A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Memoirs have always been a genre that I have mixed feeling about. On the one hand those that are well written and interesting stories can be a pleasure to read. However, I have also been bitten in the butt by horrible memoirs. I went into A long Way Gone with high hopes but few expectations. However, I quickly found myself drawn into the book.
The story of Ishmael was a story that is not that different from others that I have read, but I still found it unique. With all of the turmoil that has happened in the recent African past, many young boys have found themselves in America after civil war. This book reminded me of They Poured Fire on us from the Sky, which is a memoir written about three Lost Boys from Sudan. The story followed three young men who found themselves homeless and parentless in a war torn country. They found themselves going from place to place, looking for safety. This is exactly what Ishmael had to go though at the start of his journey. I cannot begin to imagine what Ishmael and the Lost Boys went through at such a young age. I think the passage that stuck out the most for me was when Saidu said, “Every time people come at us with the intention of killing us, I close my eyes and wait for death. Even though I am still alive, I feel like each time I accept death, part of me die.” Ishmael had been running so long, and seen so much pain I just wanted him to find happiness. However, as soon as he found a small amount of safety behind the guns of the army he was again put into the heart of the war. What must it be like to find so much despair at such a young age?
What I found the most engaging with the book was not the journey; it was what Ishmael was asked to do. The difference between They Poured Fired on us from the Sky and A Long Way Gone was the fact that Ishmael was asked/forced to participate in the war itself, a choice no child should ever have to make. How could people ever ask children to kill other children? These children were not mature, and did not know how to handle the situation. They were told that they could get back at the people who had killed their parents. Yet what child would not want to get revenge for a murdered family. The army used their immaturity against them. In the end they were asked to carry a weight on their shoulders that they will never be able to take off. As Ishmael learned, he will never be able to forget the horrors that he not only went through, but also participated in.
One thing that I did find hard to read was the fact that every time it seemed like Ishmael had found a small fragment of happiness it was stolen away from him. When he heard that his parents were in the next village, he arrived there an hour too late to see them. When he got behind the Sierra Leone’s army lines, they were attacked again. When he found a new home in Freetown the government was taken over and he was again in the midst of war. Time after time Ishmael lost everything that he loved. I found myself losing hope for him. The only reason I kept reading was because I knew that he was able to get out of the situation simply because he had written the book. I think that many students might also be bogged down by the sorrow and the pain, but hopefully they will be able to draw the same hope out of it that I was in the end.
I think that this is a book that many young readers will find themselves reading even though at times they do not want to. It is a book that is so captivating that they will not be able to turn away from the book. A long Way Gone does a great job of explaining what it is that Ishmael actually went though. He does a great of explaining the moments in his life that affected him, and also allow the reader to know exactly what he was he was feeling at those times. It is hard to imagine a child at 13 thought he was a good soldier and enjoyed killing the enemy, but Ishmael does a great job explaining what he was feeling that I was praying that he might find his way out. The best and the worst part of this book is that ability to elicit emotion. In the end Ishmael finds a new family, he finds his place in the world, but he also tells us that he will carry the memories of that terrible time with him for the rest of his life. The reader is forced to carry the burden with Ishmael, and in so doing hopefully will learn the power of war and the power of hope.