Beasts of No Nation

Author Photo by Seth Wening

Title: Beasts of No Nation
Author: Uzodinma Iweala
Pages: 176
Yearly Count: 70
Awards:

• The Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
• Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• First-Place Winner of the 2005 2005 Discover Award, Fiction
• The Best Book of the Year by Time, People and Slate Entertainment Weekly New York Magazine
  

A boy soldier, Agu, a child of a nondescript age (between 9 and 12) and from an unnamed West African Nation, speaks forth of the reality of child soldiers everywhere. Written as a novel, Iweala has taken bits and pieces of child solders worldwide, and formed a conglomerate child soldier in his character Agu. Beasts of No Nation is filled with their inner thoughts, their heartbreaks, and what they are asked to do. Agu's own morals, ethics and survival take a backseat to the desires of his leaders, who all in all are only different degrees of jaded and violent in this war of confusion.

I read this during the read-a-thon, and I was impressed with the writing, the detail and the thoughts it stirred, but it was really hard to read about. I have become even more impressed with this novel after I read it and it settled in and I realized that the author wrote it when he was 23 years old. Inner war of the conscience plays a large part in Beasts of No Nation, of what Agu was taught, and what he is now forced to live. He was brought up going to church, reading the Bible, and now he feels nothing could be further from the beast he has become. This approach of conscience that Iweala used brought me inside Agu, to the thoughts and debates going on inside this child soldier, and really helped me feel a connection to him. Despite his outward actions of war and savage acts forced upon him, inside the war was just as strong, a battle of will, conscience and ultimately survival.

Commandant is shouting, but I am hearing him like he is speaking through one big bag of cotton. He is saying, let us pray, let us pray and then he is asking the Lord to be guiding us in everything we are about to be doing. I am thinking that we should not even be asking God for anything because it is like he is forgetting us. I am trying to forget Him anyway even if my mother would not be happying with me. She is always saying to fear God and to always be going to church on Sunday, but now I am not even knowing what day is Sunday (p. 44).

Author information I found interesting:
Stop Trying to 'Save' Africa article in the Washington Post by Uzodinma Iweala
Uzodinma Iweala Article in The Morning News
Galley Girl Catches up With Uzodinma Iweala Article in Time
I Don't Ever Want to Sit Back, Michelle Pauli, of Guardian interviews Uzodinma Iweala

Update #3: book two complete :)

Personal update: hahah!! you all are so sweet. If you only knew that even the caffeine from dark chocolate will make my hands shake (it isn't like a tremor or anything, just if I try to hold them steady they will slightly shake). Thanks for taking care of me though!!! You are all so great!! Veens...no worries girl, I am not sick or anything. I am sorry to have worried you :)

Many of you are wondering why I am at a coffee shop, that it would be impossible for you to concentrate at one. If you had two boys, ages 2.5 and 4.5 you would be able to concentrate anywhere better than at home :) Haha....I have become way better at concentrating since I had them.

Thanks so much to all you who are diehardedly (another invented word!!) cheering me on! You are hard core and awesome thanks so much to you all for keeping me in the game!

As far as books go: I have finished my second!!!! Yah! Beasts of No Nation is Complete. I am so glad to be done with it. I will try to pick something silly now to balance it out.
I am going to try Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. Have you read it?? :)

I have now earned $ 62 for clean water worldwide!!!
Plus trish is adding in $5 for every book she finishes!! That brings the clean water total to: $67.00 so far! (make sure you go cheer her on!!)

Where will the dinero ($) go? It will go to an organization I have become quite passionate about. I will be giving it to Living Water International an amazing organization funding the building of wells all over the world in developing nations.
(there is still time to sponsor me!!!)