What Is The What

Zoe
per.1, English

Over the summer, I read a book, which monumentally changed the way I thought about life. What Is The What by Dave Eggers. The story of me selecting this book isn't that exciting. I did what I always did, walked into Barns and Nobel and asked them what they recommend. When they showed me the book, I wasn't that excited about it, but as soon as I read the preface it was IMPOSIBLE to put down.

This book starts out in the present and slowly fades into the past. Valentino is at home, a 20-30 year old man, when there is a knock at the door. Having no reason not to answer it, he does. There is a woman asking to use the phone, he watches her until she goes into his room, and locks the door. When he turns to close the door he is being assaulted at gunpoint, robbed, and beaten until all he can see goes black.
    Slowly as the story proceeds he begins to tell the tragic stories of crossing Sudan, and the murder of his family, his best friend, and the one he loved. When he was but a boy he lived in Mariel Bai, a small village in southern Sudan.  Everything was all right until the Murahaleen arrived and attacked. They killed everyone, burned down the village, raped the women, and poisoned the wells; leaving them with nothing. Their only chance to survive was to escape.
    As the story slowly unravels he tells the story of how he had to walk day and night to get to their "promise land", Ethiopia. Thousands of boys, walked, with little to eat or drink. Some boys were weak and were left behind, some died of terrible disease, some bombed, and lost in the dead of night.
The stories of the travels of the Lost Boys are epic, and unlike anything you've ever read. Not only does it tell in detail the feelings and imagery of the walking, but of the thousands of boys left abandoned, hungry, thirsty, and dead. They were all wishing for Ethiopia, their promise land that they would never set their eyes upon.

"He drops the book. It is the first time in my life that I have seen something coming toward me and have been unable to properly react. I try to turn my head but still the book lands squarely on my face. The pain is compounded by my existing headache and the ricochet my chin makes against the floor. The phone book slides off, toward my forehead and rests there, against my temple. Thinking he has accomplished his goal, he returns to the kitchen and the volume goes up again. This boy thinks I am not of his species, that I am some other kind of creature, one that can be crushed under the weight of a phone book.
The pain is not great, but the symbolism disagreeable."
    I believe that this quote has the most importance in the entire book, not only does it show the discrimination against the character, but it symbolizes how people can be so cruel to someone that's not of their skin color, or race, or size, just for the way they look. I believe the author put it perfectly when he says; "…The pain is not great, but the symbolism disagreeable."

Rating (out of 5):
    
I choose the sun to represent how Valentino had to walk through the blistering hot sun to get to Ethiopia.

I would DEFINATLY recommend this book to anyone. Why? Well here are 3 reasons:
1.    It has such an intense and beautiful insight into life.
2.    It especially concentrates on the issue of discrimination in a way no one has herd before.
3.    It tells about an unheard of war and the seize of Mariel Bai, all through a Childs eye.
Cautions:
Cussing, some sexual references, Descriptive gory scenes.