James Patterson's new novel, Exile, has already been reviewed (by Carol Memmott in USA Today) as presenting "compelling arguments for both sides" in the Arab-Israeli dispute. Question: How can there be two sides to the story when only one side does all the suicide bombing?
We saw that just the other day in Eilat.
Other top-selling writers, like John Updike, have also taken up jihad as material for literary musings (Terrorist); and in almost all cases, we are beckoned to "understand," which (intentionally or unintentionally) blurs the line between good and evil and leads to justifying all that is unjustifiable.
Along comes Dave Eggers and finally we have an American writer who makes no excuses for cruelty. In his new book, What is the What, Eggers gives us the blood-drenched conflict rippling through much of Africa as witnessed by a survivor named Valentino Achak Deng, a real person who surfaced in Atlanta after members of his family were slain during a massacre in Darfur.
After Islamic government-soldiers and Arab militias ran through Deng's Marial Bai village on a killing spree, Deng and other "Lost Boys of Sudan" found occasional refuge, but mostly horror, as they trekked to Ethiopia and Kenya, always uninvited, unwanted and un-welcomed.
The hazards these refugees encountered along the way included disease, starvation and landmines as, from one pathway to the next, they were being pursued by murderous Arab militias on horseback, the Murahaleen (featured today as the Janjaweed). As they traveled from wilderness to wilderness, the boys formed groups of circles to make themselves less accessible to man-eating lions.
All this - and much more - goes into this powerful true story, told in Deng's voice, but written by Eggers, and written fearlessly.
This is not a book review. For that, I suggest you Google up Eggers or go to his publisher at www.mcsweeneys.net. Better yet, buy the book. Rather, this is an observation about the author, Eggers, who tells this story straight-up, in the style of You Are There.
There's nothing fancy in the writing. The facts, deployed skillfully, are enough to move the reader to despair and outrage at man's capacity to act savagely upon instincts of baseless hatred. How did Deng become a prey, a victim, while still a boy? What did he do wrong? He practiced the "wrong" religion and belonged to the "wrong" tribe; that's all he did.
This is not about politics. This is about people who get in the way of politics.
Eggers rates our admiration for sidestepping PC landmines. We know that all Jews are not one big happy family (we learn that more and more each day) and we know the same about Christians, but it has been comfortable to assume that all Africans are "noble" and faultless. Whatever faults they have - according to myth - derive from "white" oppression and colonialism.
This writer, Eggers, will have none of that. All men are not brothers even in Africa. If we assume that Africans, upon arrival to America, are automatically embraced by African-Americans because they share the same coloring, Eggers swiftly disabuses of this particular myth by opening his book with Deng, now seemingly safe here in the United States, finding himself the victim of thievery and brutality at the hands of African-Americans. They even accuse him of being part of the slave trade.
An ordinary writer would have cleansed Deng's true story by airbrushing the ferocity of Muslims and Arabs who have taken up genocide in Africa. What Jewish writer, today, has this same courage to bluntly record the ceaseless Arab warfare against the Jewish people in Israel? This is the original sin of baseless hatred.
Perhaps I felt a special kinship with Deng because, as a Jew and as a child refugee, I know what it means to be hunted.
So does Eggers, and this is no ordinary writer. He makes no judgments but lets the story tell itself so that, through Deng's eyes, we happen upon a world top-heavy with predators. This is your world, he's telling us, this is your mess; shouldn't you be doing something to clean it up?
Most of us are clueless about events in Sudan, where upwards of two million people have been murdered. Coverage of the ongoing genocide in Darfur runs from spotty to zero, as opposed to the news media's every-hour on-the-hour coverage of Israel. How many millions have died elsewhere (beginning with Darfur) because of the news media's obsession over the Jewish State?
On December 26, on another day when even more Sudanese were being trampled and slaughtered at the urging of Islamist Khartoum, the New York Times stopped the presses and rushed to print this heavy-breathing, above-the-fold headline: "ISRAEL TO BUILD NEW SETTLEMENT IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK. BREAKS PROMISE TO U.S." All that on Israel as Sudan bleeds.
This book succeeds where journalism fails.
Eggers proved his skills on the shoulders of his first big book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This memoir of an orphan raising a younger brother after both parents die weeks apart raised Eggers to the top levels of his craft. And from that book about himself to this book about Deng, we see the connecting theme of heartbreak.
We also see a writer in top form, not only for the writing, but for the courage.
Go here to get the latest installment of The Bathsheba Deadline - Jack Engelhard's latest novel and Amazon.com's first serialized novel. Part 11 is now available for download. Haven't started reading it yet? Click the link and scroll down - all previous installments are there and ready to be downloaded.
We saw that just the other day in Eilat.
Other top-selling writers, like John Updike, have also taken up jihad as material for literary musings (Terrorist); and in almost all cases, we are beckoned to "understand," which (intentionally or unintentionally) blurs the line between good and evil and leads to justifying all that is unjustifiable.
Along comes Dave Eggers and finally we have an American writer who makes no excuses for cruelty. In his new book, What is the What, Eggers gives us the blood-drenched conflict rippling through much of Africa as witnessed by a survivor named Valentino Achak Deng, a real person who surfaced in Atlanta after members of his family were slain during a massacre in Darfur.
After Islamic government-soldiers and Arab militias ran through Deng's Marial Bai village on a killing spree, Deng and other "Lost Boys of Sudan" found occasional refuge, but mostly horror, as they trekked to Ethiopia and Kenya, always uninvited, unwanted and un-welcomed.
The hazards these refugees encountered along the way included disease, starvation and landmines as, from one pathway to the next, they were being pursued by murderous Arab militias on horseback, the Murahaleen (featured today as the Janjaweed). As they traveled from wilderness to wilderness, the boys formed groups of circles to make themselves less accessible to man-eating lions.
All this - and much more - goes into this powerful true story, told in Deng's voice, but written by Eggers, and written fearlessly.
This is not a book review. For that, I suggest you Google up Eggers or go to his publisher at www.mcsweeneys.net. Better yet, buy the book. Rather, this is an observation about the author, Eggers, who tells this story straight-up, in the style of You Are There.
There's nothing fancy in the writing. The facts, deployed skillfully, are enough to move the reader to despair and outrage at man's capacity to act savagely upon instincts of baseless hatred. How did Deng become a prey, a victim, while still a boy? What did he do wrong? He practiced the "wrong" religion and belonged to the "wrong" tribe; that's all he did.
This is not about politics. This is about people who get in the way of politics.
Eggers rates our admiration for sidestepping PC landmines. We know that all Jews are not one big happy family (we learn that more and more each day) and we know the same about Christians, but it has been comfortable to assume that all Africans are "noble" and faultless. Whatever faults they have - according to myth - derive from "white" oppression and colonialism.
This writer, Eggers, will have none of that. All men are not brothers even in Africa. If we assume that Africans, upon arrival to America, are automatically embraced by African-Americans because they share the same coloring, Eggers swiftly disabuses of this particular myth by opening his book with Deng, now seemingly safe here in the United States, finding himself the victim of thievery and brutality at the hands of African-Americans. They even accuse him of being part of the slave trade.
An ordinary writer would have cleansed Deng's true story by airbrushing the ferocity of Muslims and Arabs who have taken up genocide in Africa. What Jewish writer, today, has this same courage to bluntly record the ceaseless Arab warfare against the Jewish people in Israel? This is the original sin of baseless hatred.
Perhaps I felt a special kinship with Deng because, as a Jew and as a child refugee, I know what it means to be hunted.
So does Eggers, and this is no ordinary writer. He makes no judgments but lets the story tell itself so that, through Deng's eyes, we happen upon a world top-heavy with predators. This is your world, he's telling us, this is your mess; shouldn't you be doing something to clean it up?
Most of us are clueless about events in Sudan, where upwards of two million people have been murdered. Coverage of the ongoing genocide in Darfur runs from spotty to zero, as opposed to the news media's every-hour on-the-hour coverage of Israel. How many millions have died elsewhere (beginning with Darfur) because of the news media's obsession over the Jewish State?
On December 26, on another day when even more Sudanese were being trampled and slaughtered at the urging of Islamist Khartoum, the New York Times stopped the presses and rushed to print this heavy-breathing, above-the-fold headline: "ISRAEL TO BUILD NEW SETTLEMENT IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK. BREAKS PROMISE TO U.S." All that on Israel as Sudan bleeds.
This book succeeds where journalism fails.
Eggers proved his skills on the shoulders of his first big book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This memoir of an orphan raising a younger brother after both parents die weeks apart raised Eggers to the top levels of his craft. And from that book about himself to this book about Deng, we see the connecting theme of heartbreak.
We also see a writer in top form, not only for the writing, but for the courage.
Go here to get the latest installment of The Bathsheba Deadline - Jack Engelhard's latest novel and Amazon.com's first serialized novel. Part 11 is now available for download. Haven't started reading it yet? Click the link and scroll down - all previous installments are there and ready to be downloaded.