A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a captivating memoir that relates the experience of one boy's struggle to survive. Ishmael Beah was born and spent the first eighteen years of his life in war-torn Sierra Leone. After coming to the United States in 1998 and graduating from college in 2004, Beah became an advocate on behalf of children worldwide affected by war. His memoir is simply another way in which he is standing up for the children whose voices are not heard.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah recounts his adolescence in Sierra Leone. He remained largely untouched by the civil war raging in the country until rebels invaded his village when he was twelve. Although he managed to escape, he was separated from his family and wandered in search of them for a year until government armies captured him.
At times the book can be difficult to read in its grisliness, but Beah's matter-of-fact tone and simple honesty show the reader the reality of what he went through. Beah's account focuses on the facts of what he went through and what he and other children were forced to do to survive. He doesn't waste time making excuses, but tells his horrifying story with simple eloquence.
At a time when many memoirs are uninspiring and pointless, Beah writes his with freshness and purpose. He is not writing simply to amuse himself or his readers; he is doing what he can to make people aware of a cause. Beah realizes that nothing will be done to help children affected by war if the world is not aware of their plight. His first-hand account cannot help but simultaneously move the reader and make him aware of what thousands of children suffer daily. With its brutal honesty and simple narrative, Beah's gripping account is one every person should read.
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