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Dec 16, 2009

Len rated it:

If you know me at all, you know I read a lot. So I don't take these reviews lightly. Here goes: What is the What is without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read!

The story of Valentino Achak Deng, a so-called Lost Boy of the Sudan, is so moving that after reading the book I went to his web site and signed up for information on how I can help the cause. Dave Eggers, who is easily one of my favorite fiction writers, has donated the proceeds of the book to a foundation co-found More...

5 comments like (69 people liked it)

Jun 26, 2008

Sergei rated it:

It takes a certain and rare kind of writer to make a story about civil war, genocide, and a refugee crisis boring and unreadable; that writer, specifically, is Dave Eggers. It's not that I don't understand the purpose that this book serves - just as we import the Third World's raw resources to fuel our own material greed, so must we import their tragedies to break up the monotony of our lives. My question is - can't we get better books to do it?

First of all, the voice is terrible. At More...

34 comments like (36 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2010

Paul rated it:

TOO MUCH, AND NOT ENOUGH : A PARADOX

With her open and confident sexuality, she was the constant igniter of everything flammable within us

Hmm, if this Sudanese refugee & now American Valentine Achak Deng can turn a phrase like that, how come he needs Dave Eggars to shape his book and cop the byline? Okay, maybe he can't, maybe those delightful sentences are pure Dave. So what about this:

"I had feared for a long time that secretly Tabitha was well versed i More...

8 comments like (22 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2012

Elizabeth rated it:

ugh.... I had read Heartbreaking Work and did not enjoy it, but I thought I'd give Eggers another chance. I'm plodding through this book and have been since March. I'm sad about it, because I'm interested by the subject matter. Oh well, lots of people disagree with me, so "you don't have to take MY word for it!"

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Rachel rated it:

GREAT STORY, NOT-SO-GREAT BOOK!

LISTEN UP ... this took me THREE MONTHS to finish!!! I did read other books in the meantime, but believe me, I wouldn't have dragged my feet on this one if the storytelling hadn't been so TERRIBLY AWFUL!

Examples of STORIES told particularly badly ....
a) The drama teacher Miss Gladys and the Dominics
b) The romance between Achak and Tabitha
c) Life at Kakuma
d) The story of Maria, the girl who called him Sleeper
More...

5 comments like (14 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2008

Nathaniel rated it:

When so much hype and reputation converge on such a complex and sensitive topic only to receive unchecked praise from the American publishing industry and profitable sales, I fear disaster, choir-preaching and the perpetration of harmful stereotypes. Despite my interest in African literature, in African conflicts and in the way that the developed world engages with Africa, I have been avoiding this book since I learned of its existence. A friend of mine who has lived and worked in Sudan vouched More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2008

Myles rated it:

This book is the fictionalized autobiography of real-life Sudanese refugee Valentino Achak Deng, who grew up mostly in a refugee camp in Kenya (where he lived for 10 years!)

Eggers weaves a present tense with the story of Valentino's childhood in Sudan. In the present tense Valentino is getting robbed and beaten in his Atlanta apartment because he trusted the people who came to the door. Finally when he is discovered bleeding on the floor of his apartment by his roommate, he is taken More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2007

Irfon-kim rated it:

I finished listening to "What is the What" by Dave Eggers, narrated by Dion Graham, a couple of days ago, but didn't have a chunk of quiet time to write about it until now. It's the somewhat fictionalized biography of Valentino Achak Deng, a young boy in the Sudan at the outbreak of the civil war, through to his adulthood as a refugee in America.

The story is epic in scope, but is told in a very personal, down-to-earth fashion. You're as likely to hear about the title charac More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Miss. rated it:

Dave Eggers tells Achack's story much like you would hear it if you had befriended the Sudanese refugee yourself. this book is like a conversation with a good friend. you start where you are. "hello, how are you, i am being robbed at gun point". you move back to the begining. "this is where i am from, the world was dust, we knew it to be Sudan, there was no more". but, to explain the begining, and to get to the end, you often have laughs in the middle. "successful with More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2008

Don rated it:

This amazing piece of literature is not an autobiography or a novel, yet it is both. Understanding the contradiction only begins the process of grasping the unbelievable journey that Eggers takes us on. This first person account of atrocities is so horrific that the reader wishes it were a piece of fiction, but it is not. Strangely, the matter-of-fact storytelling eases the pain, but the sadness and melancholy of the narrator rings so true that readers will know that despite incredible plot twis More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2008

Kate rated it:

This was the most amazing book I've ever read. There were times I just wanted to put it down, some of the events were just too much to handle and I wondered whether it was worth being brought down to such dark depths. But even through the unbelievably sad and shocking things that happened to Achak, the narration is so incredible and personal. I couldn't stop reading, and I couldn't stop thinking about him. In the past few weeks that I've been reading this, Achak is always on my mind, he's wi More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2008

Rosa rated it:

It took me a million years to finish reading this book. Even up to the very end, 30 pages from the end, then 20, then 10, then 5, I kept thinking, "Isn't this over yet?" I keep wondering if not being crazy about this novel makes me a bastard, because not only does the book aim to educate people about the staggering crisis in southern Sudan, but Dave Eggers donated 100% of the proceeds to help build schools, public libraries, etc., in the protagonist's war-torn village. It just struck m More...

1 comment like (10 people liked it)

Jul 25, 2007

Grayem82 rated it:

This book is one of a series that make up the Voice of Witness series - a collection of books intended to give a voice to people whose lives have been plagued by conflict, persecution, exile and other such humanitarian crises. Such noble intentions aside, most people will encounter this book because of the author, Dave Eggers, author of the love-it-or-hate-it novel A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

The book tells the semi-fictionalised biography of Valentino Achak Deng, a you More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Erin rated it:

Billed as fiction, WHAT IS THE WHAT is actually the mostly-true story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee who had to flee his country as a young boy- walking hundreds of miles through desert, corpses, and human atrocities of a war torn country. Of course, Dave Eggers did a brilliant job in mimicking the voice of the real Achak, as they collaborated on this novel over the course of three years. The real strength of this book is how it is told without judgement and anger. Facts are give More...

9 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Kay rated it:

My Spanish teacher, Senor Serrano has been telling us about this book. He is currently reading it. He tells us bits and pieces that have me dying to read the book! I'm seconds away from begging my Mom to take to me to the bookstore!

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 21, 2008

Lisa rated it:

You know who should read What is the What? Um…everyone. It’s one of those rare books that are really easy to read, really gripping—it will grip you!—but also globally consequential.

What is the What, by Dave Eggers, is a docu-drama-type "novel" based on the real life of Valentino Achak Deng. At the age of seven (maybe eight) he watches his Sudanese village be attacked and destroyed by government-sponsored militia. Not knowing if his family is alive or dead, he's forced to ru More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Shelly rated it:

This is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of Sudan's "Lost Boys". I haven't finished it yet, but that's my own fault--the book is great.

OK. It's done. I've finished. It took me awhile to finish this book--and here's why: I started this book in the Spring of '08 after having read three other books w/ similar themes in the Fall of '07. It sounds horrible, I know, but the shock and awe and sadness of this story was no longer new to me, so it didn't pull me in like it sho More...

9 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2008

Chris rated it:

These days - when it comes to finding and selecting reading material, it seems I'm all on my own. (Well, not entirely alone, thanks to websites like Goodreads.) I have set a goal to buy two new books a month, or one new book every two weeks. This past year I have decided to start my own little library, and prefer to own all of the books that I read. I carry my books around with me (sometimes in my messenger bag), and read only when I know that I can REALLY READ. I don't want to race over the pag More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2008

Irishcoda rated it:

Wow.

In the preface to What Is The What, Valentino Achak Deng says that he told his story to the author, Dave Eggers, over a period of years. Eggers captured Achak's tone and spirit so closely that I kept forgetting that the author was not the man who experienced the horrors of what happened in the Sudan. Some of the passages are fictional out of some necessity and that's why I guess the book can't be classified as a true memoir. Still, it is one of the most chilling and inspiring More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2008

Tung rated it:

Disclaimer upfront: I thought A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was overrated, and And They Shall Know Our Velocity was atrocious. So overall, not a huge fan of Eggers and don’t think him this leader of contemporary fiction so many others do. What is the What, however, is the best of the 3 Eggers books I’ve read, and it is a fine work. This book is a detailed glimpse at the life of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan – a fictionalized account of the actual life of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudan More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2008

Stephen rated it:

I was exposed to this book through the "One Book, One Philadelphia" program, and I devoured it over the course of a few days immediately after I read Imaculee Ilibagiza's book Left to Tell (part of my "death and destruction in East Africa" kick, I suppose). It turned out to be a very interesting juxtaposition, as Ilibagiza consistently credits her faith, even miracles, for bringing her through the Rwandan holocaust alive, while Dave Eggers's Deng consistently doubts the bene More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2008

Mr. rated it:

My faith is restored in Dave Eggers! After months of plodding, I have yet to make it through A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Toph is cute. The writing is at times fantastic. But goddamn, the ego. The rambling. The chapter-long MTV casting interview.

But I desperately wanted to like Dave. His book of short stories, How We Are Hungry was at times beautiful. And though his second full-length book, You Shall Know Our Velocity! was as rambling as A Heartbreaking Work, More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2007

Ryan rated it:

du-du-dear reader!

haha, just a little inside joke there! don't worry if you don't understand it, because you probably won't, because it's between me and just one other person (that i know of) and that's why it's inside! and you're on the outside! so suck my dick! hahaha just kidding!

well, as you have already noticed, the title of today's show is "lions and tigers and armed mujadeen militia, OH MY!" and that's because the book we'll be discussing today is david e More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2007

Melody rated it:

Valentino Achak Deng tells the story of his life through the words of Dave Eggers in What is the What. Since most of the happenings in the book occurred several years ago – the book is an historic novel based on actual occurrences. His story begins with the start of the over 20 year old civil war between the government of Sudan and the People’s Liberation Movement/Army. When his village is attached, Achak flees on foot and walks across Africa toward Ethiopia while dodging bombs, bullets and More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2007

Bobby rated it:

Eggers has brought together his fiction writing skills and the very real story of a Sudanese refugee. Through years of interviewing Achak, the author took these stories and intricately wove them into a seamless novel based on a severe reality. The story depicts Achak's childhood as one of the now infamous "Lost Boys." Making his way to the United States, Achak is consistently confronted with questions about his place in his new home and his past through which everything is filtered. Al More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2008

Amy rated it:

It was 30% off at the Coop, highly rated on this site, and Katy is reading it too, so why not? :-)

Updated:
Very moving. Made me laugh, made me cry, gave me nightmares. Made me feel guilty for taking so many things for granted, getting annoyed over petty things, when there are so many in this world who have nothing and who have lost everyone they love. Any review I might attempt would not give this book justice, so I'd say that this should be required reading for everyone.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Pablo added it

Eggers' voice here seems muddled and strained, in noticeable contrast with the freewheeling style of Heartbreaking Work. It seems that Eggers is trying to mimic the wooden speech of an African-born English speaker. He may have succeeded, but he has definitely succeeded in alienating at least one reader.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2011

Borbality rated it:

I think I'm not unusual in not knowing a lot about Africa in general, let alone Sudan or Kenya. For a lot of us, Africa in school was just that really hard geography test.

And let's face it, for most of us Westerners as adults, Africa mostly just makes us uncomfortable. Sort of something we'd just rather not think about, which isn't a good thing really at all, but I guess it helps us feel better about things.

So while I type this at work during some downtime, and my cowo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 02, 2008

Seth rated it:

Apart from a sometimes painfully awkward framing device and a style of writing that is dull enough to actively distance readers from emotionally connecting to the life and pain of one Valentino Achak Deng (a.k.a. Dominic), What Is the What ended up being not half bad. I suppose it was only a third bad.

Or maybe not actually bad. Maybe just one-third Not Great. Which is okay. We can't all be great.

"What is the what?" is a question that Valentino had been asking h More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Kerry rated it:

This book gives snapshots of the life of a Sudanese refugee. There is a bit about what it is like to have come to the United States and what the country looks like through the eyes of a Sudanese refugee. He was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. The books touches on what happened to his village and how he walked to Ethiopia and what he encountered along the way. In addition, how he came to be a resident of a refugee camp in Kenya (Kakuma) for a decade. What is life in a refugee camp like and how More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)