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What Is the What (Vintage) |  | Author: Dave Eggers
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $3.45
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Seller: cmm
Rating:  199 reviews
Sales Rank: 2066
Media: Paperback
Pages: 560
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 1
ISBN: 0307385906
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780307385901
ASIN: 0307385906
Publication Date: October 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780307385901 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
What Is the What is 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 199
 A very moving personal story! March 9, 2010
DeL (Michigan)
I felt as if I was transported to the Sudan, witnessing the atrocities and experiencing the hardships. I would definitely recommend this moving account from one of Sudan's "lost boys."
A book you will remember for years to come February 28, 2010
Robin N. Uncapher (Bethesda, MD)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I began this book with some trepedation. My worst fear was that it would be another meandering, literary meditation filled with observations but not a lot of story.
Instead I got to read about the life of Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee and immigrant from Sudan, a man whose wrenching life has shaped his education, work and location--but not his soul. Achak is the kind of man we would like our daughters to marry, to live next door to, to hire or to work for ourselves. Achak is intelligent, resourceful, courageous, loving and yes, lucky--if luck means at least surviving some of the worst the earth has to offer.
In short, Achak is the ideal American immigrant, nothing stops him. I understood his problems in the United States. This is a hard place to get started--all countries are. Any first generation immigrant will tell you that, particularly great-grandparents who will regale you with stories of sweeping factory floors in New England, or those who ran sewing machines in New York City.
At the end of this book I counted my blessings. If you have been born in the U.S. its hard to fathom the life of a young man whose primary years were spent running from war and living in dire poverty. But we are especially lucky here to have the likes of Valentino Achak Deng wanting become Americans.
Really makes one grateful (or should) November 19, 2009
Beau Livengood (Cleveland, OH)
Excellent book. I want to read it again immediately because it is so fascinating to me that a person could go through so many trials, much more than a lot of this world can't even imagine, and still have the outlook that Deng does. I didn't know much about what was going on in Sudan, and I hope this book raises awareness on the situation. It made me look at some of the things I have been complaining about and put in perspective just how fortunate I really am. I am glad I bought this book because this is not a one-time read. I love the concept of "the What," and it has given me much to think about as well.
If I could have only read one book this year, this would be the book. October 22, 2009
M. C. Lowe (San Francisco, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a powerful, awe inspiring book. What is the What was chosen as a book club read a few months back and I still can't stop talking about it with everyone. This book really puts your life into perspective and sheds some serious light on the true meaning of perserverance.
Closely based on the oral history of a Sudanese "Lost Boy" October 5, 2009
American Immigration Council's Community Education Center (Washington, DC)
This fictionalized autobiography, closely based on the oral history of a Sudanese "Lost Boy," is experimental, ambitious and most suitable for advanced high school, college and adult readers. Tracking back and forth chronologically between the narrator's present day travails in Atlanta and his memories of displacement and refugee camp life in the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya, What is the What presents a fascinating web of experience. Far from simply offering one more reiteration of the fairly well-known "Lost Boy" narrative, Eggers' account raises several new and unsettling questions. Does trauma really end when a refugee is resettled in the "first world," or does trauma perhaps increase upon resettlement? What is the fate of a cause célèbre after the attention of the media and donors moves on and when sympathy for a given refugee community wears thin? How and why do transnational communities become burdensome and destructive rather than resourceful and resilient for forced migrants? Conversely, what opportunities for education, love, friendship and creativity become possible in the constrained environs of a refugee camp? Eggers account is a valuable reminder of the moral ambiguities and experiential complexities of the Sudanese "Lost Boy" story.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 199
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