 First edition cover |
|
| Author | Dave Eggers |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Rachell Sumpter |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | McSweeney's |
| Publication date | October 25, 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 475 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-932416-64-1 |
What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng is a 2006 novel written by Dave Eggers. It is based on the real life story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee and member of the Lost Boys of Sudan program.
Contents |
Plot summary
As a boy, Deng is separated from his family when the civil war in Sudan wipes out his village. He flees on foot with a group of other young boys (the "Lost Boys"), taking him to Ethiopia, a refugee camp in Kenya and finally to the United States, encountering danger and hardship along the way. The story is told in parallel to subsequent trials in the United States.
Fact or fiction
In the preface to the novel, Deng writes: "Over the course of many years, Dave and I have collaborated to tell my story... I told [him] what I knew and what I could remember, and from that material he created this work of art."[1] In this manner, the book is typical of Eggers's style: blending non-fictional and fictional elements into a nonfiction novel or memoir. By labeling the book a novel, Eggers says, he freed himself to re-create conversations, streamline complex relationships, add relevant detail and manipulate time and space in helpful ways -- all while maintaining the essential truthfulness of the storytelling.[2]
However not all critics were impressed. Lee Siegel sees as much of Dave Eggers in the novel as Deng, unable to tell the two apart, saying:[3]
Where is the dignity in that? How strange for one man to think that he could write the story of another man, a real living man who is perfectly capable of telling his story himself -- and then call it an autobiography. It is just one more instance of the accelerating mash-up of truth and falsehood in the culture, which mirrors and -- who knows? -- maybe even enables the manipulation of truth in politics. And Eggers's book is also another unsettling thing. I never thought I would reach for this vocabulary, but What Is the What's innocent expropriation of another man's identity is a post-colonial arrogance -- the most socially acceptable instance of Orientalism you are likely to encounter.
References
- ^ What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, Preface (First Vintage Books Edition, October 2007)
- ^ "A Heartbreaking Work of Fiction", by Bob Thompson, Washington Post, Tuesday, November 28, 2006; Page C01
- ^ "The Niceness Racket", reviewed by Lee Siegel, The New Republic, Thursday, April 19th, 2007
External links
- Valentino Achak Deng's personal webpage
- "The Lost Boy", reviewed by Francine Prose, New York Times, December 24, 2006
- "True Grit", reviewed by Caroline Moorehead in Slate, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2006
- "Eggers Blends Fact, Fiction of Sudanese 'Lost Boys'", Deng and Eggers interviewed on NPR, November 1, 2006
- "The Niceness Racket", reviewed by Lee Siegel, The New Republic, Thursday, April 19th, 2007
