An Evil Cradling

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A true philosopher with the capacity to honestly and unflinchingly look fallen man, the human shadow, in the face, within and without, in all it's ignorance, fear and brutality and over come it with faith, truth, dignity, humour and reason and in doing so, again akin to Primo Levi, he discovers himself; he is humanised, ennobled and empowered through the process. Brian's account of his incarceration at the hands of extremist groups in Beirut during the 1980s is a harrowing read in its "matter of factness " - his observations and inner thoughts give the reader an insight into how desperate it must feel to have no control over any part of your existence and for for how long the situation would last.

Instead I found myself compulsively reading every moment I could, determined to finish this incredible book before the meeting, and not wanting to miss a word.Together they withstood the horrors that the Beirut militias unleashed on them, until their eventual release. I think a reader could choose to go with him or not; either way, they will get something out of it, they will learn, they will know what it's like. It is a rare occasion that you get to read a book that manages to surprise you from beginning to end. I would recommend this book to anyone - the writing and language used is superb (notwithstanding some ‘strong’ language used, mostly under extreme circumstances) and despite the traumatic nature of the experience, the story is oddly encouraging. Two key takeaways: the importance Keenan places on humour as a humanising quality, and the prison in which both the prisoners and guards were kept (physical versus religious).

Most of the narrative was about a certain period of his imprisonment and I felt the final months were just glossed over and it ended quite abruptly. Considering that he spent several years in a series of rooms, he does well to make the experience interesting and compelling. I enjoyed this book even though there were some gruesome descriptions and maybe TMI about some of the other prisoners. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.Keenan's experience of kidnap by Shia Moslem fanatics in the 1990's was as horrific as it was utterly senseless. I didn’t expect anything out of it, but I still discovered I had a number of expectations, because I discovered them whilst I was reading something that seemed to contradict what I subconsciously thought.