Book review: "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah

"Even a twelve year old couldn't be trusted anymore."

Perhaps it is the harsh reality of experiences I am lucky enough not to know. Maybe it is the cruelty that a thirteen-year-old boy can feel. Or, it could be the story of revenge and redemption. Whatever the quality of this book that makes it such a compelling read, it is impossible not to feel the conflict of Sierra Leone while reading Ishmael Beah's book, A Long Way Gone.

As a boy citizen, Beah knew that good behavior was a requirement of surviving in Sierra Leone. He notes that young people, especially, were required to respect everyone in their community, especially their elders. As a boy soldier, Beah knew that disrespect and murder was required to survive.

Beah left his village one morning with a group of friends only to hear, later that afternoon that he could never return home. Rebels had captured his village and the war had begun. His memoir takes us through the forests of Sierra Leone with him as he searches for food and shelter. He found enough to get by, though lack of signage and the death of so many make it impossible for him to know the names of the villages that provided him these necessities.

"When I was very little, my father used to say, ‘If you are alive, there is hope for a better day and something good to happen. If there is nothing good left in the destiny of a person, he or she will die.'"

Beah is full of good and never gave up hope for better days. Through hunger so painful that he "didn't have the appetite to eat or the strength to find food" and a haze of drug use to numb his pain, he leads the reader to believe that somewhere inside of him he always knew he would escape the war torn forests of his homeland.

He watches as friends die and he takes the reader through his continued hope that he will see his family again. That chance comes when he approaches a village where it is rumored his family now resides. He is filled with a forgotten energy as he sees this village from atop a hill, but his group restrains him by demanding a rest for food, drinks, and a moment off of their feet. This rest that he does not want to take means the difference between his living and dying, but also means never seeing his family again.

"With trembling hands I took the gun, saluted him, and ran to the back of the line, still holding the gun but afraid to look at it... it frightened me."

Watching this boy become a soldier is harrowing and painful. When he first holds his gun, filled with fear, he thinks of his toy gun, made from bamboo, which he played with at the age of seven. It strikes the reader that seven years old was but a short time ago for this new member of the army.

Beah is haunted while awake by the traumatizing events he watches unfold. He learns to justify his squad's killings as he is taught that these people took his family and keep him from his hometown. He is further haunted in the brief moments he sleeps by dreams of his being shot, tortured, and surrounded by blood.

Again, Beah shows us he is still a regular boy under a soldier's mentality when he discusses his excitement in reaching a village where old friends are stationed. He wanted to see his old friend to hear war stories and to hear how many people his friend had killed, but he also wanted to find a lieutenant, who he knew read Shakespeare, to talk of Julius Caesar and continue to learn.

"The squad had been our family."

Beah's freedom from a soldier's life comes when UNICEF staff arrives at a village where he is currently stationed. He watches as the UNICEF staff meet with the lieutenant. He is confused and feels abandoned when he is ordered to go with these strangers. He and the other young boys who are removed from service to the army guess that the lieutenant was paid for the boys' freedom.

The author then takes us on his journey through rehabilitation and worldwide experiences as he becomes a speaker about the evils children face throughout the world. In the end, Beah knows that he must leave Sierra Leone or risk being killed. Worse, the risk existed that he would rejoin the army.

This book takes the reader on an unpleasant, but necessary, journey. As twelve-year-olds in America, we learn about war in history books. Beah teaches us more than those books ever could through his firsthand accounting of his experiences as a child soldier.

A special thank you to Starbucks for featuring this book!