What is the What
by Dave Eggers
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.92 You Save: $8.08 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of What is the What
Book Review: Creative Telling of a Real and Compelling Story
Summary: 5 Stars
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Having read "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius", and having found much of it like being in a room with a hyperactive adolescent, I found Egger's approach to this book both creative and charming. In a collaboration with the subject, Eggers tells the life story of one of Sudan's Lost Boys, Achak Deng. He does this from a first person account...making us privy to the thoughts and emotions of Achak as he recounts his story silently to a number of people he comes in contact with, beginning with the child of the couple who robs him in his Atlanta apartment. Deng imagines what he would tell each of the people about his journey from war torn Sudan to the United States...and the result is a mixture of humor, humanity and compassion.
Eggers and Deng call this book a "novel", as opposed to a "biography", because Deng's journey began at the age of eight, and involved a torturous walk across the Sudanese desert into Ethiopia, then a harrowing escape into Kenya. We can't really expect Deng to remember every event perfectly or every conversation he had during this time, so while Eggers may have taken some liberties here, the facts are all still historically correct and completely believable.
Most of us know about what is happening in the Darfur region of Sudan, but this story predates that - making it easy to see how the current state of affairs came about.
A compelling novel about one boy's epic journey to freedom and opportunity.
- C.A. Wulff (author, Born Without a Tail)
Book Review: A profoundly moving immersion in a life none should have to live
Summary: 5 Stars
I cannot imagine how someone could read What is the What and not be profoundly affected and moved by the tale it has to tell. Despite being labeled as a novel. What is the What is nonfiction, telling the tale of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese man who fled his village as the civil war broke out in his country (Eggers and Deng labeled it a novel due to Eggers' recreation of conversations that Deng could not specifically remember). Eggers takes Deng's tale - his youth, his life in the village, his trek across the country, his time in refugee camps, his time in America - and crafts it into a beautiful work that conveys the horrors of the time not only on a massive scale but a personal one, letting us into Deng's world and forcing us to experience the events through the eyes of a young boy. There's no denying that What is the What can be a difficult read, but Deng and Eggers fill the tale with a joy for life and a sense of hope (to say nothing of a quiet sense of humor), even in the worst darkness, that permeates the novel. The end result is a book that truly opens a reader's eyes to the experiences of the Lost Boys and many of the Darfur inhabitants, immersing us in a world many of us know little about - from Sudan to Kenya and even to the immigrant experience in America - and making it an experience we will be unable to leave behind. It is one of the most powerful books I have ever read, and while it is not an easy book, it is an important one, one that I would say every person owes it to themselves to read.Book Review: A Disturbing, Excellent Read
Summary: 5 Stars
In a novel by Dave Eggers called What Is the What (Vintage 2006), we see featured the real life experiences of the main character, Valentino Achak Deng from Sudan.
We first meet Achak as he is robbed, accosted, and tied up in his Atlanta apartment. Achak attempts to reason with the couple robbing him, but they answer by beating him badly. As he lies on the floor, bleeding from his head, he reflects on his experiences as a boy in the village Marial Bai. As a seven-year-old, he enjoys a loving relationship with his mother, and he is close to his father, a prominent businessman/store owner in the village. This all changes when war erupts, and Achak's people are persecuted and decimated by Arab combatants. His village burned, his parents likely dead, Achak joins a group of wandering boys, making their way to Ethiopia with the hope of safety and respite from their hellish experiences. Nonetheless, the horror doesn't stop in Ethiopia. The Dinka people are chased out of the country with gunfire at their backs and violence at their heels.
This is a very difficult book to read. It is violent, disturbing, and often hopeless. Even coming to America and receiving an education doesn't rescue our protagonist from the terrible ugliness of the world. However, Achak's honesty and keen storytelling ability provide readers with a powerful insight into the world of genocide, social ill, and how one young man survives with not only sanity, but with a great deal of lucidity.
Book Review: Surprising and touching
Summary: 5 Stars
I first picked this up in a book store when the title caught my eye. "What is the What? Huh? What?" I stared at the title as if I expected the words to rearrange themselves and make more sense. Of course, now that I've read the book, the title makes perfect sense.
Easily one of the best books I've read in the last five years, Dave Eggers has created what I really regard as a masterpiece. The book is very informative about the Sudanese and the Civil War that ripped the area, and families, apart, yet never bogs down under the weight of the narrative; it always retains its humanity. Combining elements from both Valentino Achak Deng's own life and the lives of others to fill in some of the narrative gaps, Eggers really puts us through the life of not just Deng, but anyone who's been forced to live through such devastation. The book is also a stark reminder that just because someone is removed from the war zone, their problems are by no means over, as Deng finds a new set of obstacles and injuries awaits him in America. Not to say that the book is so serious that it lacks any warmth or humor. The book can be surprisingly funny at times.
I really can't praise this book highly enough. I read it very quickly. I not only had trouble putting it down, but I couldn't stop thinking about it when I wasn't reading it. Some books I get rid of once I'm done, but this one I'm keeping for my permanent collection.
Book Review: Outstanding
Summary: 5 Stars
I have reached the end of this "fictional" autobiography. It's extraordinary. Its emotional landscape is as broad as the horizon. The story of Valentino's life is very hard for secure Westerners to fathom. From his early boyhood living relatively comfortably in his primitive village in Sudan with his extended family to an utterly insane struggle for survival in the midst of a genocidal nightmare, Valentino's life takes the reader on an odyssey that is horrifying, confusing, enraging, and deeply touching. It seems his life is punctuated by loving attachments and then staggering losses, as if he is in a constant state of condemnation by God. He wonders himself what he has done to deserve his fate. His miraculous survival and inspirational journey can't help but touch even the coldest heart.
The work is considered fiction because there clearly is embellishment that could only have been created by Eggers in order to capture the spirit of the events in Valentino's life. But Eggers is such a fine writer. This is my first experience with his work, and I am amazed! His commitment to the lost, the refugee, the nobodys in our oppressive and vicious world is palpable.
This book is unforgettable, epic, awful, astonishing, moving, and inspirational. It will move the reader to get involved. Click on the urls given at the end of the book and contribute!