What is the What

I'm not very good at writing book or movie reviews and you're lucky if you even get a "yeah, I liked it" out of me, so bear with me as I clumsily share my praise of Dave Eggers latest novel, What is the What.

Last November I joined a local book club with my best bud, Erin. At the first meeting we attended, we discussed which books we would choose to read in 2007. Someone suggested What is the What and gave a brief synopsis of the book which I found fairly interesting: set in Atlanta, a man recalls his struggles escaping civil war and refugee camps in Sudan. I've always had a strange curiosity with Africa as a whole...once my sophomore year in college I found a tiny article on cnn.com about Sierra Leone and 4 hours later, after jumping from article to article, was numb with the horrors upon horrors recounted in the stories. I've read a little more here and there about the struggles throughout Africa and seen Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond which further seek to explain and tell the story of the complicated, helpless, hopeless, tragic issues throughout parts of Africa and it makes me want to drop everything and help. For now, I live vicariously through my friend Courtney who works for USAID in Zambia, educating the local community about AIDS prevention. I am learning more and more about Coke's water initiatives in small villages throughout Africa and our focus on the important role women play in the development of of the continent and would like to think that one day I may have an opportunity to help with some of these projects. So, based on this interest I already have and the fact that I really enjoyed reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (another Eggers work), I was very excited about reading the book.

At first, I was a little confused about the novel...it's actually a biography or memoir of Valentino Achak Deng told through the author, Dave Eggars. It is written as a novel because some of the characters are fictionalized as are some of the events and parts of the story are in a different order than what Achak experienced, so were rearranged to flow a little better for the reader and further impact the story. So, although it is a bit unclear where the truth ends and the embellishments begin, I wholeheartedly believe that even if all the sad, sick, scary, unimaginably horrific events didn't 100% happen to Achak, they were experienced by other boys and worthy of including in the novel so we are all given a clear understanding of the plight of the Lost Boys, the name given to the thousands of Sudanese boys orphaned during the civil war.

What I enjoyed most about the book, although "enjoy" isn't the right word here as most of Achak's story is so dishearteningly sad it makes you ill, was getting a much better understanding of the history of Sudan. Especially within the last couple of years as more and more celebrities and organizations are bringing attention to Darfur, we get kind of a high level overview of what is going on and a little bit of why it happened but hearing Achak's story, you get a deep understanding of the situation and the affects it has had on the Sudanese. I cannot fathom living in a place where you can trust no one and you are a part of nothing and there is nowhere to turn for help or safety. Your own people will kill you just as quickly and brutally as the "enemy". You follow Achak's life from around the age of 7 when the murahaleen (Muslims from Northern Sudan) attacked his village, through his late 20's when he has finally traveled to the safety of the US where he continues to experience struggles and loss and discouragement at every turn. You begin to understand that even when the Lost Boys were able to escape their helpless situation in Africa, they were then shipped off to a new country where everything (ice, glass windows, mattresses, tampons, etc) was completely foreign and they were expected to find work and go to school and send money to those they left behind in Africa. It's not everyday you are able to read an amazing story of struggle and survival while learning about the significant historical events that have led to a country's current state.

Read the book, or at least visit www.valentinoachakdeng.com to read more about Achak and his village in Sudan, Marial Bai, and to learn more about the struggles that continue in southern Sudan.