into the events of the story, then it would revert back to the apartment and this young boy who he wanted to give his story to, and at times it interrupted the flow. I did, however, adjust to this theme as the story continued.