A long way gone - Ishmael Beah

Earlier this month I finished reading "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah. It is a good book from the standpoint of a boy who was forced by the government to fight in the civil war that took place in Sierra Leone in the 1990's. Since I have been living in Cambodia, I have begun to see more and more that America is in someways a political utopia. I know that sounds ridiculous when it comes to the deep political divides that exist there, but people's rights are respected SO much more in the US than most places in the world.

In this book, a young boy is forced into the killing machine that was the government army of Sierra Leone. But when I say 'government', I mean something that we can not imagine in the US. It is was a life of violence, indiscriminate killing without justice or mercy, drug use and plain insanity.

It is well written. I have to admit that there were a few things (like the references to Shakespeare) that seemed a bit unbelievable to me, but many times life is a bit unbelievable, isn't it?

Thanks for the book, Sherrod.