What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng
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| Image:Whatisthewhatbook.jpg 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 |
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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
[edit] 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
