A Long Way Gone Book Review

Book Review by: Tim Challies
(Blogger, Author and Book Reviewer)

04/02/07

A Long Way Gone begins this way:

My high school 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.”“Did you witness some of the fighting?”“Everyone in the country did.”“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.”

In this book, that has spent a couple of months near the top of the New York Times list of bestsellers, Ishmael Beah tells about it. When he was only twelve, with his country of Sierra Leone thrown into a long and bloody civil war, his village was attacked by rebels. He was forced to run for his life knowing that if he was caught he would be forced, upon pain of death, to join the rebel army. For months he and his friends ran, successfully evading the rebels as they systematically destroyed the nation, raping, pillaging and murdering indiscriminately.

Eventually Beah found himself in a village controlled by the national army. He thought he was safe here, but they soon compelled him to fight for them, despite his young age. Fueled by hatred towards those who had harmed his family and driven him from his home, he readily joined the cause. For over two years he fought for this army, participating in countless battles and skirmishes. He became a cold-blooded killer, killing, torturing and maiming. He was supplied with endless amounts of marijuana and cocaine and lived these years in a constant drug-induced haze. Though he began fighting on what he felt was the good side, he soon found himself descending further and further into moral decay so that he felt nothing, even when he looked into the eyes of men whose throats he was cutting.

The book takes a somewhat unexpected turn when Beah is suddenly handed over to UNICEF for rehabilitation. In one day he goes from being a soldier in the forests of Sierra Leone and the next he is taken to a rehabilitation center in Freetown. He slowly and painfully recovers from his drug addiction and is reintegrated into society. Though he was “a long way gone,” he is able to recover his humanity, though only with much time and patience. The story comes to an ending that is disappointing for its abruptness and leaves the reader with many unanswered questions.

It is a moving story and a terrifying one for it plainly displays the senseless depravity of human beings and the depths we can fall to. It shows how even a nice young man can be so easily reduced to a killer. While Beah was blessed to be able to eventually escape the controls of the military and to escape to the United States, some 300,000 child soldiers remain in combat around the world.

There were at least two aspects of this book that gave me much to ponder. The first dealt with moral culpability in situations like Beah’s. How much responsibility does a person like this bear for his actions? He was just a young boy when he was forced into drug addiction and, while under the influence of narcotics, to commit horrifying atrocities. Does he bear the same responsibility as if he had done all this as an adult who was not under the influence of narcotics and under the influence of bloodthirsty leaders? The second aspect, related to this, dealt with Beah’s recovery. When he was in the rehabilitation center he would be told constantly, “It’s not your fault.” Yet this answer infuriated him so that he would plug his ears rather than having to hear it again. It seems that he somehow wanted to be able to take responsibility for his actions but that the people who rehabilitated him would not hear of this. The book does not go into as much detail as I would have liked about his psychological or spiritual recovery. The cover mentions that he had to learn how to forgive himself, but this does not seem to factor into the narrative. What I hope for this young author (who is still only twenty six) is that he will be able to assume responsibility for his sinful actions and seek true forgiveness from the One who is both willing and able to provide it. This will surely mark his deepest and most important recovery. Only in the Bible will he find a clear explanation as to how he could be so easily swayed by sin and only in the Bible will he find the hope of forgiveness.

A Long Way Gone is an important book and one that is well worth reading. It shakes the foundations of those of us who live in a part of the world that is so safe and where we are so sheltered. It inspires gratitude that we have escaped such pain and hopefully inspires action that peace may come to nations where young boys are still drafted into service as ruthless, cold-hearted killers.

Ishmael Beah Article

Article from The New York Observer Media Mob

Ishmael Beah Defends Himself and His Memoirs Against Accusations of Misrepresentation

By Leon Neyfakh

January 22, 2008 | 5:56 p.m

Call me Ishmael, but don't call me a fabulist!

Long Way Home-author Ishmael Beah, the child soldier-turned-memoirist from Sierra Leone whose credibility was challenged over the weekend by an Australian newspaper, has issued a statement defending his book and denying accusations that he misrepresented the time he spent in the Sierra Leone army.

“I was right about my family,” Mr. Beah writes in the statement. “I am right about my story. This is not something one gets wrong… [The Australian’s reporters] believe anything they are told–unless it comes from me or supports my account. Sad to say, my story is all true.”

The complete statement, issued by Mr. Beah’s publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, after the jump. The article from The Australian can be found here.

January 22, 2008

For months I told Bob Lloyd and The Australian’s reporter, Shelley Gare, through my publisher, my agent, and my adoptive mother, that unfortunately they were wrong, that the man they claimed was my father was not my father, and that my mother and brothers were not alive, as Lloyd claimed. Last week, when The Australiansent reporters to my home in Sierra Leone, they were forced to acknowledge that this has been a hoax.

Now The Australian’s reporters are trying to raise questions about the dates in my book, A Long Way Gone, regarding when the war came to my village. They offer as "proof" a man named Mr. Barry who claims to have been the head of the school I attended when I was young. I have never heard of a Mr. Barry. The principal of my school was Mr. Sidiki Brahima.

The war in Sierra Leone began in 1991. My story, as I remember it and wrote it, began in 1993 when rebels “attacked the mining areas” (my words from the book) in my village while I was away with friends. I never saw my family again. The Australian, presumably, is basing their defamation of me on reports that the Sierra Rutile Mine was closed down by rebels in 1995. But there were rebels in my region, my village, and my life in 1993. They attacked throughout 1993 and 1994 before closing down the mine.

Others from Sierra Leone can bear witness to the truth of my story.
Leslie Mboka, National Chairman of the Campaign for Just Mining in Freetown, was a counselor at Benin Home, the rehabilitation center in Freetown, Sierra Leone, I entered in January 1996. He told this to my publisher, Sarah Crichton, on the telephone today:

“A gentleman named Wilson was here investigating regarding Ishmael Beah’s book, and I told him emphatically−emphatically−that Ishmael’s accounts are accurate and correct. Wilson was going to Mogbwemo to find out if Ishmael Beah’s family was alive. When he came back to Freetown, he said he couldn’t find anyone alive, and the man who said he was Ishmael’s father was actually just a relative. But then he asked, what about confusion with the dates?

And I said, there is no problem with the dates. The rebels made sporadic attacks on the mining communities between ’93 and ’94, leading up to and in preparation for the major assault in ’95. In fact, military personnel were deployed to the area because there were these sporadic raids. Ishmael was caught in one of the earlier attacks.

I told all this to Peter Wilson. I told him everything that Ishmael wrote is accurate and completely factual, and I explained to him what was confusing him.
I do not understand what his paper’s agenda is. I do not understand why they are trying to blackmail this brilliant and honest young man.”

Mboka was contacted by The New York Times when they fact-checked the excerpts of my book which they published. His testimony did not appear in The Australian’s reporting.
My publisher also spoke today with Alusine Kamara, former director of Benin Home, who now lives in Boston.

“I have known Ishmael since he was a soldier and he came to our center. I have read his book, and I have no doubt that what he says is true I do not know why anyone would want to question what Ishmael writes about. He did not write a history of the whole war, he wrote about his experiences. And if anyone has any doubts about what Ishmael went through, or what it was like for those soldiers, I refer them to the BBC World—they made many documentaries about our center.”
I was right about my family. I am right about my story. This is not something one gets wrong. The Australian’s reporters have been calling my college professors, asking if I "embellished" my story. They published my adoptive mother’s address, so she now receives ugly threats. They have used innuendo against me when there is no fact. Though apparently, they believe anything they are told–unless it comes from me or supports my account. Sad to say, my story is all true.

Sincerely,
Ishmael Beah

Predictions - Group members

 We believe that "A Long Way Gone" is about the conflicting journey of a young boy who has to go through turmoiling problems and disgraces his own human soul. Ishmael Beah tells his story and it starts from his beginning and tells all in pure honesty. We look forward to reading it and it looks quite inspirational and touching. We think it will better widen our perspective and aspirations in life and help us better understand situations in other countries and be more greatful.

-Douglas, Han, Nathan, Ramona, Zohal