A Long Way Gone (Ismael Beah)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is the true story of Ismael Beah, a native of Sierra Leone who was caught up in the violence of the country’s civil war (1991-2002). Separated by a surprise rebel attack from his family, 13-year-old Ishmael runs into the jungle with a few friends. They encounter mostly mistrust, fear and resistance from the villages they pass because the rebels often employ troops of young boys of about the same age. Ironically enough, after surviving in the jungle, wandering a significant way across the country and back, Ishmael encounters a small town defended by the government’s troops.
However, rather than taking the young boys in and shielding them from further involvement in war, these soldiers offer the boys a choice — fight as soldiers by the troop’s side or leave the town into the hands of surrounding rebels, who will likely take them for governmental collaborators. Each boy receives a small dose of training, a large gun and a daily supply of drugs and violence: marijuana, cocaine and a substance they call “brown brown,” a mixture of gunpowder and drugs, plus war movies such as Rambo played on a gasoline-generator-run projector every night.
With plain, simply and un-fussy language, Ishmael tells his whole story. And he doesn’t need any frilly text — his story is so compelling and unbelievable that the reader hangs on every plain and simple word. The book is a journey through the hell of war, about how twisted ideals, adults and circumstances can wrench away childhood, an article that is impossible to regain once lost. This book is about how a human in extraordinary circumstances survived, and how such a person forgives themselves afterwards for how they enacted that survival.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars – Book club selection
Biography, Non-Fiction |