Maw Books Blog

What is the What by Dave Eggers is the type of book that is mentally exhausting to read and one of those books that once you finish you can not stop thinking about it. I have had to slowly digest the story and I find it very hard to begin writing this review.

Let me start by saying that if there is only one book that you read this year, it should be What is the What! This book is one of the most important books that I have read in years. This is a MUST READ for everybody!!

What is the What is the autobiographical account of Valentino Achak Deng, a Lost Boy from Sudan who immigrated to the United States in 2001. He collaborated with Dave Eggers to share his story. From the preface of the book, Valentino writes:

This book is the soulful account of my life: from the time I was separated from my family in Marial Bai to the thirteen years I spent in Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, to my encounters with vibrant Western cultures, in Atlanta and elsewhere.

As you read this book, you will learn about the two and a half million people who have perished in Sudan’s civil war. I was just a boy, when the war began. As a helpless human, I survived by trekking across many punishing landscapes while being bombed by Sudanese air forces, while dodging land mines, while being preyed upon by wild beasts and human killers. I fed on the unknown fruits, vegetables, leaves, animal carcasses and sometimes went with nothing for days. At certain points, the difficulty was unbearable. I hated myself and attempted to take my own life. Many of my friends, and thousands of my fellow countrymen, did not make it through these struggles alive.

This book was born out of the desire on the part of myself and the author to reach out to others to help them understand the atrocities many successive governments of Sudan committed before and during the civil war. To that end, over the course of many years, I told my story orally to the author. he then concocted this novel, approximating my own voice and using the basic events of my life as the foundation. Because many of the passages are fictional, the result is called a novel. It should not be taken as a definitive history of the civil war in Sudan, nor of the Sudanese people, nor even of my brethren, those known as the Lost Boys. This is simply one man’s story, subjectively told. And though it is fictionalized, it should be noted that the world I have known is not so different from the one depicted within these pages. We live in a time when even the most horrific events in this book could occur, and in most cases did occur.

Even when my hours were darkest, I believed that some day I could share my experiences with readers, so as to prevent the same horrors from repeating themselves. This book is a form of struggle, and it keeps my spirit alive to struggle. To struggle is to strengthen my faith, my hope, and my belief in humanity. Thank you for reading this book, and I wish you a blessed day. - Valentino Achak Deng, Atlanta, 2006.

This book is not an easy read, it is an emotional roller coaster. I found that I could rarely read for more than an hour at a time because it was so depressing to read of the atrocities and hardships of Valentino and the other Lost Boys. I could not imagine seeing so much death and brutality. I could not imagine starving to death. I could not imagine being carried off by lions. I could not imagine the fear. I could not imagine being so young and so alone. Valentino not only lived but survived unimaginable horrors.

Whenever I thought things couldn’t get worse, it always did. Even down to the final moment, when on 9/11 he finds himself finally on a plane waiting to relocate to the US and the World Trade Center towers are attacked, postponing his trip for weeks with uncertainty. This book is a testament to what the human character can go through and still survive.

Eggers does an amazing job giving us the voice of Valentino. He transforms us into a world that one can not believe actually exists. Eggers has truly written a masterpiece, an epic. It was beautifully written.

This is the type of book that you must read so as to open your eyes to the events that have taken place and the genocide that is still taking place in Sudan, especially Darfur. Like my review for A Thousand Splendid Suns and Sold this is the type of book that makes all of my problems seem minimal. It makes me appreciate my life and what I’ve been given and the opportunities that I have available to me. Why have I been so blessed and why am I so deserving, just of the fact that I was born here and not somewhere else? Why? Why me? Why them? Am I so different?

This book brings us to remembrance of those less fortunate and of those who have literally lived through a hell on earth. “To forget,” Valentino says, “would be something less than human.”

What is the What wants to make you do something, it’s a call to action. First and foremost, you can buy the book. 100% of all proceeds from What is What goes to The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, which distributes funds to Sudanese refugees in America; to rebuilding southern Sudan, beginning with Marial Bai; to organizations working for peace and humanitarian relief in Darfur; and to the college education of Valentino Acheck Deng.

Visit the website of The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation for more details (he just traveled back in December to start building a schoolhouse in his hometown), updates on Valentino’s life, and for more ways to help. You can start by purchasing the book for just $14.36 from my BookWise bookstore and it will be shipped directly to you from your nearest Baker & Taylor fulfillment warehouse.

A few months ago, I rented a documentary called The Lost Boys from Sudan and I would also highly recommend watching it. Valentino’s website also gives us a list of further reading to better educate ourselves on the events taking place in Sudan. I was going to list them here, but then this post got really long.

If you have read What is the What, are planning to read What is the What, have never heard of What is the What but now want to read it, I would highly recommend watching this video. It’s 50 minutes but well worth it to see Valentino up close and personal.

I wish Valentino and all the other Lost Boys all the blessing and comforts of life that they truly deserve. I wish I could open my home to each one of you. I borrowed this book from my local library, but I will start helping by placing my order for What is the What from my bookstore today and then ask myself what else can I do.

Read this book today!