Unbroken, A, World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillendbrand; $27.00; 2010; 473 pages; Random House, New York, NY; 978-1-4000-6416-8; Purchased at Multnomah County Library Title Wave Used  Bookstore; 1/10-1/15

Why did I pick this up? Our book group is reading this for our meeting. on January 21, 2012 and it fits one of my areas of interest, WWII biography.

What is the story? Louis Zamperini is an incorrigible youth in Torrance, California in the 1920′s.  He stole and ran and hid.  Running would be the first redemptive thing in his life, with the coaching and encouragement of his older brother, Pete, he became a running sensation nicknamed “The Torrance Tornado”.  He qualified for the 5,000 meters in the 1936 Olympics and traveled to Berlin to compete.  He drew the attention of teammate Jesse Owens and also the Fuhrer, who recalled him as “the boy with the fast finish.”  After competing and getting the chance to go to the 1940 Olympics, which were canceled due to the war in Europe.  He joined the Army Air Corps and became a bombardier on a B-24 flying in the Pacific.  After several missions the plane he flew in was down for maintenance because of damage sustained in battle with Japanese forces.  He and his crew were asked to fly a rescue mission to search for another downed crew.  He and his mates were forced to ditch in the Pacific, 3 members of the crew survived and drifted for 46 days before being captured by the Japanese.  The Japanese sent the 2 surviving members to several different POW camps where they were severely abused in several different ways.  Louie was especially targeted by several of the guards for extra abuse who singled him out for horrific abuse.  When the war was over, Louie was returned home and became the toast of the country.  But because of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he more or less crawled into a bottle and began to lose those around him.  His wife was going to divorce him until she went to a Billy Graham crusade and had a change in her life.  Louie went to three different crusade events before that change happened in his life.  Since then Louie has spoken all over the world, even speaking to many of the guards who had abused him during his time in prison camp and forgiving them.  Louie is still alive, as of today, 1/15/12 and still going at age 95.

Did I like it? Yes.  I had read Louis Zamperini’s autobiography “Devil at My Heels” back in 1998.  This fleshed that out and gave it more historical context.  I think Laura Hillenbrand could make a laundry list very readable.

Grade-A

What is with the title of the review? At one point during the time the crew was drifting they bring up Eddie Rickenbacker’s time spent in a life raft and a subsequent book about the time.  The book was titled “We thought we heard the Angels Sing.”