Dave Eggers: What is the What

Dave Eggers has always been one of my favourite writers. The first thing I read of his was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and I fell in love with his wit and his style. He and Jonathan Safran Foer became my ideals of modern American writers and I have been following both of them ever since. It was odd then that I hadn't really heard about What is the What until my younger brother handed it to me to read. I am very glad that he did.

This book is not traditional Eggers (if he could ever be called traditional) in that he is telling a true story told to him by Valentino Achek Deng, a Sudanese refugee. It's a very interesting way to tell a story...Deng told his story to Eggers and Eggers took it from there. I imagine he added a few details and peppered it with enough literary techniques to make it read like a novel, as opposed to a biography. The end result is an honest, insightful and sometime heartbreaking story of a young man who is basically on his own in the world after his village is destroyed by war.

After I finished Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey, I swore I would never read another book like it again. While it was incredibly well written, it left me feeling hollow and sad by the end. I didn't realize when I started What is the What that it might make me feel the same way.

This book taught me a lot about Sudan and its history and helped me to put what is going on today into perspective. The things that the boy goes through on his journey across Africa are harrowing and made me feel bad about humanity and what people do to other people. It made me feel powerless and hopeless...not good things. At the same time I couldn't stop reading because I became so attached to the people in the book and invested in their future, in everything turning out all right.

Like a lot true life stories, especially those set in Africa, not everything turns out okay. But you do feel like it might be all right in the future, like there is at least a chance for everything to be okay. I needed that at least.

The book was good and it stays with you well after you have set it down for the last time. Eggers write the story very well but does not write it like the Eggers I know and love. It's hard to be sardonic when children are dying and I understand that. I am glad that I read this book and although it made me feel uncomfortable at times I feel like I'm a better person for having gone there - and that after all, is the point.