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jay_the_hippie 's review for:
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
by Laura Hillenbrand
I had no idea that the POW camps in Japan were so horrible. I mean, I knew Hogan's Heroes wasn't the way these camps really worked, but... man, were the conditions so much more awful than I realized. I find it retroactively scary that my grandfather was in the Navy in the South Pacific at the time of the events in this book.
I did enjoy this story... if "enjoy" can include "feeling compelled to keep reading, to see how it things turn out" rather than "made happy by reading." As a natural optimist, I really identify with the main character and it chills me that it is possible for someone with that personality can be made to feel the way Louie did. His resilience is inspiring, but the effects of so much suffering... I don't want to think too long about that.
At first, I felt that the historical inclusions were distracting from the story, but it didn't take long before I realized how well they were setting the stage so that I would know more of the background of the times. I learned a lot about World War 2 that I didn't know before.
While the story is told really well most of the time, so that I was sucked into feeling like I was starving or it was raining or I was exhausted, there were times when the details went sketchy, too. I felt like everything up to the Green Hornet was better detailed than what came after. That may be because some things can't be imagined, or can't be told in as believable of a way. Also, the focus on Louie doing something different than the background of other indistinguishable men began to grate. There were too many scenes like that, even for a biography. Overall, though, the story was captivating. A book I could not quit reading... well, listening to.
I did enjoy this story... if "enjoy" can include "feeling compelled to keep reading, to see how it things turn out" rather than "made happy by reading." As a natural optimist, I really identify with the main character and it chills me that it is possible for someone with that personality can be made to feel the way Louie did. His resilience is inspiring, but the effects of so much suffering... I don't want to think too long about that.
At first, I felt that the historical inclusions were distracting from the story, but it didn't take long before I realized how well they were setting the stage so that I would know more of the background of the times. I learned a lot about World War 2 that I didn't know before.
While the story is told really well most of the time, so that I was sucked into feeling like I was starving or it was raining or I was exhausted, there were times when the details went sketchy, too. I felt like everything up to the Green Hornet was better detailed than what came after. That may be because some things can't be imagined, or can't be told in as believable of a way. Also, the focus on Louie doing something different than the background of other indistinguishable men began to grate. There were too many scenes like that, even for a biography. Overall, though, the story was captivating. A book I could not quit reading... well, listening to.