Unbroken

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have never been a huge fan of war stories. To me it always seems a large collection of dates and events that are un-relatable to anything that I have experienced. Probably the same reason I don’t read a lot of science fiction or fantasy novels. Unbroken is different. A few months ago a local builder mentioned in his office that he had picked it up and was fanatical about the book. He couldn’t put the book down. He said that it was so good that he was losing sleep trying to finish it each night. So I picked it up and figured I would give it a try. Likewise, I felt the story of Louis Zamperini to be a non-stop rollercoaster of emotions.
As an Olympic runner Zamperini learned never to quit and he took this mantra to its extremes in his journey in the South Pacific. Zamperini and Phillips survive over 47 days at sea after their plane crash with no food, water, or shelter. To me the best part of the book was their experiences at sea. Hillenbrand managed to describe all these boring days at sea with pristine accuracy and a hunger for what comes next. I had a strong sense of being on the raft with them in the middle of the ocean. Just a year ago on a sailing journey to Bermuda I was left without wind for about 30 hours straight and had to bob up and down in the middle of the ocean. It is scary and would make anyone sick and stir crazy. On a 40 foot boat I felt that I could barely handle the anxiety that we might be stuck out there. My circumstances are not very relatable but Hillenbrand makes you feel like you are part of the story. I took a bite of an apple while reading one morning and the apple tasted different, better. I absolutely loved when Zamperini began to describe his mother’s cooking to Phillips and they could taste the food and it satisfied their hunger. I was amazed that their number one tool for survival was optimism. This gives me a whole new perspective on our daily walks in life. It has been mentioned before that stress and depression will kill you and Zamperini is proof that hope and optimism will keep you alive. Zamperini has out lived all his family members following this advice.
The courage that the POW’s displayed once captured was unbelievable. How any of the prisoners survived the brutal beatings, torture and dehumanization is beyond me. Hillenbrand does not hold anything back when describing the horrible conditions that the POWs had to live in while in the prison camps. I could picture these men racing across the camp with rice in their pants risking their lives to survive. The guards would beat them until they bled and work them until they could no longer stand up.
When Louis finally returns to California he is delusional and slips into an alcoholic haze. After marrying and having his first child Louis remains unchanged haunted by his experiences in POW camp. It takes an act of GOD to interfere and bring him back to reality. Louis is given another chance accepting Christ and forgiving all those that were haunting his dreams.
Zamperini is now 95 years old and has given me a whole new perspective on a true American hero. We typically look at celebrities as our modern day heroes. Alex Rodriguez who is worthy of a $275millon baseball contract or Tiger Woods who earns nearly $90millon a year for playing golf and endorsing products. These celebrities represent modern day America as selfish and greedy. Zamperini’s story deserves the same notoriety and Hillenbrand does her best to describe the courageous celebrity without the selfishness and greed.


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