5th out of 16 books
—
9 voters
Beasts of No Nation
In this stunning debut novel, Agu, a young boy in an unnamed West African nation, is recruited into a unit of guerrilla fighters as civil war engulfs his country. Haunted by his father's own death at the hands of militants, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander. While the war rages on, Agu becomes increasingly divorced from the life he...more
Paperback, 142 pages
Published
August 15th 2006
by Harper Perennial
(first published November 8th 2005)
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Read it. Be appalled. - written in the unrelenting tense of now - the horror never ends.
The author's use of present tense works like an incantation, grasping you by the throat tightly, it makes you breathless in a hyperventilating kind of way, you cannot stop - only turn the page, trying to read faster if only to get to the end of it. There's no real repose from the untenable pace, the brutal array of death merely merges into other grotesqueries you'd rather not think about too much.
You can't he...more
The author's use of present tense works like an incantation, grasping you by the throat tightly, it makes you breathless in a hyperventilating kind of way, you cannot stop - only turn the page, trying to read faster if only to get to the end of it. There's no real repose from the untenable pace, the brutal array of death merely merges into other grotesqueries you'd rather not think about too much.
You can't he...more
I found this book VERY compelling--I lingered in a subway station at 1am on a Saturday night after having gotten off my train just to finish the last 3 pages. It's powerful, certainly, but I have my gripes:
1.) What is with the bullshit deus ex machina ending? I admit I did wish that this book would end happily, but as the last page fast approached, I realized that this probably wasn't going to happen. And I kind of respected Iweala for that--one can't expect a neat happy ending to a story about...more
1.) What is with the bullshit deus ex machina ending? I admit I did wish that this book would end happily, but as the last page fast approached, I realized that this probably wasn't going to happen. And I kind of respected Iweala for that--one can't expect a neat happy ending to a story about...more
I read this book like it was medicine I had to take. I wanted to know more about this topic--child soldiers in Africa--but I found reading it so painful that I had to push myself to keep going. Maybe this was the intention of the author. I learned a lot, but I don't think this is a very well-written novel. What was Iweala trying to do by using only continuous tense? To show the grammar of the character's native language? To give the story a feeling of constant motion? To make the reader feel tha...more
Shocking. Horrifying. Eye opening. Sad. Disturbing. Amazingly well written.
This book gets a 4 out of 5 stars because the stars are based on "liked it" value. If we focus on creativity or well written value, then I would probably give it a full five stars. Beasts of No Nation was very hard for me to like, in the sense of beig a book I would read over and over. I read it once and that was enough.
This book is an excellent eye opener to the ongoing warring in Africa. It follows the shocking experien...more
This book gets a 4 out of 5 stars because the stars are based on "liked it" value. If we focus on creativity or well written value, then I would probably give it a full five stars. Beasts of No Nation was very hard for me to like, in the sense of beig a book I would read over and over. I read it once and that was enough.
This book is an excellent eye opener to the ongoing warring in Africa. It follows the shocking experien...more
Between the name and the cover of this book (my particular copy had a group of boys standing on a hill) I was intrigued by this book. A quick glance at the inside cover and I was even more intrigued. So I picked it up, and it was very interesting, and tragic, all at the same time.
Beasts of No Nation follows Agu. Agu is a smart little boy, who, went war started in his nation, was picked up by some rebel fighters and forced into being a soldier. Along with this came forced killing, rape, and other...more
Beasts of No Nation follows Agu. Agu is a smart little boy, who, went war started in his nation, was picked up by some rebel fighters and forced into being a soldier. Along with this came forced killing, rape, and other...more
Those who have English as their only language find difficulty understanding it. That is maybe why in some reviews of this book they wail: what's this idea of having the narration here in a constant present tense? I don't think that was the author's idea, however. I've observed something like that first-hand. In my province, when even grade school or high school teachers are not at ease with English, you'd hear people trying to speak the language and end up doing what we call there the "Barok Eng...more
Men writing in the voice of a child are at a disadvantage because childhood is traditionally thought of as a woman's preserve. Iweala writes about a boy who is only nominally a child, though; one of the thousands of boys who are compelled to serve in the civil wars and rebellions of Africa's troubled states.
He does this with force, beauty, and horror.
This moment is the narrator's first moment of joy:
"Nobody is seeing me as I am getting up and walking through the tree right to the road. I am fee...more
He does this with force, beauty, and horror.
This moment is the narrator's first moment of joy:
"Nobody is seeing me as I am getting up and walking through the tree right to the road. I am fee...more
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4.5
Makes you realize how normal Africans can be corralled and coerced into being mercenaries and creators of genocide.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Iweala's visceral debut is unrelenting in its brutality and unremitting in its intensity. Agu, the precocious, gentle son of a village schoolteacher father and a Bible-reading mother, is dragooned into an unnamed West African nation's mad civil war—a slip of a boy forced, almost overnight, to shoulder a soldier's bloody burden. The preteen pr...more
Makes you realize how normal Africans can be corralled and coerced into being mercenaries and creators of genocide.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Iweala's visceral debut is unrelenting in its brutality and unremitting in its intensity. Agu, the precocious, gentle son of a village schoolteacher father and a Bible-reading mother, is dragooned into an unnamed West African nation's mad civil war—a slip of a boy forced, almost overnight, to shoulder a soldier's bloody burden. The preteen pr...more
This is a book that punches. It is not a book for the faint hearted. It is savagely horrific, harrowingly heartbreaking, violently visceral and chillingly claustrophobic.
With these terms, you might wonder why I rate it five stars. The answer is because it is a tale that needs to be told.
My life is comfortable, yet, I complain about the stress of my fast paced job, the dust that gathers on the floors because I have little time to clean, the meals I eat out because I am too tired to cook, and the...more
With these terms, you might wonder why I rate it five stars. The answer is because it is a tale that needs to be told.
My life is comfortable, yet, I complain about the stress of my fast paced job, the dust that gathers on the floors because I have little time to clean, the meals I eat out because I am too tired to cook, and the...more
Beasts of No Nation is not a book for the faint of heart. Agu, the protagonist, is a child soldier during a civil war in a place that is believed to be Africa, although the specific location is not ever named. although the novel is fictional, Mr. Iweala does a very good job of bringing the characters and their actions to life.
throughout the novel Mr. Iweala illustrates the somewhat exaggerated life of a child soldier. At first the reader is shocked and disgusted by what Agu has to go through....more
throughout the novel Mr. Iweala illustrates the somewhat exaggerated life of a child soldier. At first the reader is shocked and disgusted by what Agu has to go through....more
I don't want to slam this book, because the author seems like a nice guy. But that's the problem.
If you are writing about child soldiers in Africa, you cannot hold steadfast to the idea that people are inherently good and brutality is the product of innocence and circumstances.
Where authors like Golding and Selby explore the nature and limits of human violence, cruelty and brutality (three very different things), Iweala chooses to just tell us that war is bad.
If you are writing about child soldiers in Africa, you cannot hold steadfast to the idea that people are inherently good and brutality is the product of innocence and circumstances.
Where authors like Golding and Selby explore the nature and limits of human violence, cruelty and brutality (three very different things), Iweala chooses to just tell us that war is bad.
Beasts of no Nation is about a young boy named Agu who grew up in an unnamed nation. As a child, he went to school and loved it too. He had caring parents that loved him very much. But a war erupted and changed Agu's whole life completely. Agu was seperated from his family and is forced to join the army. He experiences many death and rape but he is oblivious of what is going on. He doesnt know what is right from wrong and the only thing on his mind is surviving.
This book is really graphic and...more
This book is really graphic and...more
It's hard to say that I enjoyed this book, since it offers a really graphic, really harsh look at the life of a African child soldier.
I respect the writing; Mr. Iweala's writing is something completely new and unlike any other author I've ever read. Agu is a new and interesting character and I, as the reader, felt connected to him and I cared about him even as he was committing terrible atrocities. Also, the writing and tone of the book made it possible for the reader to see these atrocities, t...more
I respect the writing; Mr. Iweala's writing is something completely new and unlike any other author I've ever read. Agu is a new and interesting character and I, as the reader, felt connected to him and I cared about him even as he was committing terrible atrocities. Also, the writing and tone of the book made it possible for the reader to see these atrocities, t...more
I had a high level of anticipation about this one....and I was very seriously disappointed. I didn't think the plot stood up very well to his mode of storytelling. So, in reading it, it became more about HOW he was telling the story than the story he was telling. Still, this may be because I read "A Long Way Gone" first...and it was infinitely more powerful bieing nonfiction. Hm.
A good book, though not a great one. There are some harrowing set pieces for sure and they are well handled, and the overall aimlessness and confusion of the war they find themselves in (you never can really tell who's on which side, which I think is appropriate) is well captured. As for the lead character, I liked the overall voice, but I found myself at times focusing on the writing more than the story and going "well, would a child soldier of this age / education / background really think or...more
See Africa through the words of a gifted young writer named Uzodinma Iweala, whose debut novel, Beasts of No Nation, exposes the genocide plaguing that continent in a car-crash voice that won't let you turn away.
Recommended by Dave, Powells.com
Told from the perspective of Agu, a child soldier in an unnamed West African war zone, Iweala somehow manages to create a strikingly intriguing coming-of-age tale that simultaneously explores some of the darkest moral abysses imaginable. Agu's halting Engl...more
Recommended by Dave, Powells.com
Told from the perspective of Agu, a child soldier in an unnamed West African war zone, Iweala somehow manages to create a strikingly intriguing coming-of-age tale that simultaneously explores some of the darkest moral abysses imaginable. Agu's halting Engl...more
This book was very good in showing a few themes. One theme that was really potrayed well was how a life is for a child solider. It showed what the daily strugles of a child soldier must go through. It is one thing for a well trained adult soldier to be fighting, but for a poorly trained and equipped child it is nearly impossible to not go either insane or die. The book was basically about a rebel group in Africa fighting another military group, The rebels were poorly equipped and there were many...more
Beasts of No Nation
Uzodinma Iweala
142pp.
ISBN: 0-06-079868-8
Survival pushes you to make decisions that are not really the best decisions, when your country has given up on you or given up on their self. In Beasts of No Nation a civil war engulf a West African nation. Agu is a young boy who loves school, friends, family and Church, and he is trapped in the middle of the civil war. He lost his father during the war and his mother and sister left earlier with the UN. Agu is all alone and he saw peo...more
Uzodinma Iweala
142pp.
ISBN: 0-06-079868-8
Survival pushes you to make decisions that are not really the best decisions, when your country has given up on you or given up on their self. In Beasts of No Nation a civil war engulf a West African nation. Agu is a young boy who loves school, friends, family and Church, and he is trapped in the middle of the civil war. He lost his father during the war and his mother and sister left earlier with the UN. Agu is all alone and he saw peo...more
Please remember that my rating system is NOT based on merit. It is solely based on how much I enjoy the books, whether I'd like to read them again or own them.
This book was hard to read. It's told in the voice of a young boy--you're never quite sure exactly how young--who speaks pigeon English. He's one of the soldier boys in Africa, and for much of the book, he's drugged, raped, forced to kill, and generally miserable.
The entire story isn't miserable, but I certainly didn't close the book fee...more
This book was hard to read. It's told in the voice of a young boy--you're never quite sure exactly how young--who speaks pigeon English. He's one of the soldier boys in Africa, and for much of the book, he's drugged, raped, forced to kill, and generally miserable.
The entire story isn't miserable, but I certainly didn't close the book fee...more
This book is written from the perspective of a young child, Agu who is forced to join the army at only the age of 7. This happened during the Civil War of Africa, Agu and his family was separated, so when an army finds him in a house, he is forced to become a part of them. There, he is forced to kill, for the first time, to kill ones that he has never met or known. This book takes you from the present, where Agu is a soldier, traveling to where ever the Commander wants to go, then occasionally,...more
Agu, the protagonist of the story and child soldier, is set in a world of war, fighting, and savagery to kill. As a child soldier, Agu must endure the pain from the orders of Commandant, no matter if it is the right or wrong thing to do. Agu is brainwashed to have a love for killing-a show of what it takes to be a man in this society. This book, set in an unknown West African nation, brings up many themes and topics about the life of child soldiers in Africa and the view of Africa in more detail...more
The voice in this book was very unique - it's almost worth reading the book for that alone. And I appreciate the risk Iweala took to write a book from the perspective of a child warrior. However, my issue w/ this book stems from the author's relationship to the subject and his place in the Western world. I hope that no one believes he's the subaltern - he did research to write the book but lived none of it himself. Maybe this is unfair, but the way in which the book was plugged and how it was pu...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
It's hard not to feel like a jerk when you dislike a book about child soldiers, rape and the atrocities of war. But I didn't like this book. And I'm kinda a jerk. Iweala's use of dialect/broken English is forced and illogical, and it consistently pulled me out and away, leaving me focusing on words rather than the story as a whole and reducing my ability to see the main character as a suffering human rather than a fictional construction. The climax seemed separate from the rest of the book in te...more
The book Beasts of no Nation is about a young boy named Agu who grew up in an unnamed nation. As a child, he went to school and loved it too. He had caring parents that loved him very much. But a war erupted and changed Agu's whole life entirely. Agu was seperated from his family at a very young age and was forced to join the guerilla fighting unit, otherwise known as the army. He experiences many tradegies such as death and rape but he is oblivious of what is going on. He has no idea what is go...more
Endings (happy, sad, realistic) are one of the biggest challenges a writer faces with a novel, particularly when that novel is dealing with child soldiers in a civil war in Africa. So it's difficult to fault Iweala with his decision (would any ending please every reader?) even as it is easy to find complaint with his method. It is very unfortunate to have a story, albeit a short one without a strong plot line, end so very abruptly that the reader is pulled completely out of the fiction (and let'...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This was a compelling, but uneven, tale about child soldiers in Africa. Agu is violently separated from his family when war comes to his village and forced into a band of guerrillas, where he witnesses almost every form of violence humans inflict on each other and is a victim of others. Agu's voice, with a child-like use of present tense and limited vocabulary, underscores the boy's innocence and isolation in time, but it's inconsistent and even irritating at times. The story of his pointless tr...more
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