An Evil Cradling

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I struggled reading this book because it was very interesting at times but then it became very dull. I now know far more about the conditions of hostages than I could ever have imagined, and am sure I won’t forget. Keenan provides his own processed self-examination and reflection, keeping blunt details wrapped in an "extreme care and sensitivy," which ultimately keeps everything described at a remove.

He has a great ability to explain abstract philosophical or political ideas through personal anecdotes.Unlike some of his more cautious colleagues he didn’t live on the university campus but in a villa nearby. What Brian Keenan and his fellow hostages went through is terrifying and Mr Keenan's story telling is superb.

Absolutely, hauntingly beautiful, filled with lessons in moral strength and integrity that all of us should learn, but few of us ever get the chance to discover about themselves. It is difficult to separate the ratings for the book as a book from the ratings of the story: of the immense suffering of a man held captive for four and a half years in appalling and brutal conditions. These were not two-dimensional villains, but humans with desperate, misguided hopes and sinister, obsessive fears.

My copy has been signed by Brian Keenan, at a literacy evening, that I only went along to as I wanted to meet the man who put his experience into such an amazing book that made me hug it when I'd finished reading it!