Sunday 24 February 2013

What Is the What

Positive:
What is the what is an extremely detailed book which makes it an interesting read. A positive aspect of it is that it conveys an interesting yet serious story through the lens of a fictional book. It allows the reader's mind to imagine the predicament whilst adding in little anecdotes of Achak Deng's life which really happened. One such example is when Valentino describes a boy who was walking with the group who just stopped and crawled into a hole to die. He remarks about how he would have also crawled into a hole in a heart-wrenching, yet subtle way. It gives the reader an idea of the calamity with which Valentino stared straight in they eye through an anecdote. However, it leaves the reader freedom to wonder about the other aspects of the war. 

Negative:
It can get a bit slow in the beginning, however the pace picks up and the it flows just from there. I think that the "slow" parts can get a bit boring. However, there is a reason for it. I find that it makes the lost boys sound human. Every part of them just as human as us. It may get frustrating to some people because after all the hardships they've faced, people would have maybe thought they would have turned into heros. Turned into the apex of what a perfect citizen was like, but they didn't. The America parts show us the jealousy, the questioning, and the judgement which goes through all the sudanese diaspora in the U.S. It shows us that they are not heroes and that even though they've been thrown into a more developed society, they are still facing the same hardships. More complex hardships though. 

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