While recently on holiday in the U.S., I made certain to stop by the local library and check out a book I had put on reserve from afar thanks to the handy dandy world wide web..
It was Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, and it's currently #5 on The NY Times' Nonfiction Bestseller list; Next up I'll be reading Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great, #2 on "The List", but that's for another entry.
I won't give too much away about Beah's book save to say that it's the 26-year-old's memoirs of serving as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Revelatory, painful and a window into northwest African warfare, culture and the world of recruiting children to fight battles while robbing them of their youth. Difficult to read. More difficult to put down.
LATER: Here's a clip from The Hour - an interview with the book's author Ishmael Beah...
Speaking of youth or ...well I don't know exactly what category this next bit falls into.. this type family conversation is straight up Emily from SNL:
Do you remember years ago in Chicago when the eggheads were causing a lot of trouble? They were desecrating Jewish landmarks and creating a public nuisance? Well there was this one boy--
Ma. Ma. Are you sure you don't mean 'skinheads'?
Right. Skinheads. Anyway, there was this one boy....
*sigh*
1 comment:
That book reminds me of 'Allah Is Not Obliged' by Ahmadou Kourouma. I could. not. read. that. book. Read first twenty or so pages, still have nightmares about it.
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