What Is the What (Vintage)

Customer Reviews

• A Simple Plea from African Victims for Just a Few Listeners  Nov 14, 2006 (152 of 168 found this helpful)

  At an impressionable young age of eight or ten, Achak Deng sits at his father's feet in their home village of Marial Bai in southern Sudan, listening to his father's rendition of a Dinka creation myth. God has created a proud Dinka man and a beautiful woman, and now he offers them the idea of a cow to provide them with milk and meat and wealth. "You can either have these cattle, as my gift to you, or you can have the What," God tells the first man. "What is the What?" the man asks. "I cannot tell you," God replies. "Still, you have to choose ...between the cattle and the What." The man and woman wisely choose the cattle, thereby passing God's test to appreciate what they had been given.
  
  Thence comes the eponymous phrase whose unknowable answer frames Dave Eggers' latest book. Through the survival struggles of one of the country's thousands of Lost Boys, WHAT IS THE WHAT traces the late 20th Century history of Sudan, from the incipient struggles of the black African south against the Moslem-leaning government of Khartoum to today's current manifestation of this genocide, Darfur. When the story opens, Valentino Achak Deng has already left his native country for Atlanta, one of the many Lost Boys (and a smattering of Lost Girls) who have gained asylum and sponsorship in America, Canada, Australia, and other Western countries. Achak has been mentored and assisted to the degree that charitable organizations and personal acts of kindness can accomplish. Still, we quickly learn that he finds himself struggling at every turn to make enough money in menial jobs to survive, achieve a few modest comforts, and maintain respectable grades in his community college studies so as to seek admission to a full, four-year college. As if the various horrors he suffered in his flight from the Sudan to Kenya were not awful enough, Eggers puts his protagonist directly into the powerless victim role from nearly the first page of the book - Achak answers a knock on his door only to find himself assaulted and bound and his apartment being robbed.
  
  Throughout WHAT IS THE WHAT, Eggers sustains a narrative conceit in which Achak relates his life story to those around him in complete silence. He begins his "thought tale" with his robbers, and then with the young boy Michael whom the robbers leave to guard him while they take away their first load of stolen goods. Wherever Achak goes in his American dream world, whether in the hospital emergency room after the robbery or at his front desk job at a health club, he finds himself telling more of his story, yet never aloud. What could have ended as a cloying literary device comes off instead as a subconscious plea for sympathy, a silent scream for an audience that shows even a moment's care for the victims of Sudanese (and African, generally) war, famine, and genocide. Not surprisingly, the unhearing Americans who surround Achak every day know nothing about his life, his family, or his culture. They know nothing of his sufferings, of the Lost Boys whose lives truly were lost and of those survivors who in many ways remained just as lost. They would likely never be Sudanese again, nor could they ever fully be Ethiopians, Kenyans, or Americans.
  
  Eggers' story is at its best when relating the horrors of genocide and life as a refugee, on the run or in the camps. Life becomes terrifyingly elemental, death utterly capricious. Every decision, whether random or planned, has implications and often uncontrollable consequences. While WHAT IS THE WHAT may lack the powerful first-hand immediacy (and irrationality) portrayed in Iweala's BEASTS OF NO NATION, Eggers gives the reader a broader and more historical perspective on at least one of Africa's bloody and long-standing internal conflicts. In the Lost Boys' world as portrayed by Dave Eggers', is "the What" a threat (as in, "or else") or just another choice? From Achak's burned out village of Marial Bai, Ethiopia represents more tha

• Unusual mashup of real and fiction  Oct 16, 2007 (43 of 49 found this helpful)

  There are a number of really excellent non-fiction autobiographies of the Lost Boys currently available, 5 of them (see below). "What Is the What" is the only fictionalized account I am aware of. I've read some of the non-fiction accounts, and they are just as compelling, fascinating and dramatic as fiction; in many ways more so because they are factual and have a sense of "otherness" and level of specific detail. Although the novel has plenty of violence, it seems somewhat sterilized and made more palatable for the sensibilities of a middle class American audience - Deng's "voice" (really Eggers?) is confident and optimistic about the future, rarely did I sense the utter loneliness, despondency, hopelessness, weakness and fear that is palpable in the real autobiographies.
  
  This is not a bad book, Eggers has created an entertaining work of art, not unlike what Charles Dickens did for the poor in "Oliver Twist", it serves to advance a social cause. But the real autobiographies are just as page-turning readable and even more emotionally moving because of their truthfulness. Literary critic Lee Siegel in "The New Republic" took the problem even further saying the novels "innocent expropriation of another man's identity is a post-colonial arrogance.. How strange for one man to think that he could write the story of another man, a real living man who is perfectly capable of telling his story himself -- and then call it an autobiography. Where is the dignity in that?" Francis Prose in "The New York Times" said the novel is very popular among younger readers in their 20s and I guess this is not surprising since fiction is usually more approachable and accessible than non-fiction, but there are some excellent real-life accounts, told in the actual words and voice of someone from Sudan, it is a challenge to step into someone else's world, but can be a transformative experience.
  
  --Lost Boys Autobiographies--
  * They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky
  * God Grew Tired Of Us: A Memoir
  * The Lost Boys of Sudan
  * The Journey of the Lost Boys
  * Lost Boy No More

• An important, stirring novel  Jan 6, 2007 (27 of 30 found this helpful)

  "What is the What" is a sprawling, semi-biographical novel about the life of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee living in Atlanta and reflecting on his life story as he is robbed and beaten by two thieves who have gotten into his apartment. The narrative goes back and forth between Valentino's present situation and his youth in the village of Marial Bai and, later, his years fleeing his homeland and becoming one of the displaced "Lost Boys" in a Kenyan refugee camp. His story is harrowing and brutal; before getting to Kenya the very young Valentino bears witness to innumerable atrocities and hardships. Believing that his family was murdered, he embarks on a deadly trek across the desert to find safe haven in Ethiopia, and many of his fellow walkers and friends die of starvation or attacks by lions and soldiers. Safety in Ethiopia is only short-lived, however, and Valentino must escape again. Before age twelve he has seen the very worst of humanity: its selfishness, its greed, its corruption and violence, but Valentino remains optimistic for his future, even when life seems determined to keep him down. But disappointment with his new life in America may be his breaking point, as he has failed to find a job that can support him adequately, get the education that he would need to get ahead, and continues to be be a victim of senseless violence and a government/society that can't be bothered to care about his plight. "What is the What" is a searing, eye-opening experience about the crises in Africa and the way its victims are routinely passed off by society -- when sometimes just the simplest of kindnesses would be enough to help them by. Instead, people like Valentino Achak Deng have been denied their very humanity, and seem doomed to live life on the fringes of society. The title, an excellent recurring theme on Eggers' part, refers to an old Dinka legend about the creation of the world, when God offered his people cows and shelter to survive, and then offered them the What instead if they would rather have it. What the What is cannot be answered, but in Valentino's quest he comes across many possible answers and theories. The novel is not without fault: there are numerous grammatical errors (usually 'where' instead of 'were,' etc.), it could have been about fifty pages shorter, and the switches from present day to past are frequently a little too jarring, but on the whole the novel excells, and its message makes it well worth your time. Highly recommended.

• Dave Eggers' Evolution  May 17, 2007 (17 of 18 found this helpful)

  I knew something was afoot when I read "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly." Where was the self aware ego, the fictional non-fiction (with notes), the inner dialogue masked as a conversation between corporeal persons? Instead of his usual tricks I found a semi-allegorical story concerning western imperialism in third world countries. Didn't this guy try to get on the Real World? Eggers transformation from post-modern slacker to politically minded provocateur is complete and out of his chrysalis has sprung one of the best novels I've read in years.
  
  It's not an easy trick to make one's way from self serving aggrandizer (even if one is admits he's a self serving aggrandizer) to someone with a political message, especially if that political message is about the plight of a group you don't happen to belong to. If handled incorrectly the author risks presenting his work as no more than a cultural furlough so that he may play native for awhile. There are several reasons that explain why Eggers does not fall into this trap.
  
  First, the novel is semi-biographical. It is based on the life story of Egger's friend Valentino Achak Deng. In fact, the entire title reads What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achack Deng and, curiously, underneath reads "a novel." To avoid a long, and inevitably supplemented, introduction detailing the difference between what happens in the book and what actually happened, Eggers decided to term his work a novel despite its origins in real life. Eggers goes so far as to write the novel in first person and overhauls his style to approximate Valentino's speech. If he were a lesser novelist Egger's writing would reek of cultural poaching, but by the second paragraph I forgot it was Eggers writing the novel and not Valentino. Like a great actor he manages to hide himself behind the prose.
  
  Second, Eggers makes it very clear his purpose is to motivate people. The novel begins with Valentino being robbed and subsequently kidnapped. The robbers leave a young child, presumably their kid, to watch over a bound Valentino. We learn of Valentino's life in Sudan as he pretends to address his captor. Throughout the novel this same technique is repeated as Valentino imagines himself telling a hospital worker or a gym attendant his story. The reader is made aware that Sudan's atrocities do not just occur to people thousands of miles away but also to those we pass everyday in the street. It also mirrors the fact that these atrocities have occurred for decades while the rest of the world remains ignorant. Eggers also makes good use of a schoolteacher character who leads a band of lost boys across the country. The schoolteacher attempts to explain to the boys why they are running from their homes and into Ethiopia, and by educating them he is, of course, also educating the reader. I am reminded of when Robert Jordan, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, attempts to explain land reform by likening it to the Land Rush in the United States, but of course his real purpose is to make socialism seem less scary to an American audience.
  
  What Is the What is a novel with a clear purpose and isn't the worst for it. In fact, it's much better for it. What really holds the whole thing together is Egger's superb writing. The "flashback" segments are used to great effect and the time we spend in the present only creates more suspense as we want to uncover what happened to Valentino in his homeland. The details regarding how computer packages dropped from planes land differently than other packages struck me as particularly impressive. This kind of detail does not read like it was written by someone who wasn't even there. Of course, much of the credit goes to Valentino who relayed his story to Eggers. What Is the What is that rare work of art that immediately touches the world beyond the page.

• Don't read this in the bathroom. Other people may have to use it.   Feb 24, 2007 (20 of 22 found this helpful)

  You're looking for a good book. You've read Dave Eggers or you've met him at a signing. You're thinking that you'll eventually pick this one up too. Everyone is talking about it. Besides, the cover is fantastic and it will look great on your shelf, the one that all your dates or babysitters scan.
  
  Be prepared, though, this is not a book that deserves a simple glance or casual committment. It's a brilliantly woven tale, mostly true, of a young Sudanese and his daily struggle to understand his place in wartime Africa ... and in the United States. Before you judge that this is a political tale and you watch enough CNN to know what's going on, consider the first reason why you're curious: you're looking for a good book, maybe one that you won't lend to anyone else because it might not be returned.
  
  Here's what's going to happen. First, Valentino's voice will come alive. When you're pretending to laugh with friends at the bar, you'll hear Valentino's voice retell a story about lions that you just read hours before. You'll see what he sees and you'll tire easily, running with him through the desert or riding a bike for the first time. Your heart will break and you'll occassionally feel undeniable urges for hope and love and luck. You'll beg and plead your boyfriend/husband/friend to read it with you. And if you're like me, you'll get late-night emails from others, unsure if you've already read about Tabitha or not.
  
  So, if you're looking for something simple and easy, something that maybe your Mom might read, this is not the book for you. If you're looking for something simply brilliant and deeply felt, this is something you might want to give your Mom. It may be one of the best gifts you could give.