Long Way Home by Lynn Austin
Table of Content
Running was not a sport for Beah but a gift to remain alive. A year after his deathly escapes he unfortunately gets recruited by RUF at a tender age of 13. Beah life’s takes a turn making his daily chores of annihilation, toting Ak-47s and grenades appear mundane for a killing machine. His diet now consists of mind numbing tablets, snorting cocaine and brown-brown(a mix of gun-powder& cocaine).
These child soldiers bury men alive with the same enthusiasm and curiosity as a child pulling wings off a butterfly and watching it squirm. Values such as the difference between "kindness" and "cruelty" have to be taught to children-but these boy soldiers of Sierra Leone, most of whom have seen their family and friends massacred mercilessly, have been fed only drugs and hatred. War is their religion, and their gods are Rambo and Shwarznegger. I am so glad Ms. Austin wrote this heart wrenching story. She wanted to honor the soldiers who fought for our freedom and the many victims who suffered under Hitler during WWII.
Books by Lynn Austin
Once in the United States, Beah continued to work with the UN and wrote his memoir, and started a charitable foundation aimed at helping children affected by war to reintegrate into society. While initially apprehensive and disgusted by the atrocities he participated in, Beah quickly lost empathy and devalued human life. After losing several ‘friends’ during combat, what could have been perceived as PTSD was replaced by indifference and rage, aided by the seemingly endless supply of drugs provided by the army. In between attacks, he lived in a perpetual state of high, smoking marijuana, and sniffing cocaine mixed with gunpowder.
The book is a gut-wrenching portrait of the horrors of war that will crush you, unsettle you and even make you question humanity at some points. It is a book that will chill readers to their bones and one that I will not forget for a long-long time. Having taken part in atrocities, is it possible for an adolescent to develop into a healthy adult capable of leaving the psychological trauma behind? Beah’s first defense mechanisms to deal with his trauma were Dissociation and Displacement. During the war, he displaced his anger at the loss of his family towards both rebels and civilians alike, essentially targeting the weaker ones to ‘punish’ them for his loss.
A Long Way Home: A Memoir - 9780425276198, paperback, Saroo Brierley
She confronts and tackles difficult topic of human suffering head-on. The question of why we suffer and why certain people have had to suffer so much when God is good is hard to answer, especially in light of events like WWII and the Holocaust. Yet she's able to unravel these questions, showing that there is goodness and hope. She also has a pretty strong message in this book about what our role as Christians need to be in a world full of evil, even when our roles may require an immense amount of sacrifice that may affect us for the rest of our lives. What was even harder to read was Gisela's story.
In 2016, the book was adapted into major international feature film Lion, directed by Garth Davis and starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. The film premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Dev Patel was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Providing me with an unshakable faith in the importance of family - however it is formed - and a belief in the goodness of people and the importance of grasping opportunities as they are presented. With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.
If You Could See the Sun - Hardcover By Liang, Ann - VERY GOOD
It is a haunting and a vivid story about the atrocities of war. This book was a beautiful masterpiece filled with truth of God's faithfulness and God's goodness in spite of trial and tribulations and the struggles of war. This story is set in WWII and is a dual timeline novel. We follow Peggy Serrano who can’t wait for her best friend Jimmy to return from the war. However, Jimmy' s world comes crashing down as he suffers from severe PTSD from his time in the war as a WWII medic and as returned a completely changed man.
After several close calls, he is eventually found and sent to an orphanage. Unable to find his family from his descriptions, he is adopted and sent to live his new life in Australia. Years later has an adult he attempts again to find the family he lost. At the age of five, Saroo an Indian boy becomes lost after after being separated from his brother. After traveling on a train for quite some time, Saroo ends up in Calcutta.
In response, the NPRC hired several hundred mercenaries from the private firm Executive Outcomes. Within a month they had driven RUF fighters back to enclaves along Sierra Leone's borders, and cleared the RUF from the Kono diamond-producing areas of Sierra Leone. The amount of trauma both incurred and inflicted is immeasurable. What these boys have experienced simply to have their needs met is no way to live. All in all, it was interesting reading and somewhat educational. I finally got around to reading the highly lauded A Long Way Gone.
This book discloses the hardships that soliders struggle with of seeing first hand what death looks like. The dual timeline is expertly done and well-infused with Christian and Jewish beliefs. As characters rely on their faith, questions arise about where God is in the midst of war and how he can allow such horror. Austin eloquently deals with each struggle and gives room for her characters to work on securing their faith. Having a front-row seat to their spiritual growth is heartwarming.
Ishmael doesn't want to talk about what happened and he gets into fights with other children. Eventually he makes friends with one of the nurses who lets him listen to rap and reggae music. Slowly, Ishmael comes out of his shell, and he is selected to go to the United Nations in New York City and speak about his experience as a child soldier. It is there that he meets the woman who will eventually become his foster mother.
It also illustrates Erikson’s theory of Identity versus Role Confusion, when his role changed from that of a carefree child to a sole provider responsible for his own sustenance. Piaget’s principles of accommodation and assimilation could also apply here, as Beah adjusted his standards of right and wrong as the conflict progressed. His determination along with the love and support of his parents, and the help of strangers is wonderful.
The book is sad, compelling and forces the reader to stare directly into the underbelly of white Australian history. It also shows us a culture that has survived despite its subjugation and draws for the reader everyday small acts of rebellion as well as suggesting big acts since colonisation that have largely gone ignored by white culture. I believe that this book will be remembered as one of Australia's great stories. Set in Australia in the 1950s, the plot revolves around a couple, Irene and Titch Bobs, entering the Redex Trial, a car race around the perimeter of Australia, starting and ending in Sydney.
I had to take my time to read because reading about Jim going through the treatments for his depression was hard. I was so disheartened at the attending doctor who was treating him, but I am sure there were and are doctors who show little compassion towards patients and families. I grew to care about Peggy, Jim, Gisela, Joe, Paul, and others except Pop and Donna. My faith is also growing more substantial and I feel like some questions I have about this kind of situation answered.
A Tale of Two Omars: A Memoir of Family, Revolution, and Coming Out - VERY GOOD
And so she was led by this aboriginal to drink with group of blacks sitting on the grassy nature strip in the middle of the main road that passed through town. Those whites won't touch you now that you have been with us. Irene and Titch decide to go on the Redex trial, a type of car rally that circumnavigated Australia and was quite popular at that time. Their neighbour Willie Bachhuber, a handsome schoolteacher who fancies Irene, ends up with them on the Redex trial as their navigator.
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