Brian Keenan

Book 184.
An Evil Cradling.
Brian Keenan.
Loaned to me by Bob Hulme who wrote this "I'm reading this book for probably the 5th or 6th time since I first read it in the mid 90's. It moves me, upsets me and inspires me as much now as it ever has done.
The author, Irishman Brian Keenan, describes in beautiful detail, the very worst and very best of what we humans are capable of doing to each other.
If you like to read, read this. You won't regret it."

I have done a fair amount of googling to try to get my head around the situation but it's just so bloody complicated. As a non believer I found it really, really hard to understand how Brian and John McCarthy could retain their faith especially as they witnessed for hours on end the fanaticism of the faith of their captors. It's raised more questions than answers for me. I think I will read McCarthys book but not straight away.
This book has now made me want to read more and also there's a film.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=%20filmblind%20flight&qs=n&form=QBRE&s...
Janet Elizabeth Conway if you watch this trailer you'll get an idea of the book I was telling you about.
Alan Butler have you read this? Because you put the post on about Terry Waite it reminded me.
9/10… (more)

A sometimes harrowing but never gratuitous account of the author's experiences as a hostage in Lebanon in the late 1980s. Superb writing, full of compassion and honesty, tinged with some violence and extreme emotion. I had not expected to enjoy this book, nor to find it so very readable, but it was a selection for my local reading group, and turned out to be an excellent choice.

There's some dark humour here and there, and a light touch as the author writes as if observing his reactions at times. I don't know when I last found a non-fiction book as compulsive as this one - I expected to skim, but (other than a few poems) read every word.

Very highly recommended.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2020/06/an-evil-cradling-by-brian-keenan.ht...… (more)

I've read a few prison memoirs, and while you may feel immense sympathy, and while the writing process may have been cathartic, they tend to be pretty samey and dull.
So I wasn't expecting to find this a *5 work, but it totally is. Brian Keenan had been away from Belfast on a teaching post, in Beirut for 4 months when he was kidnapped by islamic 'jihadists' and held prisoner for four and a half years.
This is an entirely engrossing read as Keenan delves into the recesses of his mind to explain how humans cope (or not) with the endless days of solitary confinement, the alternating friendly overtures and casual brutality of their jailers, the uncertainty - release now? later? or slaughter? ...and the mind numbing boredom. Eventually sharing a cell with fellow hostage John McCarthy (and at times with some Americans) he elaborates on the process of friendship amid such dire conditions. Their efforts to find amusement in makeshift games and humour, to confront their aggressors with whatever resistance they could.
Very memorable and well written account.… (more)