I'm intrigued by memoires, and some of them have been some of my favourite books. To date my life has been too boring - not enough excitement or conflict to warrant a memoir, but after reading this book, I'm thinking that's a good thing.
Amanda Lindhout had a difficult childhood and escaped as soon as she could to a life of travel. She'd work six months or so making good money as a cocktail waitress then spend months backpacking around foreign countries in South America, Asia, Europe, Africa... it all sounded very exciting. With or without travel mates, she'd make up her schedule as she went, not tied down to dates or commitments, travelling from one place to another based on whims and suggestions of other travellers she met along the way. I gotta admit, I was kind of envious of her existence for the first part of the book.
Then she went to Somalia.
Lindhout describes well her carefree invincible character that brought her there... knowing what the rest of the story is about, I was trying not to yell at her through the pages and time to tell her 'don't go!' but I could understand how she made a different choice. On her second day there she and her friend, Nigel, and their tour guides and security are kidnapped by, really, a bunch of kids. There are a few adults in the mix, but most of the guards are teenagers, hyped up on fanatical religion and violence.
Lindhout's description of her 460 days in captivity is harrowing and difficult to read. The way she writes details without melodrama and with a compassion that makes all of the characters human instead of innocent and monsters is phenomenal. It's not an easy book to take in, but a worthwhile one.
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