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185 of 203 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Simple Plea from African Victims for Just a Few Listeners, November 13, 2006
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 than a haven - Achak's hyper-fantasizing friend Michael K pictures it a veritable Eden. Biblical references and suggestions abound - there's Achak's other good friend Moses (who later wants to travel from Seattle to Tucson on foot to draw attention to the Sudanese cause), and the mysteriously life-affirming Maria, the Christ figure of the Quiet Baby, and the St. John in the Wilderness figure of the farmer who lives nowhere but saves Achak's life. After Ethiopia comes Kenya, an ultimately America. Is America then "the What," or is just another choice, a different type of cow than that first offered in God's test? Eggers' story is properly ambiguous on this account, suggesting an answer that leans toward settling with the cattle and eschewing "the What." Like many members of war-induced Diaspora, we cannot help but think that a new, more worldly Achak will someday return to Marial Bai and the remains of his family and former life.
Aside from one false note - the tie-in of Achak's departing flight from Kenya to the events of 9/11 comes across as a wholly unnecessary contrivance - WHAT IS THE WHAT strikes nothing but solid chords. Eggers reveals refugee life for what it is, making clear that for many such victims, being a refugee in America can be at least as difficult in its way as being one in a Kenyan U.N. camp. "The What" of America really is, for Achak and his tragic girlfriend Tabitha and so many others, just a different cow. Who is to know which What we should say yes to? Perhaps that's the point, to just keep trying, never settling for too little but never forgetting our first home and first offer, either. Dave Eggers renders the story of man's inhumanity to man, and one extraordinary man's struggle for identity and dignity, with his own beautiful touch of humanism. Amid those endless horrors and struggles to survive, his characters never become caricatures - he makes us feel and cry for each and every one of them.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't read this in the bathroom. Other people may have to use it., February 24, 2007
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.
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31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important, stirring novel, January 6, 2007
"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.
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