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delasondas 's review for:
What Is the What
by Dave Eggers
I'd missed this book becoming popular about a decade ago, so when I picked it up from the library bookstore it was completely new to me. I've never read anything by Dave Eggars, and I'm sorry/not sorry to admit this, but the contrarian in me didn't want to risk reading his books and maybe liking them, because a lot of the folks I saw touting that he is the best writer ever I found wholly obnoxious. So, naturally, I read this book privately as to not appear as if my hipster hate was softening.
I was also really concerned about what it means for a white American writer creating a kind-of-novel, kind-of-auto-biography of a Sudanese refugee. I felt as though I shouldn't read the book, that it wasn't right. Valentino's letter in the beginning made me decide to give it a go. I didn't know at first, but I am glad to know now that Eggers donates all of the proceeds from book to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation.
So what did I think... This book was a hard read for me because the story is so brutal and the way it is told (this sort of matter-of-fact, this happened then that happened) doesn't provide any breathing room from the carnage (but should there be breathing room?). The story begins with hardship that escalates, really, until like the last 20 pages, and the whole thing is like 425 pages so just imagine. Many times throughout reading my partner would ask me if I liked the book, or if I was "ok" and I just kind of grimaced each time. But I kept going until the end. I believe that it's important for me, and people like me to know this story and stories like Valentino's. Yet, I hate the idea that in order to build empathy and/or to get people to "care" about what happens outside of their lives, someone has to tear open their veins and bleed all over a page. The privilege to passively learn a little world history/politics through someone else's suffering -- ugh.
So I guess I feel super conflicted about whether this is a "good" book. Perhaps it would be better to say it's an important one.
I was also really concerned about what it means for a white American writer creating a kind-of-novel, kind-of-auto-biography of a Sudanese refugee. I felt as though I shouldn't read the book, that it wasn't right. Valentino's letter in the beginning made me decide to give it a go. I didn't know at first, but I am glad to know now that Eggers donates all of the proceeds from book to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation.
So what did I think... This book was a hard read for me because the story is so brutal and the way it is told (this sort of matter-of-fact, this happened then that happened) doesn't provide any breathing room from the carnage (but should there be breathing room?). The story begins with hardship that escalates, really, until like the last 20 pages, and the whole thing is like 425 pages so just imagine. Many times throughout reading my partner would ask me if I liked the book, or if I was "ok" and I just kind of grimaced each time. But I kept going until the end. I believe that it's important for me, and people like me to know this story and stories like Valentino's. Yet, I hate the idea that in order to build empathy and/or to get people to "care" about what happens outside of their lives, someone has to tear open their veins and bleed all over a page. The privilege to passively learn a little world history/politics through someone else's suffering -- ugh.
So I guess I feel super conflicted about whether this is a "good" book. Perhaps it would be better to say it's an important one.