What is the What
by Dave Eggers
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Book Reviews of What is the What
Book Review: Closely based on the oral history of a Sudanese "Lost Boy"
Summary: 5 Stars
This fictionalized autobiography, closely based on the oral history of a Sudanese "Lost Boy," is experimental, ambitious and most suitable for advanced high school, college and adult readers. Tracking back and forth chronologically between the narrator's present day travails in Atlanta and his memories of displacement and refugee camp life in the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya, What is the What presents a fascinating web of experience. Far from simply offering one more reiteration of the fairly well-known "Lost Boy" narrative, Eggers' account raises several new and unsettling questions. Does trauma really end when a refugee is resettled in the "first world," or does trauma perhaps increase upon resettlement? What is the fate of a cause célèbre after the attention of the media and donors moves on and when sympathy for a given refugee community wears thin? How and why do transnational communities become burdensome and destructive rather than resourceful and resilient for forced migrants? Conversely, what opportunities for education, love, friendship and creativity become possible in the constrained environs of a refugee camp? Eggers account is a valuable reminder of the moral ambiguities and experiential complexities of the Sudanese "Lost Boy" story.
Book Review: So good it hurts
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is magnificent. I don't think I've ever enjoyed or appreciated a book more. Through the narrative of Valentino Achek Deng, Eggers manages to tell an important contemporary story about Sudan and Africa while also providing moving insight about America and about the nature of being human. The book is also extraordinarily clever in its use of a disjointed narrative, multiple settings, and a distinct voice. But the beauty for me is that it is not too clever. I sometimes feel that the hip, contemporary American writers - of whom Eggers is a prototype - try too hard to be clever, ending up as snarky and self-righteous. For me, there was some of that in Egger's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (as there was in They Shall Know our Velocity--though I have to admit to liking that one; not as many people do, but I found it a quirky take on young Americans as they relate to somewhat obscure parts of the globalizing world). But in What is the What there is a moving earnestness that underlies the cleverness, and a reader realizes that ironic distance is not really the signature of cool. Instead, cool is about fully engaging with events and people, those in Sudan and in the US, that suggest something about the reality and meaning of modern life.Book Review: Ho Hum is the What
Summary: 4 Stars
This story about Valentino Deng, whether fictionalized or not, is powerful and inspiring on its own. Why Eggers felt the need to either fictionalize Valentino's Sudanese journey or fictionalize Valentino's time in Atlanta baffles me. I understand the parallel between the two experiences for Valentino: accepting one's fate vs. changing one's fate. However, in both cases, the protagonist's decision to finally stop accepting fate, take the more difficult path and change his fate comes suddenly and almost without any reason to do so. And that is the problem with the duel narratives. Taking out either one of the storylines allows Valentino's build-up and decision to make a drastic change in his life complete and sensible. However, Eggers muddles both storylines by incongruously weaving the two together.
Despite the narrative problems, the story of Valentino in Sudan, Kenya and Atlanta are powerful. I am glad to have read this book as it makes me want to do more to help not only the Sudanese in Sudan, but the Sudanese in America as well. It also serves as a reminder that despite the problems going on around the globe, we still have a long list of problems to deal with in America.
Book Review: Nice Change of Pace
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like Dave Egger's you'll love this book. Although it's much different than A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius or You Shall Know Our Velocity. It still has the same Egger-style of narrative . . . choppy, short, honest, run on sentences, skipping around. It's basically biographical fiction. He spent time with one of the Lost Boys of Sudan (Achak Deng) and then retold his story through fiction. So part of it's true in every detail and part of is Egger's fiction providing depth and layers to the story. A really interesting concept that I was nervous about but worked amazingly well. This is not an easy book to read though. There were 2 times where I was close to throwing up. There were times when I had tears in my eyes. And there were times where I was so embarrassed and heavy with the suffering in this world that I struggled to continue. But it's also amazingly hopeful and inspirational. If you haven't read Eggers . . . this is an excellent place to start (it has little to none of his typical harsh language). And if you no little to nothing about the Lost Boys of Sudan or how we got the crisis in Darfur . . . this is a great historical, biography to get you situated.Book Review: Excellent, and more truth than fiction, IMO
Summary: 5 Stars
I am only halfway through this, and I know that it is more a fictionalized biography than non-fiction. But I believe that most of the stories from Africa are true, and the names of those who helped Achak in America and their experiences are also true. I have known about and followed the stories of The Lost Boys since about 2000. I live in Atlanta and have spoken with Mary Williams as she has solicited the cause for The Lost Boys and connected them with homeless youth in Atlanta. I know the organizations that work to resettle new groups of refugees in Atlanta, and much of what Achak describes - the need for sponsors to pave the way and assist, the frustration amongst groups about the unequal levels of sponsorship and the roadblocks to assimilation - is true.
So, as I reach the middle of the book, I am already online ordering more copies for gifts, b/c this book puts into perspective what real loss, fear, sacrfice and suffering are. It makes the problems many of us Americans bring on ourselves pale in comparison, and reminds me how truly rich we are - in the simple fact that we are, for the most part, safe and secure in what tomorrow will bring.