Title: A Long Way Gone Pdf Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Author: Ishmael Beah
Published Date: 2008-08-05
Page: 240
“Everyone in the world should read this book. Not just because it contains an amazing story, or because it's our moral, bleeding-heart duty, or because it's clearly written. We should read it to learn about the world and about what it means to be human.” ―Washington Post“A breathtaking and unselfpitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out. It's a truly riveting memoir.” ―Time“Beah is a gifted writer. . . Read his memoir and you will be haunted . . . It's a high price to pay, but it's worth it.” ―Newsweek.com“Deeply moving, even uplifting…Beah's story, with its clear-eyed reporting and literate particularity--whether he's dancing to rap, eating a coconut or running toward the burning village where his family is trapped--demands to be read.” ―People (Critic's Choice, Four stars)“Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), is unforgettable testimony that Africa's children--millions of them dying and orphaned by preventable diseases, hundreds of thousands of them forced into battle--have eyes to see and voices to tell what has happened. And what voices! How is it possible that 26-year-old Beah, a nonnative English speaker, separated from his family at age 12, taught to maim and to kill at 13, can sound such notes of family happiness, of friendship under duress, of quiet horror? No outsider could have written this book, and it's hard to imagine that many insiders could do so with such acute vision, stark language, and tenderness. It is a heart-rending achievement.” ―Melissa Fay Greene, Elle“When Beah is finally approached about the possibility of serving as a spokesperson on the issue of child soldiers, he knows exactly what he wants to tell the world: "I would always tell people that I believe children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.Others may make the same assertions, but Beah has the advantage of stating them in the first person. That makes A Long Way Gone all the more gripping.” ―Christian Science Monitor“In place of a text that has every right to be a diatribe against Sierra Leone, globalization or even himself, Beah has produced a book of such self-effacing humanity that refugees, political fronts and even death squads resolve themselves back into the faces of mothers, fathers and siblings. A Long Way Gone transports us into the lives of thousands of children whose lives have been altered by war, and it does so with a genuine and disarmingly emotional force.” ―Minneapolis Star-Tribune“What Beah saw and did during [the war] has haunted him ever since, and if you read his stunning and unflinching memoir, you'll be haunted, too . . . It would have been enough if Ishmael Beah had merely survived the horrors described in A Long Way Gone. That he has written this unforgettable firsthand account of his odyssey is harder still to grasp. Those seeking to understand the human consequences of war, its brutal and brutalizing costs, would be wise to reflect on Ishmael Beah's story.” ―Philadelphia Inquirer“Beah speaks in a distinctive voice, and he tells an important story.” ―The Wall Street Journal“Hideously effective in conveying the essential horror of his experiences.” ―Kirkus Reviews“Extraordinary . . . A ferocious and desolate account of how ordinary children were turned into professional killers.” ―The Guardian UK“A Long Way Gone is one of the most important war stories of our generation. The arming of children is among the greatest evils of the modern world, and yet we know so little about it because the children themselves are swallowed up by the very wars they are forced to wage. Ishmael Beah has not only emerged intact from this chaos, he has become one of its most eloquent chroniclers. We ignore his message at our peril.” ―Sebastian Junger, author of A Death in Belmont and A Perfect Storm“This is a beautifully written book about a shocking war and the children who were forced to fight it. Ishmael Beah describes the unthinkable in calm, unforgettable language; his memoir is an important testament to the children elsewhere who continue to be conscripted into armies and militias.” ―Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for general Nonfiction“This is a wrenching, beautiful, and mesmerizing tale. Beah's amazing saga provides a haunting lesson about how gentle folks can be capable of great brutalities as well goodness and courage. It will leave you breathless.” ―Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life“A Long Way Gone hits you hard in the gut with Sierra Leone's unimaginable brutality and then it touches your soul with unexpected acts of kindness. Ishmael Beah's story tears your heart to pieces and then forces you to put it back together again, because if Beah can emerge from such horror with his humanity in tact, it's the least you can do.” ―Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle: A MemoirIshmael Beah was born in 1980 in Sierra Leone, West Africa. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vespertine Press, LIT, Parabola, and numerous academic journals. He is a UNICEF Ambassador and Advocate for Children Affected by War; a member of the Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Advisory Committee; an advisory board member at the Center for the Study of Youth and Political Violence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; visiting scholar at the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University; visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights at Rutgers University; cofounder of the Network of Young People Affected by War (NYPAW); and president of the Ishmael Beah Foundation. He has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and many panels on the effects of war on children. His book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier has been published in over thirty languages and was nominated for a Quill Award in 2007. Time magazine named the book as one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2007, ranking it at number three. Ishmael Beah is a graduate of Oberlin College with a B.A. in Political Science and resides in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently completing a novel set in his home country of Sierra Leone.
What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how 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.
"My new friends have begun to suspect I haven't told them the full story of my life.
'Why did you leave Sierra Leone?'
'Because there is a war.'
'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.'"
A Long Way gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier ... A Long WayGone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is by Ishmael Beah. I was asked to read this book by a Mother whose child was required to read it over the summer. She wanted my view of the book. The book deals with child soldiers in Sierre Leone in the 80’s and 90’s. I found this book hard to deal with. The graphics of the rebel soldiers is too graphic. I question having this book or similar ones read over the summer by students. I feel it should be read in class with explanations for the students handy. The topic is definitely one that should be read and talked about by students today. Reading it alone with no chance to talk about it is a disservice to the students.Ishmael tells his story is a very straightforward way and in that manner shows his innocence and how it is taken from him. In his search for his family, he shows his innocence in comparison to what is going on around him. Even as he gives up on finding his family. His need and hope to survive is at the base of his actions.A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldierby Ishmael BeahRating: ***** (5 Stars)Book Length: 229 pagesGenre: Memoir, War, Nonfiction, African NonfictionImagine your entire world changing one day while you are going about an innocent childhood day. That is what happened to Ishmael Beah. One day he was working on a rap group with his friends. The next he was struggling to survive.The story is one that everyone should hear.Unfortunately, Ishmael's story is not unique. What is unique is his gift to share that experience with the rest of the world. He is clearly a highly intelligent and communicative young man. This was realized long before the book was released when he was chosen to represent his country at the United Nations. That experience gave him a way to get out of his country. Yet, how many children were left behind?Once you read this book it will become a part of you. It is due to the topic, children as young a six picking up a gun to defend their country is not something that will leave your mind. Yet, it is also due to Ishmael Beah's gift with words.As reviewed on The Book Recluse Review5 I would've liked this memoir to include some brief history and background ... Given the subject matter it feels almost wrong to not give this book a solid 4 or 5 star review, but to be honest I give it a solid 3.5I would've liked this memoir to include some brief history and background on the nature of the war. I took the time to look this up myself but I think it would've brought some more clarity and enriched the book some to have included this information.I know in the back the chronology was included but I was looking more for an answer as to why this war was occuring.I liked how he ended the book with the story his grandfather's friend used to tell but I wish beforehand he would've elaborated more on getting to New York and setting up a life there and bringing the reader to present day regarding his new life. The book gave me an unfinished incomplete feeling as it lacked this information.Also, I thought the book would include more information and inside into his emotions. It spent more time describing sensory facts of what he'd been theough and less on how he felt about it and even lesser on how he lives his life coming to terms with it.I have to admit I was expecting some internal dialogue regarding how he's reached a place of self forgiveness or tolerance for the craziness of this life and the situations we're put in.I suppose he did touch on this, in that he finally came to believe it wasnt his fault as the teachers kept repeating to him but I was just expecting more insight into his feelings regarding everything and less on just stated observations.Nonethless, it was a good book worth reading but because of the unfinished feeling I got from the ending I have to give it a solid 3.5
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