A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah

I had the good fortune, several years ago, to go to a small seminar that happened to have Ishmael Beah as the keynote speaker. I remember thinking to myself, "How can anyone who has been through such horrific things be so happy?" Since that day, Ishmael has always been one of the people I try to model myself after. If he can wake up and live life with a smile on his face, so can I.

Even though this was my second time reading A Long Way Gone, I was still as shocked and saddened by the contents of the novel as I was the first time I read it. From scenes with babies that have been shot to death, dismembered community members and imams that have been burnt to death, their remains eaten by animals, A Long Way Gone is certainly a blunt-forced reminder of the terrible cruelty that humans can inflict on one another. Yet, amongst all the horror, Ishmael finds a way to provide bittersweet glimpses of human warmth and kindness. Despite it's grim nature, A Long Way Gone still leaves you feeling hopeful.

A Long Way Gone is certainly its own type of coming-of-age story, and one that I think everybody should read. I don't want to presume what an individual reader can get out of A Long Way Gone, because I think the message gleaned from this memoir is probably different and deeply personal for each reader.

However, I can say that I deeply admire Ishmael's bravery and openness in discussing the horrifying nature of civil war and becoming a boy-soldier. I feel like his memoir provides its readers with a better understanding into this often forgotten world, while also calling into focus the blurry line between right and wrong.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part - Time Indian, Sherman Alexie

In this novel, the major theme that resonates with me is the theme of leaving the world you know for a world which will, hopefully, be able to help you succeed in the long run. On some level, I think all readers (so long as they have been an adolescent at one point or another) can relate to this theme; all young people have that moment when they say “I'm ready to leave. I'm ready to move beyond this place.” But, like is also expressed in the novel, not all people get that opportunity, and so it needs to be seized when it presents itself.
Although the story revolves around and the narrator is a young man, I still was able to connect his experiences to my life. Several times I felt as though I knew exactly what he was feeling. [large excerpt removed for privacy reasons - but the teacher knows what's there!]
I appreciate this novel because it isn't often that narrators (or authors, I should say) are so comfortable with their writing. For example, Junior talks about uncomfortable topics quite frequently: breasts, masturbation, alcoholism, abuse, death. In most young adult novels I've read, albeit written by white authors, the narrator implies an uncomfortable situation but never delves into it. Even though it made me a little uncomfortable at times, probably just because I'm predisposed to be a little uncomfortable, I really enjoyed that Sherman Alexie didn't dawdle. He laid it out there. It seemed to say to me: These things are REAL! These things are what happen in the world. Like Michael Cart says in his article, “That period of passage called 'young adulthood' is a unique part of life, distinguished by unique needs that are – at minimum — physical, intellectual, emotional, and societal in nature” (Cart 2). I think it is safe to say that authors like Sherman Alexie are helping meet these needs by writing novels to which adolescents can fully relate to. Through his writing, he seems to know that the real and uncomfortable things are what students relate to, and it is so important that we bring it up.
I think the only issue that could arise with this book is that because it is a male author and a male main character, it may be a slight turn-off to younger female audiences. Nevertheless, this book has a lot of offer adolescents, male or female. Everyone can learn something from or relate to Junior's trials in some way. He is raw and real and makes you laugh and cry all at once. Even if there had been no lesson to learn or message to relate to in this novel, at the very least the reader would get to experience the height of different emotions. Just being allowed to feel in that way should make the story valuable to all who read it.

Cart, Michael. "The Value of Young Adult Literature." 1-3.