Dave Eggers: What Is The What?

[RitalinKid]

I picked up this book on the way to LAX on Saturday and have been reading it religiously since then. It's the story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, a group of boys that lost their families and villages to confict in Sudan and were then brought to the US as refugees. The story not only documents their struggles in Sudan, fighting starvation, dehydration, disease, wild animals and armies, but also their struggle to adapt to a new life in the US.

I'm only a little more than halfway through the book, but the story is almost unbelievable. You may be thinking, "Well, it is a fiction book." However this book straddles the fence between fiction and nonfiction because even though some of the scenes in the book are fabricated, which puts it into the novel category, the major events of the book are all true, as noted in the forward by the central character and narrative voice of the book Valentino Achak Deng, a Lost Boy now living in Atlanta, Georgia, US.

So far, the story is incredible, and I only put it down when I have to.

 

[Gem]

A couple years back I read 'A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius' by Dave Eggers - it was a memoir recalling how he had to take care of his young brother after the death of their parents. I found it unputdownable and incredible - it was pretty clear though that it was a mix of true events and quite a bit of fantasy/fiction. So I'll definitely be picking up 'What is the What' at some point.

 

[lies]

Given how I liked A Heartbreaking Work, I'll probably pick this up too, if it's not too expensive.

 

[RitalinKid]

I'm almost done with the book now, and I want to add that for all its contrasts of refugee life with first world life, the book does offer how normal life was. The book paints a picture of growing up, going through puberty and learning the lessons of life and love in a refugee camp as being very similar to the way everyone else does. It seems that we all have similar experiences maturing despite the extremes of our environments. I guess you could say that Eggers takes the unbelievability (if that's a word) and peels it back to reveal a very human side that almost anyone can identify with. I find myself smiling at parts, understanding exactly what he was feeling. The story is then not so far away.

 

[RitalinKid]

Okay. I got done with the book the other night. There's not a real good sense of resolution at the end. There is somewhat, but with any good book, it's all about the journey, not the destination, and I had to keep the tissue near by for the last forty pages, a real tear jerker.

The main character always comes back to the idea that maybe God has something against him, and with as many bad things that have happened to him, it's easy to understand why he feels that way.

I highly suggest the book. I couldn't put it down. I stayed up 'til 3 to finish it because I wanted to know the rest of the story.