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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I’ve always heard about refugee stories from articles or secondhand. But it was really interesting to read someone’s firsthand story, especially learning more about the history of Sudan. I feel bad when refugees are treated badly in the US, like he was.
Definitely a book more people should read.
Definitely a book more people should read.
My sister gave me this book for my birthday years ago. It only took 4 years to finish. Though a fictionalized account of real life, it is super super depressing all the way through. I hope in the decade since its publication that Deng has found some lasting happiness in his life.
Wow.
In the preface to What Is The What, Valentino Achak Deng says that he told his story to the author, Dave Eggers, over a period of years. Eggers captured Achak's tone and spirit so closely that I kept forgetting that the author was not the man who experienced the horrors of what happened in the Sudan. Some of the passages are fictional out of some necessity and that's why I guess the book can't be classified as a true memoir. Still, it is one of the most chilling and inspiring books I've ever read.
I am one of those people almost completely ignorant of what was going on in the world in the late 1980s and all of the 1990s. My kids were being born and I was busy raising them, working and coping with other unfortunate complications like my first husband's failing health. When I saw Hotel Rwanda I thought, how could I not know about this? This is like what Hitler did.
I feel the same way after reading this book. Achak was a small boy in a poor village in southern Sudan when war and terror arrived in the form of mhraleen, invaders from Khartoum. There was always unease between the Arabs of northern Sudan and the Africans of the south although in Achak's village, they traded freely and were friendly with each other. Achak's village was burned to the ground and he had to run for his life, not knowing if any member of his family survived.
He became one of the "Lost Boys" who walked in a group what became hundreds of refugee children across the Sudan and into Ethiopia first, then Kenya. Along the way, boys died from starvation, exposure and disease. The boy Achak saw other little ones carried off by lions. They were chased and strafed by the Sudanese army. Sanctuary consisted of poor, mean little settlements and it took a long time for Achak to learn what happened to his family and make his way to the United States.
Ironically (although after everything that happens to him I shouldn't have been surprised) the plane taking him to New York was scheduled to depart September 11, 2001. We all know what happened then.
He did make it to Atlanta at last...and after going through all the suffering and misery of his young years, he opens the door one day and his home is invaded. He is beaten and robbed.
That's not even half of it.
If I ever feel too sorry for myself and complain about my woes, I'm going to go back and read this post and remember what this man experienced.
I think everyone should read his story.
In the preface to What Is The What, Valentino Achak Deng says that he told his story to the author, Dave Eggers, over a period of years. Eggers captured Achak's tone and spirit so closely that I kept forgetting that the author was not the man who experienced the horrors of what happened in the Sudan. Some of the passages are fictional out of some necessity and that's why I guess the book can't be classified as a true memoir. Still, it is one of the most chilling and inspiring books I've ever read.
I am one of those people almost completely ignorant of what was going on in the world in the late 1980s and all of the 1990s. My kids were being born and I was busy raising them, working and coping with other unfortunate complications like my first husband's failing health. When I saw Hotel Rwanda I thought, how could I not know about this? This is like what Hitler did.
I feel the same way after reading this book. Achak was a small boy in a poor village in southern Sudan when war and terror arrived in the form of mhraleen, invaders from Khartoum. There was always unease between the Arabs of northern Sudan and the Africans of the south although in Achak's village, they traded freely and were friendly with each other. Achak's village was burned to the ground and he had to run for his life, not knowing if any member of his family survived.
He became one of the "Lost Boys" who walked in a group what became hundreds of refugee children across the Sudan and into Ethiopia first, then Kenya. Along the way, boys died from starvation, exposure and disease. The boy Achak saw other little ones carried off by lions. They were chased and strafed by the Sudanese army. Sanctuary consisted of poor, mean little settlements and it took a long time for Achak to learn what happened to his family and make his way to the United States.
Ironically (although after everything that happens to him I shouldn't have been surprised) the plane taking him to New York was scheduled to depart September 11, 2001. We all know what happened then.
He did make it to Atlanta at last...and after going through all the suffering and misery of his young years, he opens the door one day and his home is invaded. He is beaten and robbed.
That's not even half of it.
If I ever feel too sorry for myself and complain about my woes, I'm going to go back and read this post and remember what this man experienced.
I think everyone should read his story.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
What Is the What tells the story of a Valentino Achak Deng's life during the second Sudanese civil war (1983–2005). Seven year old Deng was one of the "Lost Boys" who walked hundreds of miles to find safety from the brutal war. Straightforward, intense, heartbreaking and heartwarming.
The audio was over 17 hours and I could have listened to more. Dion Graham was great. 4.5
The audio was over 17 hours and I could have listened to more. Dion Graham was great. 4.5
This was a really sad book (I definitely didn't agree with all the assertions on the back cover that the book was surprisingly funny--I laughed only once). So many sad images captured my attention . . . I would stop reading and just sit with the sadness for a few minutes. Achak and the other lost boys (and girls and adults and babies) have had such a trying time.
This is an incredible story of struggle, survival, and hope that most of us could barely conceive. Dave Eggers makes it possible in his portrayal of Achak Deng, by painting the horror and fascination of this true story with expertise. I perused this book many times when it was first published, but always put it down. I'm so glad I finally found it again these years later, for it is profound. This needs to be required reading for all. Stories like these need to be told, read, heard by everyone, if nothing more than to bring us together.
"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 covet your eyes, your ears, the collapsible space between us. How blessed are we to have each other? I am alive and you are alive so we must fill the air with our words. I will fill today, tomorrow, every day until I am taken back to God. 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."
"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 covet your eyes, your ears, the collapsible space between us. How blessed are we to have each other? I am alive and you are alive so we must fill the air with our words. I will fill today, tomorrow, every day until I am taken back to God. 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."
When asked "what was the best book you read last year?" I answered with this one.
Good, profound, but dense. You really have to be dedicated to this story to manage to get through it.