What Is the What

Last updated
What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng
Whatisthewhatbook.jpg
First edition cover
Author Dave Eggers
Cover artist Rachell Sumpter
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Fiction, memoir
Publisher McSweeney's
Publication date
October 25, 2006
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages475 pp
ISBN 1-932416-64-1
OCLC 75428313
813/.6 22
LC Class PS3605.G48 W43 2006

What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng is a 2006 novel written by Dave Eggers. It is based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese child refugee who immigrated to the United States under the Lost Boys of Sudan program. It was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Contents

Plot summary

Achak is separated from his family during the Second Sudanese Civil War when the Arab militia, referred to as murahaleen (which is Arabic for the deported), wipes out his Dinka village, Marial Bai. During the assault, he loses sight of his father and his childhood friends, Moses and William K. William K escapes. However, Moses is believed to be dead after the assault. Achak seeks shelter in the house of his aunt with his mother, who is frequently identified throughout the book with a yellow dress. Before they are hidden, they hear the screaming of Achak's aunt, and his mother goes to investigate. Achak never sees her again. He evades detection by hiding in a bag of grain, and credits God for helping him stay quiet.

He flees on foot with a group of other young boys (the "Lost Boys"), encountering great danger and terrible hardship along the way to Pinyudo, a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Their inflated expectations of safety and relief are shattered by the conditions at the camp. After Ethiopian president Mengistu is overthrown and soldiers open fire on them, they flee to another refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya.

The book consists of three parts: part 1 covers Achak's experiences in Sudan before he becomes a refugee aged 6 in 1983, part 2 is about his years in the camp in Ethiopia and part 3 covers his life during more than a decade in Kakuma, Kenya. There is a framework story of Achak living in Atlanta in 2005 where he is assaulted, robbed and injured in his own apartment. As he is going through that experience he tells his story to Michael, the 10-year old assigned to guard him by his assailants (part 1), to Julian the reception nurse in the Emergency Room where he waits for treatment for 14 hours (part 2) and several members of the gym where he works the reception (part 3). The framework story allows him to tell about his experiences after arriving in the US as well as recent personal tragedy. Part 3 ends just before his departure from Kenya but does not describe his travels or the start of his American experience. The current story set in Atlanta also allows Achak, as the narrator, and Dave Eggers, as the novelist, to end the book on a high, inspiring note because the assault experience motivates Achak to pull himself together and reach for higher goals.

Reception

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."

The book is typical of Eggers' style: blending non-fictional and fictional elements into a non-fiction novel or memoir. By classifying 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. [1]

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 [2] "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."

Deng and Eggers in October 2008 Valentino Deng & Dave Eggers in San Mateo 10-1-08 1.JPG
Deng and Eggers in October 2008

Questions of "expropriation of another man's identity" were addressed by Valentino Achak Deng and Dave Eggers in a discussion about the division between the speaker and the spoken for. [3] After Eggers was approached with the idea, he began to prepare for the novel. He says that at this point, "we really hadn’t decided whether I was just helping Valentino write his own book, or if I was writing a book about him." Valentino points out that, "I thought I might want to write my own book, but I learned that I was not ready to do this. I was still taking classes in basic writing at Georgia Perimeter College."

Dave Eggers discusses the difficulties in writing a book of this nature:

"For a long while there, we continued doing interviews, and I gathered the material. But all along, I really didn’t know exactly what form it would finally take—whether it would be first person or third, whether it would be fiction or nonfiction. After about eighteen months of struggle with it, we settled on a fictionalized autobiography, in Valentino’s voice." Eggers explains that this choice was made because "Valentino’s voice is so distinct and unforgettable that any other authorial voice would pale by comparison. Very early on, when the book was in a more straightforward authorial voice, I missed the voice I was hearing on the tapes. So writing in Val's voice solved both problems: I could disappear completely, and the reader would have the benefit of his very distinct voice." [3]

In 2007 Ohio State University selected the novel as one of two choices for the freshmen book club, and distributed thousands of copies to incoming students. Duke University required the incoming Class of 2012 to read the novel, praising its literary merit. The University of Maryland chose it as their freshman book in 2009. Macalester College required all incoming freshmen to read it in 2011. The University of Maine required first-year students in its Honors College to read the novel in 2012.

The novel inspired some of the lyrics from David Byrne and Brian Eno's album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today .

Tom Tykwer plans to adapt the novel into a film. In 2009, the novel received the Prix Médicis étranger in France.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinka people</span> Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan

The Dinka tribe are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan with a sizable diaspora population abroad. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Jonglei to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and the Abyei Area of the Ngok Dinka in South Sudan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kakuma</span> Town in Kenya

Kakuma is a town in northwestern Turkana County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR refugee camp, established in 1992. The population of Kakuma town was 60,000 in 2014, having grown from around 8,000 in 1990. In 1991, the camp was established to host unaccompanied minors who had fled the war in Sudan and from camps in Ethiopia. It was estimated that there were 12,000 "lost boys and girls" who had fled here via Egypt in 1990/91.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lokichogio</span> Place in Rift Valley Province, Kenya

Lokichogio, is a town in the Turkana District in northwest Kenya. It is often called Loki for short. The town lies on the A1 road, and is served by the Lokichogio Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Sudanese Civil War</span> Conflict from 1983–2005 for South Sudanese independence

The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originated in southern Sudan, the civil war spread to the Nuba mountains and the Blue Nile. It lasted for 22 years and is one of the longest civil wars on record. The war resulted in the independence of South Sudan six years after the war ended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lost Boys of Sudan</span> Group of refugees from southern Sudan

The Lost Boys of Sudan refers to a group of over 20,000 boys of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups who were displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1987–2005). Two million were killed and others were severely affected by the conflict. The term was used by healthcare workers in the refugee camps and may have been derived from the children's story of Peter Pan. The term also was used to refer to children who fled the post-independence violence in South Sudan in 2011–2013.

Benson Deng is a South Sudanese-born American writer and one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He is best known as the co-author of the book They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky (2005), written with his brother Alephonsion Deng, cousin Benjamin Ajak, and Judy A. Bernstein.

<i>God Grew Tired of Us</i> 2006 film

God Grew Tired of Us is a 2006 American documentary film about three of the "Lost Boys of Sudan", a group of some 25,000 young men who have fled the wars in Sudan since the 1980s, and their experiences as they move to the United States. The film was written and directed by Christopher Dillon Quinn.

John Dau, also known as Dhieu-Deng Leek is a human rights activist from South Sudan. He is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who was featured in the 2006 award-winning documentary God Grew Tired of Us. In 2007, he founded the John Dau Foundation aiming to transform the health system in South Sudan.

Marc R. Nikkel (1950–2000) was an American Episcopal priest, artist, author, teacher, missionary to the Sudan, and advocate for the Dinka ("Jieng") people of South Sudan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aheu Deng</span>

Aheu Deng Kudum is a beauty queen and fashion model from South Sudan. She won the title of Miss Earth South Sudan 2009 at the annual beauty pageant, organized by South Sudan's Ministry of Tourism and Beauties of Africa Inc, the exclusive franchise holder.

Marial Bai is a village in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, South Sudan.

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys of Sudan (2005) is a book co-authored with Judy A. Bernstein. It's the autobiographical story of brothers Benson Deng and Alephonsion Deng, and their cousin Benjamin Ajak. It describes their ordeal during the Second Sudanese Civil War as they flee as refugees across Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya before they make it to a refugee camp in Kenya. There they sign up to take part in the Lost Boys of Sudan program and resettle in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of South Sudan</span> Overview of the culture of South Sudan

The culture of South Sudan encompasses the religions, languages, ethnic groups, foods, and other traditions of peoples of the modern state of South Sudan, as well as of the inhabitants of the historical regions of southern Sudan.

South Sudanese Americans are an ethnic group of Americans of South Sudanese ancestry, or South Sudanese people who have American citizenship. South Sudanese Americans can include American descendants to South Sudanese ancestors or South Sudanese immigrants who obtained an American citizenship.

Mary Luana Williams is an American social activist and author who wrote The Lost Daughter: A Memoir about her life. The memoir details being adopted by Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden in her adolescence, as well as growing up as a daughter of Black Panthers before Fonda adopted her. She works with Sudanese refugees through the organization she founded, the Lost Boys Foundation.

Deng Thiak Adut is a defence lawyer and refugee advocate in Western Sydney, Australia, and a former child soldier from South Sudan. His story is told in a popular short video by Western Sydney University, where he earned his law degree. He was named the 2017 New South Wales Australian of the Year.

Mercy Akuot Marang is a South Sudanese social activist and singer. She currently lives in Kenya.

Aguil Chut Deng Acouth, also known as Aguil de'Chut Deng or Aguil Chut-Deng, was a South Sudanese revolutionary and activist. She was a member of "Katiba Banat", the women's battalion of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), during the Second Sudanese Civil War.

Deng is also a common first or last name used among the tribes of South Sudan, shared by the Dinkas, Nuers and Shilluks. It has various meanings; for instance, it means "Rain" in Dinka. The Dinkas also believe that the most powerful god, ruler of all gods, is Deng.

Akuch Kuol Anyieth is a South-Sudanese-Australian academic and writer.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.