tyk314 's review for:

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

5.0

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This is a very remarkable memoir of Ishmael Beah's two years as a child soldier. He graphically displays what post traumatic stress disorder can do to anyone yet also proves that rehabilitation is possible for even the most psychologically and physically mangled patients. It is something I wish the American court system would consider. If we instead took the time to really work with these children (who committed violent acts), perhaps we could turn them in to college graduates instead of trying them as adults and putting them to death. Beah killed his fellow country men, become addicted to drugs, and became numb to this lifestyle. Yet after all of this, he had proper medical treatment and then graduated from Oberlin and now works for the Human Rights Watch.