All I can really say about Dave Eggers' latest novel, entitled What is the What, is the following: this book is very, very important.
Don't get me wrong; I'd love to sit down and write a descriptive, appreciative, praise-filled review of What is the What. However, I think the reason I find myself struggling to do this reinforces my strong belief that Eggers' work speaks entirely for itself.
What is the What is the fictionalized autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee who was displaced during his country's civil war.
Along with thousands of other children, Deng became one of the ‘Lost Boys' when his village was attacked by soldiers and militiamen, fleeing his home and traveling across a violent, war-torn landscape, eventually arriving in America with 4,000 other refugees. It was then that Deng decided he wanted his story to be told, hoping it would make people aware of the suffering that was still occurring. Eggers traveled to Atlanta to meet Deng, and spent the next three years interviewing him in person and over the phone. While the outcome of these interviews is marketed as a work of fiction, Deng reminds readers in the book's preface that "we live in a time when even the most horrific events in this book could occur, and in most cases did occur". By taking advantage of the liberties fiction allows its authors to use, Eggers is able to bring Deng's experiences to life with his vivid descriptions, heartbreaking details, and eloquent storytelling.
More than anything, What is the What reminded me of how important ‘story' is in understanding ourselves and others (especially when we are relatively blind to the daily fears, struggles and joys of those ‘others'). Reading Deng's story helped me to better understand the situation in Sudan (years of war and genocide) by seeing it through a refugee's eyes. I was able to place his individual story with ‘the situation', which until now had remained a fairly vague and abstract phrase to me. After hearing about Deng's life, I've become emotionally attached on a very personal level which I'd otherwise never experience unless I traveled to Sudan myself and befriended a Lost Boy.
Eggers (writing from Valentino's point of view) clearly recognizes the power of story as well, and the final paragraph of the novel is devoted to explaining why:
Whatever I do, however I find a way to live, I will tell these stories...I speak to these people, and I speak to you because I cannot help it. It gives me strength, almost unbelievable strength, to know that you are there... I will tell stories to people who will listen and to people who don't want to listen, to people who seek me out and to those who run. All the while I will know that you are there. How can I pretend that you do not exist? It would be almost as impossible as you pretending that I do not exist.
Eggers has made Valentino Achak Deng, and the rest of the Lost Boys, impossible to forget, and has brought a horrifying, urgent situation into the literary limelight. To learn more about Valentino Achak Deng, visit his website , or read more about What is the What .
