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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
This book was beautifully written and painfully real. What an amazing and brave person to have lived through this experience and still find such joy in life. If you haven't seen his recent interview on The Colbert Report, it's certainly worth watching!
Despite the horrific experiences of the author, I really enjoyed this book.
Spoiler alert: I did not appreciate the ending. It seemed to end abruptly, and I was left wondering how Ishmael made it back to New York.
Spoiler alert: I did not appreciate the ending. It seemed to end abruptly, and I was left wondering how Ishmael made it back to New York.
This book was so good. It was heartwrenching to read about the acts of violence committed on these people including children. It is unthinkable. Thankfully Ishmael was able to make it out.
I do wish the book continued on about his life after he made it to the United States but you can only fit so much in a book. I recommend this book to everyone.
I do wish the book continued on about his life after he made it to the United States but you can only fit so much in a book. I recommend this book to everyone.
It's hard to rate this one in terms of how much I "liked" it. It's disturbing and sometimes too graphic for me, but that was expected. I think it's a story people should hear.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
- from the jacket: "At the age of twelve, Ishmael Beah fled attacking rebels in Sierra Leone and wandered a land rendered unrecognisable 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 the fighting by U.N.I.C.E.F. and, through the help of staff at his rehabilitation centre, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity and, finally, to heal."
- I quite enjoyed it.
- (non-fiction!)
- I quite enjoyed it.
- (non-fiction!)
One of the unsettling things about my journey, mentally, physically, and emotionally, was that I wasn’t sure when or where it was going to end.
A Long Way Gone is Ishmael Beah's memoir about his experience during Sierra Leonne's Civil War. It is similar to other personal accounts of war--filled with disturbing descriptions of the tragedies and atrocities associated with all armed conflicts. But 2 factors differentiate A Long Way Gone from other wartime memoirs:
1. Beah was the perpetrator of many of the horrors he describes
2. During the 3-year period that he discusses, Beah was 13 - 16 years old
Beah's straightforward/honest recollections and his youth fill the reader with an acute sense of horror/disbelief. Unfortunately, the book features less-than-great storytelling/writing, and the end is both abrupt and unfulfilling.
Bottome line---A Long Way Down is a fine read, but it's not special.
1. Beah was the perpetrator of many of the horrors he describes
2. During the 3-year period that he discusses, Beah was 13 - 16 years old
Beah's straightforward/honest recollections and his youth fill the reader with an acute sense of horror/disbelief. Unfortunately, the book features less-than-great storytelling/writing, and the end is both abrupt and unfulfilling.
Bottome line---A Long Way Down is a fine read, but it's not special.