What Is the What (Vintage)
by Dave Eggers
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dave EggersEdition: Paperback
Published: 2007-10-09
ISBN: 0307385906
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of What Is the What (Vintage)
Book Review: So good it hurts
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is magnificent. I don't think I've ever enjoyed or appreciated a book more. Through the narrative of Valentino Achek Deng, Eggers manages to tell an important contemporary story about Sudan and Africa while also providing moving insight about America and about the nature of being human. The book is also extraordinarily clever in its use of a disjointed narrative, multiple settings, and a distinct voice. But the beauty for me is that it is not too clever. I sometimes feel that the hip, contemporary American writers - of whom Eggers is a prototype - try too hard to be clever, ending up as snarky and self-righteous. For me, there was some of that in Egger's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (as there was in They Shall Know our Velocity--though I have to admit to liking that one; not as many people do, but I found it a quirky take on young Americans as they relate to somewhat obscure parts of the globalizing world). But in What is the What there is a moving earnestness that underlies the cleverness, and a reader realizes that ironic distance is not really the signature of cool. Instead, cool is about fully engaging with events and people, those in Sudan and in the US, that suggest something about the reality and meaning of modern life.
Summary of What Is the What (Vintage)
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.Contemporary Books
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