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What Is the What by Dave Eggers
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What Is the What

by Dave Eggers

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2,62171969 (4.22)109
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The contrast between the beautiful language and ugly events was startling, but in part this contrast made the book what it is. without the eloquence it would be easy to ignore, block out, or give in to the feeling of helplessness or even call the whole situation unbelievable, exaggerated, made-up, and impossible to solve. Without the brutality and conflict witnessed by Achak Deng, there is no story - the plot would be: man moves from Africa to USA and his home is burgled. I'm horribly paraphrasing when I write that conflict is essential to story telling and prismatically reflects characters, cultures, and chronology so readers can more clearly see the nature of the subject. By that standard, every story of Africa should be as riveting as this one. Novelizing this memoir, and presumably smoothing out, embellishing, and aggregating experience, Eggers allows us as readers to more clearly see Deng, Sudan, and Sudanese refuges in North America. The depth provided by this prism is much greater even than what I have been able to gather from news streams and 'special reports', and even more clear than what I can decipher from Save Darfur slogans and other advocates. ( )
bfertig | Jun 16, 2009 |  
Based on true facts, this novel is about a young boy from Sudan forced to flee for his life during a civil war. Intense with some violence. ( )
kren250 | Jun 11, 2009 |  
I'm glad I read this. I hardly knew anything about Sudan before I did, and I learned a lot from this book. However, it was sooooo difficult. Not the language—this was the first thing I read by Dave Eggers, and I found his style graceful and uncomplicated—but the subject. It was depressing. And I'm sure that's very realistic of the life of Valentino. But I had to keep putting this down and picking up lighter things to read, so it took me almost twice as long as normal to finish a book of this length. Like I said, I'm glad I read it, it felt important to do, but I don't know that I'd want to do it again. ( )
goddessladyj | Jun 10, 2009 |  
A semi-autobiographical tale of one amongst the thousands of ‘Lost Boys’ caught in a civil war, fleeing his home in Marial Bai and marching across the Sudan to find safety elsewhere. It is partially the story of the tragedy of the Sudan, but also the story of the sometimes overwhelming immigrant experience. While Achak often tries to express his gratitude to the many who came to his rescue I often felt otherwise. For example, his jobs in the US which paid $6.00 or $8.00 an hour (years ago) are not good enough for him. It seems it never occurred to him that many people much more qualified than he is are living on that wage today, and that much of the money that helped him arrive in this country came from charitable organizations that received donations from many people making only $6.00 or $8.00 an hour here, yet sending a portion to others to help. Here is a quote from the book “It was the habit of so many I knew, in Kakuma and later, to take the generosity of a person and stretch it to the breaking.” It is the underlying sense that I took away from the book. Achak come from a very proud nation and heritage, as is especially evident in the telling of the tale of the beginning of time in ‘What is the What,’ but in today’s sea of humanity such hubris can often lead to war.

Interesting link to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation:

VAD Foundation ( )
tobiejonzarelli | May 31, 2009 |  
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Epigraph
Dedication
First words
I have no reason not to answer the door so I answer the door.
Quotations
"They can come in different shapes and guises, but always wars come in increments. I am convinced there are steps, and that once these events are set into motion, they are virtually impossible to reverse."
"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. I covet your eyes, your ears, the collapsible space between us. How blessed are we to have each other? I am alive and you are alive so we must fill the air with our words. I will fill today, tomorrow, every day until I am taken back to God. I will tell stories to people who listen and to people who don't want to listen, to people who seek me out and to those who run."
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0307385906, Paperback)

What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children--the so-called Lost Boys--was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400)

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