A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | Ishmael Beah

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | Ishmael Beah | How a child survives.

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A Long Way Gone: M...

	A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Ishmael Beah Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 387 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Story, Great Book

Regardless of what people say is true and false, no doubt this story could be true for hundreds of thousands of young children fighting in war. This wasnt written to give you half the story or 3 quarters. Ishmael Beah explains everything in this disturbing but inspiring story of a childs view of war while taking part in it. Whats so inspiring is how a great person can enter war, kill, come out so messed up, yet still find hope for his past feeling of happiness afterwards. A great read, a great person, and a great story.

How a child survives.

Ishmael Beah must be extremely bright and clever. I don't think many children could survive and recover from the horrible experience he endured. The book will never be a world classic but I had a hard time putting it down. It is a good read and eye opening to those of us fortunate enough to be born into relative safety where children are protected.

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A long way Gone

This is a great book. It is important story and relates to the worls biggest issues today. After reading the book I read the article The fog of the Memoir. I found valid points but most of it came across as gossip and misunderstanding. I first was dissapointed that the character I felt sorrow for, and fell in love with never existed but then I thought about american culture and how hard it must be for the average american to picture a world unlike the one they live in. Ishmael had built uo the courage to tell a story and the media attacks him. This is a wonderful book and dont let the media ruin it like it did for so many readers.

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A Long Way Gone

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
By: Ishmael Beah

The book a long way gone is a historical non-fiction book. It is about the author's childhood and his struggle to survive. Ishmael was born in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, in 1980. A Long Way Gone is a truly heart wrenching story of a boy who has seen so much hatred and cruelty in his lifetime that it seems unreal. Ishmael Beah lost his family to the war, so he fights along side the countries army against the rebels, those who have been killing civilians and burning villages to the ground. This book is astonishing, thought provoking, disgustingly true, useful, and overall extraordinary.
After Ishmael had been forced to join the army his lieutenant told him these words in a successful attempt to motivate the troops: "the lieutenant went on for almost an hour, describing how rebels had cut off the heads of some people's family members and made them watch. Burned entire villages along with their inhabitants, forced sons to have intercourse with their mothers, hacked newly born babies in half because they cried too much, cut open pregnant women's stomachs, took the babies out, and killed them... "They have lost everything that makes them human. They do not deserve to live. That is why we must kill every single one of them." " (Beah pg. 108) As I read this quote the first time I had to stop half way through because I felt as if I was going to throw up. It didn't even seem true as I read it. This quote is just a taste of how disgusting and iniquitous this book is.
At the age of twelve Ishmael ran away from his village and by thirteen was forced to fight for the government army. Before this time he was friendly. The war had made him do horrible things that just seemed second nature after a while as expressed in this quote: "The idea of death didn't cross my mind at all and killing had become as easy as drinking water." (Beah pg. 122) It is disgusting how if you do something enough, even something as terrible as killing, it becomes normal to you. After fighting in the army so long and at a vulnerable age Ishmael started acting differently also. " The prisoner was simply another rebel who was responsible for the death of my family, as I had come to truly believe. The corporal gave the signal with a pistol shot and I grabbed the man's head and slit his throat in one fluid motion.... His eyes rolled u and they looked me straight in the eye before they suddenly stopped in a frightful glance, as if caught by surprise.... I was proclaimed the winner..." (Beah pg. 125) Killing people had now become a competition or a game for the boys of the army.
This book is not only entertaining but it teaches valuable lessons such as: "If you are alive there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die." (Beah pg. 54) This is a good lesson to be learned and an interesting opinion on life. The lesson being that is you are still alive there is a reason and you must continue on and persevere because there is something worthwhile in your future.
I recommend this book to anyone who is naive or just interested in what is going on currently in Africa and how it impacts the children. This book is also a good book for people that want to learn a little bit about writing an interesting story and how to incorporate dialogue seamlessly because Ishmael Beah is able to do it very well. After or even before this book, if you would like any background information on the topic of child soldiers you should visit the Invisible Children website at www.invisiblechildren.com.

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Worth reading but author exaggerates himself.

Worth reading but I am willing to bet this "memoir" turns out to be "exaggerated" if not all together concocted.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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