What a way to ring in the new year. So I was completely out of things to read, and owe the library enough in fees that they've temporarily suspended my borrowing privileges. So, my husband's Mom sends him Unbroken for Christmas and with nothing else to read I pick it up. Don't get me wrong, I loved Seabiscuit but I tend to avoid anything war related; however, my husband convinced me it was a book about an escape during the war, not a real war story. Boy was he wrong.
It is testament to Hillenbrand's writing that I finished the book. The first 75 pages, before you get anywhere near the war, are so compelling and the characters so masterfully brought to life that there is no way you can stop reading this book until you come to the end. You have to know what happens to Louie and the rest of the group no matter how painful, and it is very, very painful.
The story follows Louie Zamperini, delinquent turned Olympic hopeful in the opening pages of the novel. He is staggering in his success and has all the makings of a star. However, Pearl Harbor happens and the Olympics are put on hold and Louie is put in plane.
To tell the order of events for the rest of the novel would serve more as spoiler than anything else. I will warn (spoiler coming) that Louie spends no fewer than 200 pages of this book in POW camps and worse. Hillenbrand describes the events in those places with such detail that I cried through huge sections of the book and several times had to abandon it for an hour or two. She follows a pattern where just after describing the most mind numbing, painful experiences she follows with equally detailed stories of how the men maintained moral, where they found hope, how they kept breathing. For this reader it wasn't enough, but I would guess for many it will be.
This book is definitely testament to the power of the human spirit. The things those POWs overcame, the very fact that they came home and led "normal" lives after the war is nothing short of awe inspiring. When I started reading this book, I thought everyone should read this. It brings to light so many things that so many of us don't dare to think about, but having finished it I don't know if I would read it again.
So, I'm shopping several months ago and stranger girl holds up shirt to show her boyfriend/husband whatever:
her: what do you think?
him: I think it looks like you read for fun.
He meant it as a bad thing. Fucker
1 comment:
I love reading war-related books but they always bring a lump in my throat and I tend to feel choked up for days after I finish one. Good review but this one I might have to pass on.
Btw, I thought hillenbrand's name looked familiar and she was recently on the nyt well blog talking her chronic fatigue syndrome. I'm so impressed that she's able to so eloquently pen a book about physical suffering.
Post a Comment