What Is the What

By Dave Eggers

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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.

“A testament to the triumph of hope over experience, human resilience over tragedy and disaster.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"An absolute classic.... Compelling, important, and vital to the understanding of the politics and emotional consequences of oppression." —People

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 13, 2007
• ISBN: 9780307390363

Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers is the author of many books, including What Can a Citizen Do? and Her Right Foot. He is the cofounder of: Voice of Witness, an oral-history series focused on human rights; 826 National, a network of writing and tutoring centers; and ScholarMatch, which connects donors and under-resourced students to make college possible. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Reviews for What Is the What

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bij het lezen van dit boek moet je twee zaken goed scheiden: het verhaal van de Soedanese vluchteling Valentino/Dominic Achak Deng en wat Dave Eggers daarmee gedaan heeft. We zullen met Deng beginnen. Het is onmogelijk om geen sympathie te voelen voor Deng’s verhaal. Wat hij beschrijft, is gruwelijk en vertederend tegelijk: de vervolging van de dinka-minderheid in Zuid-Soedan door het islamitisch-Arabisch bewind in Khartoem, de lange, dodelijke marsen van de ‘Lost Boys’ naar Ethiopië en na hun verdrijving daar naar Kenia, het moeilijke leven in de vluchtelingenkampen, de verscheurende keuze tussen meevechten met het verzet, afzijdig blijven en al of niet ingaan op het aanbod tot hervestiging in het rijke Westen, en tenslotte de problematische integratie in de Verenigde Staten. De manier waarop Deng dit aanbrengt, komt heel authentiek over, vooral omdat hij het verhaal vertelt zonder veel franje, zelfs op de moeilijkste momenten, en met veel aandacht voor de heel gemengde gevoelens die hij heeft bij wat hem allemaal overkomt. De grote verdienste van dit verhaal is dus dat je als absolute buitenstaander leert hoe complex het vluchtelingenbestaan precies is, en hoe divers de uitdagingen zijn waar een vluchteling voor staat. Het verhaal is niet alleen gruwelijk, maar ook vertederend. Deng blijkt daarbij van nature iemand die een lovenswaardige onbevangen en open instelling heeft, altijd het goede probeert te zien en nooit bij de pakken blijft zitten. Dat kan ongeloofwaardig overkomen, met al wat hem overkomen is (tot op het einde) zou je verwachten dat hij er cynisch en verbitterd of juist heel fanatiek-radicaal van geworden zou zijn. Dat is niet zo, en ik geloof hem. Het vertederende zit hem ook in het feit dat zijn verhaal op veel punten een heel klassiek ‘coming of age’-verhaal wordt, bijvoorbeeld waar hij vertelt over de omgang als kleine jongen met de grote volwassen wereld van de rebellen, en meer nog als hij zijn worsteling met het andere geslacht beschrijft. Op zo’n moment lijkt het of je met een doodgewone puber in een doodgewone context te maken hebt, maar dat is het natuurlijk juist niet, en ook dat is één van de charmes van dit boek. Natuurlijk zijn er ook wel wat minpuntjes aan te kaarten. We krijgen hier, zoals Deng in de inleiding terecht zegt, een heel persoonlijk en dus subjectief verhaal. De lezer weze gewaarschuwd dat hij na dit boek absoluut geen objectief beeld zal hebben van het ingewikkelde conflict in Soedan in de afgelopen decennia. Om maar iets te zeggen: maar heel beperkt gaat Deng in op de etnische conflicten in Zuid-Soedan zelf, die zoals na de onafhankelijkheid helaas maar al te duidelijk is gebleken, toch ook wel een grote impact hadden op het gebied. Maar dan is er de rol van Dave Eggers. De Amerikaanse auteur heeft drie jaar lang met Deng samengewerkt, urenlang naar zijn verhaal geluisterd en dat in dit boek verwerkt. Aanvankelijk vond ik dat het procedé dat Eggers gebruikt, een raamvertelling, echt wel werkt. De openingsscène waarin ons hoofdpersonage in zijn appartement in Atlanta brutaal overvallen wordt, is ronduit schitterend gevonden: het vermijdt al onmiddellijk dat het hele verhaal wordt gezien als een reddingsverhaal (“Soedanese vluchteling wordt uit Afrikaanse poel van ellende opgevist en bouwt glorieus bestaan uit in de paradijselijke Verenigde Staten”). Ook de snelle opeenvolging daarna van interne monologen van Deng tot zijn belagers, waarin mondjesmaat de episodes uit Soedan aan bod komen, is schitterend gedaan. Maar dan valt die dynamiek stil, en Eggers laat Deng almaar langere flashbacks vertellen, dikwijls ook over zijn hoogstpersoonlijke zielenroerselen, en dus ten koste van de vaart in het verhaal. Vormelijk is het boek dus niet helemaal geslaagd, maar laat ons daar niet te fel over kniezen. “What’s the What?” is best lezenswaardig als menselijk document. Het mag dan niet eens handelen over de grootste tragedie van de laatste decennia (want laat ons eerlijk zijn: wat in Rwanda en Congo gebeurd is, is eigenlijk nog veel erger), het blijft een doordringend getuigenis over wat mensen elkaar ook in deze moderne tijd kunnen aandoen en hoe direct betrokkenen daarmee (heel verschillend) omgaan.En dan blijft er natuurlijk de vraag ‘Wat is de Wat?’. Verwacht geen antwoord op deze vraag, al zal de aandachtige lezer zeker genoeg aanwijzingen vinden om zelf een enigszins bevredigend antwoord te kunnen formuleren. Voor wie dat toch nodig heeft, een kleine tip: de weg is belangrijker dan het einddoel. Gelukkig is Eggers spaarzaam met deze gimmick, want meer dan dat is het eigenlijk niet.

[dawnlovesbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

i put this book down for too long and couldnt get back into it, however the part i did read was excellent! (i have a very small attention span :)

[lindaspangler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

lost boys of Sudan

[phenske · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing eye opening book, really enjoyed reading it and it opened my eyes and made me really think on the refugee crisis.

[cathy_huber-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book will change you. I am inspired and humbled and grateful, all at once.

[aaraab_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Horrific story, and unfortunately, it's terribly told here. I expected to come away from this book pressing copies into other peoples' hands. Instead I come away from it with a second piece of evidence why I don't like Eggers' writing. Earnest, yet stilted and unconvincing style. That's not to say I didn't keep reading it. Though it felt like punishment, I wanted to know what happened. I have since sought out other books on the topic and I recommend The Lost Boys of Sudan by Bixler, and The Translator by Daoud Hari (although it's more about Darfur than the earlier period Eggers talks about).

[magonistarevo-625111 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A the tail-end of my college experience, the campus craze to "Save Darfur" popularized. The coalitions that came together at my school to speak out against the atrocities committed in Sudan's Darfur region were varied: campus Christian groups and College Republicans as well as Fair Trade boosters and liberals. I found their politics to be abhorrent and irresponsible. In 2006, the US was three years into a war on Iraq which had recently been recast as a humanitarian intervention. On the one hand, the Christians and the Republicans gathered to chant, "Out of Iraq, Into Sudan!" at tiny, ignored rallies. On the other hand, paternalizing liberals begged the campus to save the poor Africans from violence by Raising Awareness (TM). These threads of white supremacy throughout the "Save Darfur" campaigns gave me compassion fatigue. I didn't consciously avoid becoming better informed about refugee struggles in Africa, but I never bothered to try to understand them either. I'm not proud of my reactionary thought pattern. I saw idiots saying dumb shit about things towards with I should be sympathetic and I ignored that towards which I should have been sympathetic. It is therefore embarrassing that almost all of what I know about the Sudan is from a book written by a white hipster writer who streamlined the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, an actual living Sudanese man who had endured a thousand-mile walk as a child to become an international refugee. I am choosing to believe that everything good I drew from this book came from the recorded sessions he had with the author.When it seemed like his whole life had lead up to arriving in America to enjoy the fruits of his decades-long struggle for a dignified life, the story of Valentino Achak Deng didn't end. That is what was beautiful about this book. With the goal of going to college, Achak is sidelined by the disappointment from his US benefactors that the Sudanese are not immaculate immigrant archetypes but actual human beings. He is sidelined by poverty and the rat-race that is the attempt to attain middle-class status. And he leads a normal, banal life.I can't say I would recommend this book to others, but I'm glad I listened to it myself.

[goofyocean110 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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 novelizing the 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.

[sprainedbrain · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The whole concept of this book is fascinating: a fictionalized biography about a real Lost Boy of Sudan. I enjoyed Valentino's story, and the way his experiences in Africa are told parallel to his experiences in the US. Heartbreaking, funny, and inspiring.

[wordsampersand · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'd read Eggers first two books back-to-back in the mid-2000s, and I was a rabid fan. For whatever reason, I bought this one when it was released and haven't touched it 'til now. Maybe I was scared of how different it would be than his earlier books?

But I'm glad I finally read it, and I feel silly for not doing so earlier. It's such a good book, and an important one at that.

Do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook version, too--Dion Graham is an amazing narrator.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bij het lezen van dit boek moet je twee zaken goed scheiden: het verhaal van de Soedanese vluchteling Valentino/Dominic Achak Deng en wat Dave Eggers daarmee gedaan heeft. We zullen met Deng beginnen. Het is onmogelijk om geen sympathie te voelen voor Deng?s verhaal. Wat hij beschrijft, is gruwelijk en vertederend tegelijk: de vervolging van de dinka-minderheid in Zuid-Soedan door het islamitisch-Arabisch bewind in Khartoem, de lange, dodelijke marsen van de ?Lost Boys? naar Ethiopi? en na hun verdrijving daar naar Kenia, het moeilijke leven in de vluchtelingenkampen, de verscheurende keuze tussen meevechten met het verzet, afzijdig blijven en al of niet ingaan op het aanbod tot hervestiging in het rijke Westen, en tenslotte de problematische integratie in de Verenigde Staten. De manier waarop Deng dit aanbrengt, komt heel authentiek over, vooral omdat hij het verhaal vertelt zonder veel franje, zelfs op de moeilijkste momenten, en met veel aandacht voor de heel gemengde gevoelens die hij heeft bij wat hem allemaal overkomt. De grote verdienste van dit verhaal is dus dat je als absolute buitenstaander leert hoe complex het vluchtelingenbestaan precies is, en hoe divers de uitdagingen zijn waar een vluchteling voor staat. Het verhaal is niet alleen gruwelijk, maar ook vertederend. Deng blijkt daarbij van nature iemand die een lovenswaardige onbevangen en open instelling heeft, altijd het goede probeert te zien en nooit bij de pakken blijft zitten. Dat kan ongeloofwaardig overkomen, met al wat hem overkomen is (tot op het einde) zou je verwachten dat hij er cynisch en verbitterd of juist heel fanatiek-radicaal van geworden zou zijn. Dat is niet zo, en ik geloof hem. Het vertederende zit hem ook in het feit dat zijn verhaal op veel punten een heel klassiek ?coming of age?-verhaal wordt, bijvoorbeeld waar hij vertelt over de omgang als kleine jongen met de grote volwassen wereld van de rebellen, en meer nog als hij zijn worsteling met het andere geslacht beschrijft. Op zo?n moment lijkt het of je met een doodgewone puber in een doodgewone context te maken hebt, maar dat is het natuurlijk juist niet, en ook dat is ??n van de charmes van dit boek. Natuurlijk zijn er ook wel wat minpuntjes aan te kaarten. We krijgen hier, zoals Deng in de inleiding terecht zegt, een heel persoonlijk en dus subjectief verhaal. De lezer weze gewaarschuwd dat hij na dit boek absoluut geen objectief beeld zal hebben van het ingewikkelde conflict in Soedan in de afgelopen decennia. Om maar iets te zeggen: maar heel beperkt gaat Deng in op de etnische conflicten in Zuid-Soedan zelf, die zoals na de onafhankelijkheid helaas maar al te duidelijk is gebleken, toch ook wel een grote impact hadden op het gebied. Maar dan is er de rol van Dave Eggers. De Amerikaanse auteur heeft drie jaar lang met Deng samengewerkt, urenlang naar zijn verhaal geluisterd en dat in dit boek verwerkt. Aanvankelijk vond ik dat het proced? dat Eggers gebruikt, een raamvertelling, echt wel werkt. De openingssc?ne waarin ons hoofdpersonage in zijn appartement in Atlanta brutaal overvallen wordt, is ronduit schitterend gevonden: het vermijdt al onmiddellijk dat het hele verhaal wordt gezien als een reddingsverhaal (?Soedanese vluchteling wordt uit Afrikaanse poel van ellende opgevist en bouwt glorieus bestaan uit in de paradijselijke Verenigde Staten?). Ook de snelle opeenvolging daarna van interne monologen van Deng tot zijn belagers, waarin mondjesmaat de episodes uit Soedan aan bod komen, is schitterend gedaan. Maar dan valt die dynamiek stil, en Eggers laat Deng almaar langere flashbacks vertellen, dikwijls ook over zijn hoogstpersoonlijke zielenroerselen, en dus ten koste van de vaart in het verhaal. Vormelijk is het boek dus niet helemaal geslaagd, maar laat ons daar niet te fel over kniezen. ?What?s the What?? is best lezenswaardig als menselijk document. Het mag dan niet eens handelen over de grootste tragedie van de laatste decennia (want laat ons eerlijk zijn: wat in Rwanda en Congo gebeurd is, is eigenlijk nog veel erger), het blijft een doordringend getuigenis over wat mensen elkaar ook in deze moderne tijd kunnen aandoen en hoe direct betrokkenen daarmee (heel verschillend) omgaan.En dan blijft er natuurlijk de vraag ?Wat is de Wat??. Verwacht geen antwoord op deze vraag, al zal de aandachtige lezer zeker genoeg aanwijzingen vinden om zelf een enigszins bevredigend antwoord te kunnen formuleren. Voor wie dat toch nodig heeft, een kleine tip: de weg is belangrijker dan het einddoel. Gelukkig is Eggers spaarzaam met deze gimmick, want meer dan dat is het eigenlijk niet.

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"What is the What" is called a novel, because many conversations were invented, some minor characters may have been invented... but it is at its heart a true story: the biography of Valentino Achak Deng, a boy who became a refugee from the wars in Sudan at the age of 6, and the many trials an tribulations he faced over the next 15 years or so. The book has horrors galore, but nonetheless, it is a book about hope and faith. Counterintuitively, there is a surprising amount of humor in the tale as well. There are true heroes in the story. Dut Majok, who disappears halfway through the book, certainly stood out as a hero. It is a long and intense book, but well worth it.

[mamashepp · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

About fifty fewer pages and this would have been a five-star read for me.

[mjspear_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fictionalized account of Valentino Achak Deng newly arrived to Atlanta, GA from his native Sudan. Achak was part of the great Sudanese refugee movement, aka, "the Lost Boys." The book opens with Achak being mugged and burgled when he naively lets in a woman seeking help. He alternates his ordeals here with his trials in Africa. The two stories ensue and ultimately converge at the end of the book. While heart-breakingly sad at times (death, atrocities, violence) the book manages to end on a upbeat note as Ashak vows to start a new, more self-assured life in a new place.This is gripping reading and well-crafted. To this reader, Ashak's present-day travails were as awful as his times in Africa. He is treated with a strange combination of charity and neglect (he waits 17 hours in the ER and finally walks home!) His sponsors mean well but don't really equip him for American life. His fellow Sudanese immigrants suffer similar fates: lives of drama and violence. (His story of his 'love' Tabitha is especially moving.)

[squeakychu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent read. This is the story of young Valentino Achak Deng, a boy who left Southern Sudan when war broke out in his home town of Mariel Bai. He literally had to run for his life as he watched people all around him being killed by soldiers, eaten by lions or starving from hunger and thirst as he and others made their way on foot to Ethiopia and later were relocated to a refugee camp in Kenya. Although this was a novel, it was told in first person by Dave Eggers and is based on a true story.

[50minutemermaid · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The kind of book that confirmed for me that readers (this seems to be an occupational hazard, or at least quirk) have different phases and there are different times that things should be read. I picked this book up in the summer intending to read it and get it out of my life (i.e. off my shelves; they groan with the weight of unread books) and couldn't even begin to find my way into the story. I put it down and only just picked it back up again this week, and I'm already halfway through it.

I'm still leery of Eggers' appropriation/adaptation? of the Lost Boys' story though it does raise the interesting question of who gets to say what, especially when certain voices (like those of well-regarded award-winning and admittedly very talented young authors) might speak louder than others, and are therefore able to speak to a larger audience than perhaps the more authentic voices. Knee-jerk reaction against subtitling the book "The Autobiography..." but for those post-post-modernists out there, well, I can understand the complicating/compromising of What It Means To Use Certain Terms.

But I'm enjoying it, to say the least, even if I find Achak a little more westernized? liberally left-winged? than I can believe. The story, elle va.

[spaceyacey · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The worst book I have ever read. What's wrong with everyone? You can have sympathy for refugees and not like the book. If you like this book you obviously have no taste. This assault on the English language and the reader's attention is rated higher than 1984. Go figure. The author is not even African. Ah!!

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I did wind up loving this, but it took some time. This is a novel--and non-fiction. As put in the Preface, the book is the "soulful account" of the life of Valentine Achak Deng, one of the "Lost Boys" of the Sudan from the time he was separated from his family in Marial Bai to the thirteen years he spent in Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, to his "encounters with vibrant Western cultures, in Atlanta and elsewhere." Many an author would have just chosen to call it a biography and in the tradition of Truman Capote, make up many details, claim the license of"creative non-fiction" and call it a day. Eggers did something a bit different. Eggers at first planned a conventional biography, but as I read in an article afterwards, he kept feeling his own voice got in the way. So after discussing it with Deng, what he wrote instead was a "novel" based on his life--one that allows for the liberties and dramatizations of fiction, but firmly based on his experiences and attempting to capture his voice. I prefer that choice, mixing non-fiction with fiction and calling it a novel, than doing the same and claiming it as non-fiction, but it did still leave me with questions at times about what really happened. At first I didn't think this was succeeding very well. Eggers tells the story by weaving in the story, told past tense, of Deng's life as a refugee in Africa and an immigrant in America with his present in America, told present tense, beginning with him being assaulted and robbed in his own apartment. He mentally tells his story to the people dealing with him in that present--from the robbers to the police officer to the emergency room receptionist to the clients of the gym where he works. And, considering the present he's experiencing, the voice at first came across to me as rather whiny and self-pitying. Plus, his voice came across to me at first as rather formal and stilted--not inappropriate really to someone for whom English was a second language, but I faced it with a little skepticism not at that point knowing Eggers' process. Was this the voice of someone from Sudan? Or what Eggers thought one would speak like? I even at one point wondered if the preface itself was fictional. But no, I looked it up and Deng is a real person, who really went through the experiences in this book, and eventually I let go of my mistrust and let myself be drawn in and allow myself to care, and by the end I cared a lot. I also, especially given the beginning, feared this would be only a litany of horror and misery. But despite the tragedy, I found the story ultimately upbeat. Maybe it's because despite all the terrible things people do to each other, I couldn't help but be struck with the stories of incredible generosity along the way--from Sudanese, Kenyans, a Japanese relief worker, and Americans. The story is not completely bleak, even if much is heart-breaking; there was enough that was heart-warming to not make this too depressing a read. It's amazing just how resilient we humans can be.And you do learn a lot along the way--about Sudan, about refugee camps where people are "penned up like cattle" for decades and yet find a way to have some sort of life--and sometimes escape. About a part of Africa where slavery lives on. About people exploiting refugees ("Aid bait") refugees exploiting the system ("recycling"), about bride prices and forced marriages and boy soldiers and "What is the What." That last refers to a Dinka myth. I'll leave you to find out about it in the book. Which I certainly hope you will read. Hey, sales to go to a foundation for education of Sudanese children--so all good.

[lisa2013_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book and I do feel guilty for not loving it; I thought that I would. It’s my kind of book. I adore Dave Eggers. I was moved by Valentino Achak Deng’s story and the stories of the various other Sudanese refugees, and was interested in learning more about the events of the war in Sudan. I’m delighted that the proceeds from this book go to good causes: to fund the college education of Valentino Achak Deng, with distributions to other Sudanese refugees in America, and to rebuilding southern Sudan, in particular Marial Bai, where Deng is from.But something was missing for me in my experience of this book. I always have a difficult time enjoying novels that are basically biographies; I appreciate knowing what is real and what is fiction. Also, I didn’t enjoy Egger’s technique of having the protagonist (Deng) tell his story to the many various people in his vicinity or those on his mind. I’m not sure why as I love the storytelling form. But it didn’t work for me here. I felt distance vs. intimacy.And when it came down to it, while I was interested in the man and the events in his life, the book felt too long to me. That’s never a good sign. Usually, I hate it when a book ends and I wish it was longer and I had more to read. Maybe better editing would have helped?I know that I’m in the minority here; most seem to love the book. Maybe in retrospect I will or maybe I my views will shift after my book club discussion.

[jillkb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This semi-autobiographical novel was painful to read, but I'm glad I read it. I learned a lot about the Lost Boys of Sudan and the horrific history of this country. It gave me more perspective on the genocide that is still happening in Darfur.

[anbarrineau · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoy books that detail the various struggles that occur throughout the world. I think they are important because they often give a voice to people that wouldn't always have a voice.

[e5j · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this book, which made a huge difference I think. The reader's voice is very captivating, and he is a wonderful storyteller. I didn't know much about the Civil War in Sudan before this book, and now I'm eager to read more. I think I need to take a little break though, because it was just heartbreaking. I knew it would be sad, though I didn't think it would be to that degree.

Although the book is fictional, the character goes through so much that deal with the events of the time and region. I learned a lot. The book took me through lots of ups and downs. I literally laughed and cried.

I would love to see a sequel, and wondered if there really was a Lost Boys March. I will be finding out more in the near future. I would absolutely recommend this book - fascinating!

[cat1ballou · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After finishing the book - which I couldn't do quickly enough - I have this to say: Dave Eggers, I forgive you.

(pre-read) so i'll be frank: i hated a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. far too much navel-gazing in there. that said, i've heard from people who also hated the navel-gazing but really enjoyed this one. since some of those people are my close friends, i suppose i'll give dave eggers another shot.

[kdabra4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve read a couple stories of survival recently, and I’m always astonished at the good and the bad that is intrinsic in our fellow human beings. Achak is one of the good guys – exposed to so much death and gore in his early years, struggling with his belief in God (and who wouldn’t given his life?) – and this man is someone we all need to know. This man is loving, kind, endearing, adorable. It was the descriptions of the bad in people, however, that brought me to tears more than once, wondering again how does one person endure such endless heart break in their lives?Achak was born in the Southern Sudan region in the Dinka tribe. During the time of the 2nd civil war in the 1980's, this region was taken over by the Arab government of the North (because of its cattle land, plentiful water, and later on oil of course). Achak lost track of his family after witnessing much violence and suffering, becoming one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan. The story goes back and forth between his new life in Atlanta and his remembrances of his homeland and his long walk from there to Ethiopia, and later to Kenya, where he lived most of his formative years in refugee camps. I learned so many things I probably should have known but didn’t. These civil wars lasted for decades, and the living conditions for the refugees deplorable – meals once a day if you’re lucky, water only if you go wait in line for it every morning, little protection from rain and mosquitoes, fear of being eaten by the wild animals. We are lead to believe in news stories that refugee camps are temporary, that someday these people are returned to their homes or families. But in many or most cases the camps become their home for life. Astonishing. Achak witnessed hundreds of young boys and adults dying around him, and multiple times is made to walk on, bury, occupy the same space with, corpses! The living conditions in the States, once the Lost Boys are relocated around the country, are paltry and inadequate, but luxurious to Achak, now known as Valentino, when compared to the camps. His suffering continues despite many kind people he meets in Atlanta. Because, you can never forget those bad guys who seek out ways to spoil it all for you. Achak/Valentino receives more than his fair share from the latter. And he accepts all that life gives him, all that God gives him, quietly, enduringly, which is what he learned as a child when hearing the story of The What from his father. A must read!

[sovranty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A story of atrocity, hope, and unbelievable resilience. This fictional story follows combines and parallels the experiences of many of Sudan's "Lost Boys" into one person's history. The hero, who goes by many names, silently tells his story of struggle and survival to an unaware audience, starting with a peaceful Sudanese childhood and ending with a determined adulthood. This book is heart-breaking and strengthening at the same time.

[nhcoffin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Struggling here... I find it hard to face the death toll and injustice. Come to think of it, I've found Eggers laborious before.

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

 I never felt totally immersed in this book – that feeling you get where, whatever is happening in the real world, you don’t notice it. I was easily distracted, and sometimes found myself reading and re-reading pages of text before realising I was going round in circles. It’s hard to understand why – after all this is exactly the sort of book I like to read: informative and set against real life events. Though sold as a novel, it is an account of a real person’s experiences in Sudan when civil war broke out, and later in America.I learned a lot, that’s for sure. Though I was aware of the civil war in Sudan I didn’t understand its origins. Discovering that it’s based on religious differences between different types of Muslims, and non-Muslims, and primarily caused by British colonialism brought with it a gloomy feeling of inevitability. If called upon to guess what it was all about, that is what I probably would have guessed.Informative, too, were the sections set in a refugee camp in an arid and inhospitable part of Kenya. It’s down to my own limitations that I struggled to picture such a vast number of people (upward of 40,000) living in such an environment, and for the timescales involved. The ways in which refugees and aid organisations are manipulated by rebel forces were an eye-opener.The opening sections suggested the story would be told in random fashion, rather than taking events in chronological order. While the narrator is referring to events in his past, he is experiencing a violent robbery in the ‘present’, at his home in Atlanta. The whirl of fragmented reminiscences reflect his state of mind as the robbery takes place. Subsequently, though, he settles down and starts from the beginning. Oddly, I began to miss the freedom and exhilaration of that earlier roller-coaster style narrative. Perhaps because it is a true story, events don’t follow the sort of trajectory to which a work of fiction would be expected to conform. Drama comes and goes. There were long sections (particularly concerning the narrator’s life in America) which I found over-long, and while there are elements of suspense within the plot, we largely know the way they work out (eg... will he ever reach the USA, what happens to Tabitha etc etc). This is one to read for education and illumination, and to prompt further research into the events it depicts. It was fascinating to visit the narrator’s website which continues his story into the present day. I am much better informed about Sudan than I was when I set out to read this book, and on that level it succeeds, certainly.

[yearningtoread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dinka native Achak Deng (or, Valentino Achak Deng, baptized) grew up in Marial Bai, in Sudan, where his family was happy and his childhood was carefree; where almost everything was in abundance, where he had safety and friends and love. However, it all changed when his city was attacked by the murahaleen (meaning travelers). Now on the run at seven years old, Achak must join a group of thousands of boys, some older, some younger, on a journey across Sudan to the southeast, where their hope and assumed safety lies in Ethiopia.One word to describe this book, without hesitation: masterpiece. Dave Eggers has talent that everyone should experience at least once in their lives, and Achak’s own voice was prominent throughout the story. I was thoroughly engrossed. I was expecting it to be good, but it is genius. It is full of wild imagination, heart, tempers, death, and souls. These boys – the ones who lived – are now men, most of them living in America, leading a new life. This story, Achak’s story, begins with Achak’s life in Atlanta, Georgia, in the present tense. This was a bit of a turn-off for me at first…I’m never one to get into books that are written in the present tense. It has to be done right, I’ve said. And boy was this done right. The present tense was kept skillfully, consistently. In the beginning, Achak is robbed. And as he is being robbed, and kept hostage in his own home, he begins to tell himself, in the past tense, the tale of his life in Marial Bai, the genocide, the thousands of miles they walked to Ethiopia, and so on. The story slips in and out of this, back and forth, present to past, past to present. It’s like a perfect braid, each piece different and carefully chosen to make the braid whole.The biggest thing that struck me about this book, now that it is done, is this: In the beginning, I did not know Valentino Achak Deng. I saw a man in his appartment, being robbed. I was interested, but I did not know this man. In the end, however, I felt an overwhelming sense of a journey finished. On referencing to things in the past, I felt a part of this man’s life. I knew who he was, where he came from and what he’d been through. I knew his family, his friends; I understood his weaknesses and I praised his strengths. I was connected with this man whom I had never, ever met. I will always know and remember and love Valentino Achak Deng, now that I have read his story.The horrors to be found in this story are unheard of here in priveleged America. We have horrors, often, but in a way, it is different from Achak’s experience. It is cut off, perhaps. It is not a genocide. What we see every day is Paradise compared to Achak’s experience. There is shooting, killing, murdering, talk of rape that was not written down in detail in the book, and disturbing injuries that the people experienced. One man had his face ripped off, and was walking around, mad, terrorizing anyone who was near. The Faceless Man, Achak called him.Nicknames, and just names in general, play a huge part in this story. The Faceless Man is only one of them. Tv Boy, really named Michael. Tonya and Powder. There is the Silent Baby. There is Moses, Dut, William, Amath, Tabitha, Achor Achor. And then, there was William K. Oh, William K. He is by far my favorite character. He was the annoying boy in their Dinka village, a boy who would stretch the truth so far that no one would believe him. While Achak tried to be kind to him, he would have never thought that one day he’d be so excited to reunite with him. But that’s exactly what happened. While walking from one place to the next, trying desperately to reach Ethiopia alive, William K. makes his way to their large group. Achak is glad to have someone familiar by his side, no matter who it is. And William K. hasn’t changed a bit; his stories are still as tall as the sky. This comes in handy, when the boys begin to go mad with hunger and fatigue; William K.’s fantastical stories of a grand and princely life in Ethiopia help Achak to dream, to push forward, to stay alive, no matter how wrong William K. is.Along with the horrors of the book comes incredible love, power, and lessons to be learned. We see Achak’s love for a girl named Tabitha, his desire to reconcile himself with his captors’ boy who is forced to watch over him, his experiences with American culture, efficiencies, and deficiencies. He has new friends, old friends, friends are leave or die. Friends who are murdered. In the end, we see the comparison between cultures, the stark differences, and the intense similarities. It is amazing and humbling, both ways.But it is worth it. It is worth every sentence, every word. Every letter. This story emanates power, and the strong voice of a man who walked, discouraged and surrounded by death and decay, and came out on the other side.(For teens and parents of teens: the content of this book is R-rated, as far as violence and language go. Gory scenes and F-bombs are only half. The sexual content can be rated PG-13. It only shows up in the last third of the book and isn’t explicit: some content involves Achak mentioning cultural issues, differences, and practices; others involve Achak and his friends going through puberty and wondering what to do with their changing bodies.)

[ursula_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I went into this with some trepidation, having hated Eggers' writing in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This one, though, drew me into the story immediately and I forgot for a while that it was written by Eggers. I had recently seen a video about some Sudanese refugees' experiences coming to America, and their difficulty in understanding the much different culture, so the opening of the book, in which Valentino opens the door to strangers and ends up being robbed, resonated with me. One quote from the book (page 236) captured the sense of bewilderment and disappointment for me: "Our peripheral vision is poor, I think; in the US, we do not see trouble coming." As he is lying helpless on the floor of his apartment, he starts recounting his experiences as a young boy in Sudan.The bulk of the story is his tale of the day the Sudanese war came to his village, and his walking (and running) journey from there with other "Lost Boys" to Ethiopia, and then on to other refugee camps. It's hard to even attempt to sum up what he and others went through, but it's a testament to the human spirit that Valentino and others survived the deprivation, physical danger, and crushing mental strain. Valentino sees so much death around him that he begins to think God has a problem with him. On page 358, he says, "I have had friends who I decided were not good friends, were people who brought more trouble than happiness, and thus I have found ways to create more distance between us. Now I have the same thoughts about God, my faith, that I had for these friends. God is in my life but I do not depend on him. My God is not a reliable God."Overall, this is an engrossing read. However, the framing device of mentally telling his story to someone in the present that was so effective in the beginning of the book wears very thin later on. Near the end, each time Valentino switches to telling his story to someone else, I found myself wishing that whole affectation had been dropped long ago because it only served to jar me out of the narrative. It's a relatively minor quibble, though it made me rush through the end of the book more than I probably would have otherwise.

[daniel5estes · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dave Eggers' writing in What is the What magnificently captures the plight of the lost boys of Sudan. It is told from the point of view of real lost boy Valentino Achak Deng from a blend of his own history, other boys' stories and fictional recreations. Valentino's hardships in Sudan and his eventual escape are paralleled in the the present as he adapts to his new life in America.This book works on multiple levels and I suppose the most important tale here is the larger story of the lost boys. The author, from interviews with Deng himself, eventually settled on a type of partially fictional narrative blending the stories of many into one. This works to tell the story in the best way possible (and also pays homage to the Sudanese own cultural predisposition towards embellishment). This doesn't work when you're wondering which parts of Deng's life are real or fictional. Does it matter? For me only a little since there's a greater story here that's bigger than one man's personal history.