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mjanemartin 's review for:
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
Something was off when I read this book. First, it was written simplistically, as a young adult novel would be. It's a very quick read. Then, at times it felt vague and lackluster...it lacked detail. I thought maybe this was due to the author's drug use as a boy soldier. Perhaps he suffered memory loss due to his substance abuse. Some of the time line seemed jumbled. It seemed strange that the book was mostly about the time leading up to his soldiering and the time after his rescue, with little writing about the actual soldiering. Again, I thought memory loss, or maybe just unwillingness to relive that episode in time. The behavior of the rehab clinic seemed unlike American rehab clinics,(no description of drug withdrawals, patients left to come and go despite attacks and violence they perpetrated...no repercussions or comments from the staff), but it wasn't America. Perhaps that was as good as rehab got in a country decimated by civil war, understaffed and no money. Also, there were things that felt "fantasical", to use my own made-up word. A Rap cassette tape fell from his pocket twice to facilitate his safety? He ran for a half mile from a pack of wild boar? There were others. Mostly, I was left with a lot of questions in which I tried to fill in the holes.
I put these things aside and continued to read. Having a 12 year old (the age in which Ishmael became a soldier), made reading difficult...picturing my own 12 year old alone in bush for months, with little to eat, without family, seeing the things he saw. Horrific. There were times when I was glad there were few details and description.
I didn't know of the controversy of the book until after I finished it. Apparently, there is some question as to whether parts (or all of it) were fictionalized. Only Ishmael knows that. It would address why the book felt "off" to me. But then so would memory loss and poor writing (perhaps due to language barrier). Regardless of the controversy, it does educate on the subject of child soldiers and the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 90's.
I put these things aside and continued to read. Having a 12 year old (the age in which Ishmael became a soldier), made reading difficult...picturing my own 12 year old alone in bush for months, with little to eat, without family, seeing the things he saw. Horrific. There were times when I was glad there were few details and description.
I didn't know of the controversy of the book until after I finished it. Apparently, there is some question as to whether parts (or all of it) were fictionalized. Only Ishmael knows that. It would address why the book felt "off" to me. But then so would memory loss and poor writing (perhaps due to language barrier). Regardless of the controversy, it does educate on the subject of child soldiers and the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 90's.