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What Is the What
by Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers tells the story of one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan.”
On September 11, 2001, Valentino Achak Deng was scheduled to fly on a plane to America, embarking on a new life which he had been told would be free of the conflict and suffering that he had known in his homeland of Sudan. What happened instead was the now infamous attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, an uneasy beginning for Valentino’s transition into the land of plenty.
Valentino is one of the thousands of “Lost Boys of Sudan,” children who escaped the savagery of the Sudanese Civil War in the early '90s and walked thousands of miles to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. Much later, some of these boys were transported to the United States to give them an attempt to start over in a place where they wouldn’t have to be afraid. In his new novel, What Is the What, Dave Eggers allows himself to be a mouthpiece for Valentino, telling the story of both his fearful journey out of Sudan and his transition into life in the United States of America. The result is a book that will help conscientious Americans to understand what has happened over the past twenty years in Sudan in a very accessible way.
Egger’s work is always compelling, but with What Is the What, we’re reminded that his greatest strength is his capacity to express profound loss. Assuming the voice of Valentino Achak Deng, Egger’s prose is simple, straightforward and cuttingly poignant. Through the book he does an almost miraculous job of transporting the reader to the thick and complicated landscape of southern Sudan, and the more familiar landscape of modern USA.
I found this book to be incredibly beautiful and unforgettably moving. In the news, we’re bombarded with empty numbers of the death toll in Darfur, but not until I read this book did I really deeply connect with the stories of the people living there, nor was I even aware of the separate but similar struggle of the people of Southern Sudan. The tool the book uses in telling Valentino’s story is an endless silent monologue – he’s trying mutely to appeal to the people he meets in the United States - to tell them his story, to explain to them what he’s been through, so that they can understand and be patient and maybe give him a helping hand when he needs it. Those who read What Is the What will hear that silent story, and hopefully be moved to do something about it.
Title: What Is the What
Author: Dave Eggers
Review written by: Jennifer O'Reilly
Reviewer's Rating:9.5
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
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