A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | Ishmael Beah | Remarkable story. Remarkable person!

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

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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 393 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Remarkable story. Remarkable person!

Wow! What more can one say? This is probably one of my favorite books, which sounds a bit sadistic given what the book is about.

Ishmeal Beah must be commended for sharing with us his story and memories. You do get a sense that some of his worst memories are probably hidden within him, as sometimes the story looses its flow, and jumps and bumps a little along the way, which can be forgiven, since for much of his boy soldiering he was high at the time. You do get a good feel for the author's loss of childhood, and can easily loose yourself in his pain. The author gives so much however; that in the end it's a relief to know something positive happens in his life.

This was a good plug for UNICEF, which I always wondered about having traveled overseas quite a bit and been asked to donate my spare currency upon my return flights. It's nice to know they are doing good things, as in this case, having helped rehabilitate the author from a boy solider back to a boy again.

My only one small complaint, as if I should have one, is in how the story ends. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy how the author ended it. But, I would like to have read more about what happened to him after he came to America. Perhaps we'll get to read another book?

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An overwhelming reality

I really enjoyed this book. I kept thinking of the time line and what I was doing in my life at the time that Ishmeal was enduring all the torment and suffering in his life. This book really showed how we take life for granted. THe only fault I found with the book is that I wanted to know more of his experience in Guinea and how he got back to America. Good book

A simple and powerful story

This story is simply told. There are no fancy literary flourishes designed to manipulate the reader's emotions and no eloquent explanations designed to sway us to a particular viewpoint. It is the simple story of a child unwittingly caught up in the appalling violence of civil war. The narrator tells his own story. It is the story of how civil war destroys the normality of life in his village, of how he runs from the advancing violence, but eventually cannot avoid being drafted into its very heart as a child soldier. He describes the process of desensitization that allows him to survive the horrors he participates in and the even more difficult process of learning to re-engage with civil society once he has been rescued from the battlefield.

Some readers may be disappointed by the fact that the book provides only very limited historical background to the conflict in Sierra Leone and by the fact that the narrator engages in only very limited introspection about what he has experienced. The plot also contains a few scenes that come across as a bit contrived and unlikely, but none of this detracts from the picture that is painted of the horrors of child soldiers involved in civil war. The power of the story lies in its simplicity and in the fact that we know it is being told by someone who lived through it.

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A Little Long but AHHHHHHMAZING Story

"A Long Way Gone" is an amazing story that puts you in the shoes of a boy solider. He starts out with a normal life, but when rebels attack he ends up on the run, being separated from his family. Throughout the story, he runs and escapes, but commits to being a solider to avenge the group that killed his family. Hooked on drugs to not be as tired or alarmed by the blood and bodies, he starts to become addicted to violence. Finally sent to rehab, he struggles to recover, and get back to ordinary life. In the end, he finds relatives and ends up with his Uncle's family and speaks to the UN about the conditions in his country.
As reading isn't a favorite hobby of mine, the book seemed somewhat long. But as the story had very interesting points, those kept me reading. Ishmael Beah really does a good job describing the setting of the wars he suffered through.Some parts when he was describing the horrible scenery, I couldn't believe something that bad was possible, and had to read the section over and over to let it sink in. It was a good book to show that not everywhere is as peaceful as the U.S.. I would recommend it in a heartbeat.

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