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| A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | 
 enlarge | Author: Ishmael Beah
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy New: $3.20
You Save: $18.80 (85%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $3.20
Avg. Customer Rating:  (428 reviews)
Sales Rank: 5851
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 0374105235
Dewey Decimal Number: 966.404
EAN: 9780374105235
ASIN: 0374105235
Publication Date: February 13, 2007
Release Date: February 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A True Story about the Human Spirit February 26, 2007
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I was lucky enough to get my hands on this book before it went on the shelves because of where I work. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it, but am very happy I did.
This is a true story about a 12 year old who looses everything during civil war in Sierra Leone by the name of Ishmael Beah. The majority of this story plays out like ones worst nightmare, worse than that. What Beach goes through and incounters through his journey through his native country surpasses anything most of us could even imagine. This is a story of hopelessness for a 12 year old child doing anything he can to survive, yet deep down there is another tale unfolding, the tale of the how the human spirit, not matter how battered it becomes, refuses to give in.
Beah is an excelent story teller. Using easy to understand language and great description, the story quickly begins to move and take shape. Beah draws you in and before you know it you and him are emotionally attatched. You want to cry when he crys, hate when he hates, and laugh when he laughs. This is by far a book that everyone should read!
Difficult but worthwhile February 26, 2007
173 out of 187 found this review helpful
While I did find this book painful to read, I am very glad I stayed with it. Ishmael tells his story in casual language, almost as if he were sitting next to you, sharing his experiences over (many cups of) tea.
He relays his life to us chronologically, beginning in his home village. He and some friends took a several day trip to a neighboring village to show off their hip-hop skills at a talent show. Little did they know, that little trip probably saved their lives. For while they were away, the rebel army attacked their home village.
From there, we follow Ishmael and his friends as they try to find their families (all had had to flee the village, literally running for their lives) struggling to meet the barest of necessities. It is a long, dangerous road they walk, and they suffer countless difficulties as they try to find somewhere safe to stay. A tunnel with no light. You really feel the desperation, the loneliness and despair that descended upon this poor little boy. Much of the book is about this time of wandering, going hungry, being ill-met by other villages who suspect these young, homeless friends of being a wandering squad of rebel child-soldiers. They are met with suspicion at best, hostility at worst.
It is actually understandable when Ishmael is manipulated into fighting with the government army. He is finally in a village that feels safe, he is eating, there are soldiers protecting the village, that is until the rebels surround the village, leaving no path for escape. All males (even 6 or 8 year olds) must fight for their lives, or die.
It begins as such, fighting for the "good side," the ones who did not kill his family, and fighting to defend himself. But, as this brief portion of the book tells us, he quickly descended into the much darker side of warfare, where the good and bad guys are not so easily discerned. When did he cross the line and become someone who kills some other little boy's family? It is so painful, so sad.
But Ishmael does not delve too deeply into the emotions behind his motivations and reactions. Nor does he tell us much about how he has come to reconcile with himself. He tells us some, and maybe this is my psych degree, but I want to know more, I hope he is able to go deeper within himself. I don't need to read about it, but I hope he can because I want him to truly be alright now. You will, too, because no feeling human can read this book and not find themselves truly caring about this young man.
And now I think of the other children still out there, still being coerced into fighting the wars of horrible adult men. I want to help them, which is, I imagine, part of Ishmael's hope.
Don't wait for the cheaper paperback, this is a book to read now - you will want to talk to people about it. Prepare to be stirred.
A story that needed to be told February 23, 2007
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
You might not be able to read this book if you didn't know it had a hopeful ending. The violence is unstaged, described in a matter-of-fact way that gives it a haunting quality; wounds bleed, women scream, babies are burned in their cribs, grown men are shot after being tortured. And it is violence perpetrated in many cases by boys, young teenagers who in their own culture are usually not considered old enough to date or wise enough to make tough decisions.
Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone and grew up in a time of relative stability, before open rebellion began. One day he and his close buddies went to a nearby town to enter a music contest. They'd been listening to rap, imitating the poetic lyrics and the dance moves. They had a couple of home-recorded cassette tapes. While they were away, rebels swept into their home village, killing many inhabitants and forcing the rest to flee. Everyone disappeared from Ishmael's home in a few short hours, and he was never again to see most members of his close family. With no preparation, he was cut off from the life he had known and forced, with his companions, to begin a long period of constant flight, near-starvation and terror.
The boys knew that their time was limited. The rebels were recruiting boys to fight, raping the young girls and enslaving the elders. They were stealing all usable items and all food, burning the villages as they left. The army was likewise recruiting boys, after men were slain by rebel forces. Boys so young as to be barely able to carry a weapon were given AK-47s and told to avenge their family's deaths. They were drugged with marijuana and cocaine until their minds were as ragged as their clothes, and sent out to kill.
After living from day to harrowing day, Ishmael was forced to join the army. He not only shot many boys and men on the enemy side, but prided himself on being able to cut throats quickly and efficiently as part of a contest staged by the army officers. Such exercises toughened the children and inured them to the evils they were both witnessing and perpetrating every day.
By chance, Ishmael was among a group of boys who were taken out of the army ranks and rehabilitated, slowly, by UN and other workers who kept telling their orphan charges, "What you did was not your fault." It took many months for Ishmael to understand and begin to believe this. At first he fought cynically and sometimes savagely against his benign captors, initially in the throes of drug withdrawal and then gripped by insane rage and a sense of powerlessness. At least as a soldier Ishmael had been esteemed a man and given responsibility. It was hard to become a boy again, to obey the kindly orphanage staff. It was harder to believe that his life had meaning or that there might be reason to hope for future happiness.
After a long series of reunions and a fortuitous visit to the UN in New York, Ishmael was adopted by an American aid worker and given the chance to finish high school and college. He now serves as a member of various committees and councils and speaks eloquently for the need to stop conscripting children as killers wherever such outrages occur. His talent as a lyricist grew into a talent for storytelling. A LONG WAY GONE is a story that needed to be told.
--- Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott
An Important and Moving Story February 23, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is a book that everyone should take the time to read. It is an eye opening account of what children went through as soldiers, told by someone who went through these trials.
Gripping, Gut-Wrenching, and Brilliant February 22, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Ishmael's story is truly remarkable in every sense of the word. This book is absolutely a must-read, both for its vividly told story and direct and descriptive style of prose.
His journey reveals a number of vital truths of our world -- the unfortunate realities of war, the ability of good people to perpetuate unspeakable acts, the amazing potential to regain one's humanity against all odds, the bizarre reach of globalized culture, the ways in which our dreams affect intertwine with our realities, and the survival instinct that keeps us alive even in dire circumstances.
While some might say the story ends a bit abruptly, I would commend Ishmael for restraining from the Hollywood ending that audiences often crave; he keeps the focus of the book on the issues at hand, and rightly so.
If anyone ever deserved a chance to write a sequel to his life story, I would say it is Ishmael Beah. And I, for one, can't wait to read it.
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