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

Wow...the only words that came to me after I finished reading this memoir by Ishmael Beah.

Ishmael is a native of the Sierra Leone region of Africa.  The novel chronicles his journey of boy turned soldier.  He opens the book with a conversation between him and his high school friends.

“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”

“Because there is a war.”

“Did you witness some of the fighting?”

“Everyone in the country did.”

“You mean you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”

“Yes, all the time.”

“Cool.”

I smile a little.

“You should tell us about it sometime.”

“Yes, sometime.”

This memoir is his "sometime".  Before reading this memoir, I don't think any native-born American citizen can relate to the honest, heartbreaking story the Ishmael, now twenty-six years old, unfolds.  At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal.

The memoir is written in conversational style and is an easy, yet terrifying, read.  The book may not be for all readers, due the graphic violence with in his story.  However, this text serves as an important place in any world history or world literature course.  Beah's narrative needs to be read, discussed, and talked about over and over again.  Too often, the American media turns a blind eye to the plight of child soldiers.