A review by dylangrrl
What Is the What by Dave Eggers

5.0

Wow, what a powerful narrative! Eggers succeeds in making the horrendous and devastating story of the "lost boys" into a powerful testament to the goodness that is out there and the will of the spirit to survive the worst things imaginable. A desperate story told by one man, Achak Deng, through a frame tail contrasting his new life in Atlanta with his own experiences in Sudan. The technique is highly effective and reads like a biography, although it is a composite history of many individuals' lives. I very seldom feel in any way "uplifted" by and books (maybe I'm choosing the wrong things!), but Deng's ability to endure both his Sudanese exile and his life in America are enough to make me feel that to be an appropriately descriptive word. I listened to this as an Audiobook and was entranced by the narrator's ability to voice the different characters and the deftness with which he flowed back and forth between accents and characters. I have not been a fan of Eggers in the past, but this was a beautiful, albeit painful, experience.