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A review by cocoonofbooks
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
5.0
Laura Hillenbrand is masterful. As powerful as Zamperini's story is on its own, it was clear to me throughout the Hillenbrand handled his story just right, providing larger context with statistics as needed, giving us glimpses of life at home while he was gone, and sharing enough direct quotes from interviews to add flavor without bogging the reader down in a need to prove her stories were well researched. For the most part, she just told the stories and let them speak for themselves.
What makes this book so compelling is not just the sheer horror of Zamperini's trials — spending more than a month adrift in an inflatable life raft and then experiencing utter brutality as an unlisted Japanese POW — but the way that we are able to feel the alternating hope and despair along with him and his companions. Time and again it seems like things are finally getting better, only to get worse again. We occasionally get small hints of what's to come, but not enough to ever really know what to expect.
The book is pretty graphic about some of the horrors — violence and illness — but it's not gratuitous. It's detailed enough that there can be no illusions about how horrific it was, but Hillenbrand doesn't dwell on it unnecessarily. There are still some particular mental images that I know will be hard to shake for a while, but I don't regret the read. I do wonder if it would have been better to read this in print so I could put it down or skim descriptions as needed, though I think the audio format kept me plowing through the story toward the next glint of hope.
I expected Zamperini to be glorified more and held up as an inspiration, but Hillenbrand humanizes him quite well. He is no Betsie ten Boom; what is stunning about his story is how it illustrates more generally the ability of human beings to be horrendously cruel and their ability to survive unimaginable suffering. In most cases he himself is just a representative of the experiences of a group of people. And that's OK. I think seeing the lasting physical and psychological effects of the war is more important for the world than believing that someone's unusually strong will could somehow keep them safe and stable.
If you're willing to have your emotions rattled in every direction for the sake of a good story, pick up this book.
What makes this book so compelling is not just the sheer horror of Zamperini's trials — spending more than a month adrift in an inflatable life raft and then experiencing utter brutality as an unlisted Japanese POW — but the way that we are able to feel the alternating hope and despair along with him and his companions. Time and again it seems like things are finally getting better, only to get worse again. We occasionally get small hints of what's to come, but not enough to ever really know what to expect.
The book is pretty graphic about some of the horrors — violence and illness — but it's not gratuitous. It's detailed enough that there can be no illusions about how horrific it was, but Hillenbrand doesn't dwell on it unnecessarily. There are still some particular mental images that I know will be hard to shake for a while, but I don't regret the read. I do wonder if it would have been better to read this in print so I could put it down or skim descriptions as needed, though I think the audio format kept me plowing through the story toward the next glint of hope.
I expected Zamperini to be glorified more and held up as an inspiration, but Hillenbrand humanizes him quite well. He is no Betsie ten Boom; what is stunning about his story is how it illustrates more generally the ability of human beings to be horrendously cruel and their ability to survive unimaginable suffering. In most cases he himself is just a representative of the experiences of a group of people. And that's OK. I think seeing the lasting physical and psychological effects of the war is more important for the world than believing that someone's unusually strong will could somehow keep them safe and stable.
If you're willing to have your emotions rattled in every direction for the sake of a good story, pick up this book.