Must read for all of us in the western world

books:


	• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Ishmael Beah Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 389 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

How a child survives.

Ishmael Beah must be extremely bright and clever. I don't think many children could survive and recover from the horrible experience he endured. The book will never be a world classic but I had a hard time putting it down. It is a good read and eye opening to those of us fortunate enough to be born into relative safety where children are protected.

A long way Gone

This is a great book. It is important story and relates to the worls biggest issues today. After reading the book I read the article The fog of the Memoir. I found valid points but most of it came across as gossip and misunderstanding. I first was dissapointed that the character I felt sorrow for, and fell in love with never existed but then I thought about american culture and how hard it must be for the average american to picture a world unlike the one they live in. Ishmael had built uo the courage to tell a story and the media attacks him. This is a wonderful book and dont let the media ruin it like it did for so many readers.

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Must read for all of us in the western world

I was listening to Ishmael Beah's book on my car tape. In fact the voice on the tape is of Ishmael Beah that his childhood took a turn at the age 12 when the war came to his village in Eastern Sierra Leone near the diamond mines. Since then it is a story of survival against nature and human. As he quote his father, "If you loose your hope then you have no life", he kept going from one adventure to another find true friendship, hardship, and happy ending. On the way he lost his family, friends, but kept going with hope in his heart.
Great (true) story

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Interesting account of war in Sierra Leone

It is important to bear in mind that the author of this book was a young man from a war torn country with little education in writing so I am giving the writing style a break. Other reviewers who have criticized the author's writing are certainly valid. Nevertheless Beah's story is powerful and readers will learn about this war torn region.

There have been a lot of questions whether this story is true. I cannot shed any more light on these rumors. It is clear that the story cannot be entirely true. For example, the specific quotes from conversations and the dreams are way too specific to be credible. How much is the story embellished? I do not know, but I believe it is important for authors to come completely clean when writing non-fiction. Even if only 1% of a non-fiction book is not true, authors need to disclose their readers. If we, as readers, discover the lack of complete truth of a non-fiction book then how can we possibly trust the facts of any part of the book? I would have liked a discussion or some notes about these issues. A similar book, "What is the What", is sold as fiction even though most of it was in fact true. I applaud the publisher and the authors of that book for not misleading readers. However, even if "A Long Way Gone" is partially true only, it is still an educational book. I was happy that it was a relatively short book and at the same time was disappointed that Beah did not tell us how he finally got to NY.

For those interested in the controversy regarding the truthfulness of the story, see the following links: (Both sides are represented)

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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