One big takeaway was just how cheap human life is in war. It was pretty eye opening to read the stats about how they pretty much massacred hundreds of thousands of POW's. And of couse, as the story details, they also did not follow Geneva Conventions and pretty much treated POW's as slaves. One of my favorite points the author made is best illustrated by this quote about Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen.
This is a fundamental truth of humanity that the author really drew out well - if you take a persons dignity away you take everything away. I loved all the stories of POW's being defiant; stealing food, supplies, playing jokes, etc. The little bits of defiance were enough to let them take back their dignity, and I think thats what makes them so compelling; because while we haven't all been POW's, we can relate to that basic need. Jan 02, Diane rated it it was amazing Shelves: nonfiction , audiobooks , history , war , survival , holocaust.
Unbroken is an amazing survival story, but this book is also so grim that it took me five years to finish it. I had loved Hillenbrand's previous work, Seabiscuit , and had bought a copy of Unbroken back in as soon as it was released. I started reading it, and admired the writing, but the more I learned about what Louis Zamperini suffered during World War II, the less I wanted to read the book.
I mean, here was an Olympic athlete who served as a bombardier during the war. His plane crashed whi Unbroken is an amazing survival story, but this book is also so grim that it took me five years to finish it.
His plane crashed while on a rescue mission, and he was stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 47 days. Only two of his crew mates survived the crash, and they had to battle hunger and dehydration, and fight off sharks while in that tiny raft. And then he was picked up by the Japanese and became a prisoner of war.
For two years, he was tortured and starved and abused and enslaved. This story is beyond depressing, you guys. And so, the book gathered dust on my shelf, my original bookmark still in the pages.
I decided to finally pick it up again after seeing the movie which is also grim. Since I'm years late to this discussion, all I can say is that the writing and reporting are excellent, and this truly is an incredible story of resilience, survival and forgiveness.
I especially liked that Hillenbrand didn't end the story when Zamperini was released from the POW camp; instead, she continued to follow what happened to the men, and even to the Japanese prison guards, some of whom were prosecuted as war criminals. Zamperini ended up living a long and full life, and his story is inspiring. Highly recommended for fans of history and survival stories.
Hillenbrand is a remarkable writer, and whenever her next book comes out, I'll immediately order that, too. I just hope it's a more joyful subject. Favorite Quotes "From earliest childhood, Louie had regarded every limitation placed on him as a challenge to his wits, his resourcefulness, and his determination to rebel.
The result had been a mutinous youth. As maddening as his exploits had been for his parents and his town, Louie's success in carrying them off had given him the conviction that he could think his way around any boundary. Now, as he was cast into extremity, despair and death became the focus of his defiance. The same attributes that made him the boy terror of Torrence were keeping him alive in the greatest struggle of his life.
This is likely one of the reasons why Japanese soldiers in World War II debased their prisoners with such zeal, seeking to take from them that which was most painful and destructive to lose.
On Kwajalein, Louie and Phil learned a dark truth known to the doomed in Hitler's death campus, the slaves of the American South, and a hundred other generations of betrayed people. Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty. In places like Kwajalein, degradation could be as lethal as a bullet.
View all 11 comments. It took me a year rather, 11 months exactly to listen to this audio I started the first half while I was painting last year and never got the opportunity to finish it. Months later, when I had it on my phone, I continued listening to it but got bored.
B-9 and B planes sadly did not interest. Nor the details on his military service. I honestly know nothing about planes, never been in one even, so the technical part bored me. A lot. Last week I finally made enough progress and reached the It took me a year rather, 11 months exactly to listen to this audio Last week I finally made enough progress and reached the ocean part, the story improved considerably. I listened to the audio at every chance I had and finished it rather quickly.
I honestly didn't know who Louis was before starting this book. Back in spring, my dad was watching a movie on tv.. I was watching snippets with him and then wow it's so similar to the book.. WAIT what. Yeah, that's how I discovered it's the same Unbroken directed by Angelina Jolie. And Louis is going to get captured by the Japs. You see, I had the audiobook on my laptop and only knew it's a non-fic biography.
It was only last week, when I became invested in the story again, that I googled some things about the book other than the general google page and yes I did read some spoilers but are is there a spoiler in a biography? Well if I didn't know the story.. I think yes. I couldn't help it, I wanted to know if Allen will survive too. Aside from the military part, I loved the story and how it was told. It's really beautiful and heartbreaking. This isn't a review, this is just me telling you that this is a well-written story, it makes a good audiobook, the narrator did a good job, the story is popular for a reason, and the book deserves recognition.
If you like reading about WWII stories read it. The only difference is that the author did not have to make up the tragedies and hardships that Louis went through as an athlete, the life on the raft, the horrors of the war, the life after the war View 2 comments.
Nov 15, David Baldacci rated it it was amazing. A true tale of human resilience so unbelievable that you would think it was a novel. But Louis Zamperini did it and Hillenbrand chronicles that harrowing journey in a way only she can. All the cheesy, tired words people use to review books seem to apply to this book: remarkable, intense, striking, exceptional.
I hate to use them, but all of them are relevant in regard to this work. I even could use that silly phrase, "I couldn't put it down.
I looked forward to picking it up again and continuing on with the story of prisoner of war Louis Zamperini. Hillenbrand is also the author of All the cheesy, tired words people use to review books seem to apply to this book: remarkable, intense, striking, exceptional. I had no doubts she could write well, as Seabiscuit is one of my favorite reads, ever.
Yet, a feel-good story about a horse is a different animal than a story of the brutal realities of a prisoner of war. Could she write about the horrors of war without doing a disservice to the harsh truths of battle? The answer is yes. She clearly spent a great deal of time researching his life, the lives of the people he fought with and against , the battles he fought, the equipment they used. The book is intelligent and she writes with such depth.
While some books on war are understandably painful to read, her talent as a writer makes this book a bit more palatable. I do not mean to imply that she demeans or degrades what he endures, she does not, but she seems to know exactly when the reader needs to back away from the horror.
With great mastery she will take the reader from the horrors of POW camp to the heartache of the families at home. While I was skeptical, I had to give the book a shot.
For starters, I love the period of time she writes about. The clincher for me is that Louie was an Olympian, a runner. While my running days are long gone and certainly never reached the heights Louie did there's a bond of sorts there. We meet Louis as a kid growing up in Torrance, California.
He's a bit mischievous and well onto his way of becoming a teenaged hoodlum and then a good for nothing adult. He has an epiphany of sorts and gets on the straight and narrow. Guided by his brother, he begins running for his high school track team. While it's not easy at first, after some training, Louis discovers he has some speed.
He continues his running career at USC, well on his way to that impossible, elsusive four minute mile and qualifies to run in the Olympics in Berlin. I found myself swept away, absolutely enthralled by the thrill of his races, his trip across the Atlantic, his meeting with Hitler. Shortly after his return, the war reaches a fever pitch and Louie signs up to serve. He ends up in the United States Air Force as a bombardier.
So many incredible stories of close calls of near crashes or of running out of fuel over the shark infested Pacific. Eventually, Louie's luck runs out and during a rescue mission in an ill-equipped plane, they crash into the ocean. He survives with a few other men on rafts for 47 days. They fight hunger, thirst, aggressive sharks; they dodge bullets from Japanese pilots. Rescue comes in the form of the Japanese Navy. So begins a long stay in and out of POW camps. He somehow survives unspeakable tortures and after years in captivity, he is free.
While the war may have ended for the word, it continues to rage in Louie's psyche. Freed from his cell, his mind becomes his new tormentor, disturbing his thoughts and sleep with hellish flashbacks and dreams. He meets a woman, falls in love and gets married, yet the war haunts him and a cloud of misery hangs over his marriage. He resolves to return to Japan, find "The Bird," the tyrant who tortured him, and kill him. At this stage in the story, he's ugly and unlikable though the reader understands why.
Drinking too much, he becomes abusive. His wife talks him into going to see Billy Graham speak. He walks out one night. Another night he goes and is converted to Christian life. Normally, the cynic in me would moan and groan, or maybe put the book aside for fear of it getting preachy Louie finds peace and forgiveness.
He no longer is haunted by bad dreams or the desire to find and kill his Japanese tormentor. Religion frees him from hate and he becomes a model husband, father and citizen. You won't regret it. Jan 05, Sarah rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. I would love to just breeze through it but there is so much information.
I'm only on page 28 but I'm listening to an audio book at the same time. I'm almost don't with that. Anyway, this book is a must read. Very well written! I want to absorb everything. My Father, Uncle and Father in law went through this. I'm sad because of the conditions they had to deal with but also proud beyond words. This is a must read book" I finished "I'm loving this book. This is a must read book" I finished reading this book last night. It was one of the most memorable books I have read in some time.
I didn't care much for History in school, but I was drawn to this one. It amazes me what our soldiers went through and how much we have to be proud of.
I would give this more stars if I could. I highly recommend this book. Sep 26, Amy S rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. Probably the best book I have read this year. It seemed awfully big and I worried it would be too slow and too depressing.
How glad I am that it was chosen! I am going to buy a permanent copy to keep and maybe one for my Dad for Christmas. The book follows the life of Louis Zamperini, a troubled youth turned Olympic runner. He is preparing for the next Olympic games when Pea Powerful. He is preparing for the next Olympic games when Pearl Harbor arrives and the country is thrown into war. Louie becomes a reluctant bombardier on a B Liberator.
It follows his time as an active soldier, his unfortunate crash, dealing with sharks for weeks on end and no food or water, a horrifying internment in a Japanese POW camp, and his journey home seeking healing and redemption. I am leaving out spoiler after spoiler, giving as little information as possible so as not to ruin anything. But what a life! And what a writer Laura Hillenbrand is. Here is a woman who struggles with severe chronic fatigue and yet was able to slowly produce this incredible work.
I have read much non-fiction, I have read WW2 books, Holocaust books, etc etc, but never have I felt so sucked into someone's life. I felt what Louie felt. He spent the rest of his life leading a nonprofit organization that helped at-risk boys and also worked as an inspirational speaker.
Major Thematic Topics: Redemption, human dignity, human cruelty, survival, forgiveness. The three most important aspects of Unbroken : Unbroken is a true story. As a child, his juvenile delinquency puts him at risk of being lost to the prison system. Meroney: Who was the best president in your lifetime? Zamperini: Stories went around about him among every solider in the Pacific.
About an hour before Pearl Harbor was hit, we sank a Japanese midget submarine near the harbor. With a five-minute warning, we could have knocked down that Japanese air attack—we had the stuff to do it. But nobody said a word. Meroney: Did you and your fellow soldiers admire Roosevelt? Zamperini: He was a great leader. However, he was making boys register for the draft at the same time. This was more than a year before we got into the war. Meroney: What do you think of the criticisms of President Harry Truman for using the atom bomb?
Look at Chernobyl and what recently happened in Japan. In , I interviewed victims of Hiroshima. They all said the same thing: I feel honored. Because this happened to me, millions of lives were saved.
Zamperini: I was interested in their opinion. Bombs were necessary. The Japanese still had thousands of kamikaze pilots near Tokyo. Besides that, the field marshals ordered all the heads of the prisoner of war camps to kill all the prisoners. We would have been slaughtered. Also, Japanese leaders told the women and girls of Okinawa and Saipan, The Americans are going to take over and then rape and kill you.
There were families jumping off of cliffs because of that. Every woman and daughter in Japan was to be given an auger. They were told, When the Americans come, stab them. The bombs stopped all that. They saved thousands of lives, and ended the war.
We forget too easily. Zamperini: Oh, no. Zamperini: You can get a Purple Heart for scratch. The Japanese bombed us, and there were guys scratching and cutting themselves with glass and torn aluminum. Meroney: Having been an Olympian, what do you make of the doping scandals in sports? Zamperini: Drugs have always been around, but in my day no athlete would touch them because there was no money in sports. Sports has turned into a business, and what a sickening thing that is.
Meroney: The athletic department of USC, your alma mater, was scandalized because its star football player, Reggie Bush, allegedly accepted gifts as a student athlete. The ship passed over Nuremberg, where fringe politician Adolf Hitler, whose Nazi Party had been trounced in the elections, had just delivered a speech touting selective infanticide. Then it flew east of Frankfurt, where a Jewish woman named Edith Frank was caring for her newborn, a girl named Anne.
Sailing northeast, the Zeppelin crossed over Russia. Four days later, as the German and Japanese anthems played, the ship rose into the grasp of a typhoon that whisked it over the Pacific at breathtaking speed, toward America. On August 25, the Zeppelin reached San Francisco. After being cheered down the California coast, it slid through sunset, into darkness and silence, and across midnight. As slow as the drifting wind, it passed over Torrance, where its only audience was a scattering of drowsy souls, among them the boy in his pajamas behind the house on Gramercy Avenue.
Standing under the airship, his feet bare in the grass, he was transfixed. He could see only the blackness of the space it inhabited. It was not a great presence but a great absence, a geometric ocean of darkness that seemed to swallow heaven itself. The son of Italian immigrants, he had come into the world in Olean, New York, on January 26, , eleven and a half pounds of baby under black hair as coarse as barbed wire.
His father, Anthony, had been living on his own since age fourteen, first as a coal miner and boxer, then as a construction worker. His mother, Louise, was a petite, playful beauty, sixteen at marriage and eighteen when Louie was born.
In their apartment, where only Italian was spoken, Louise and Anthony called their boy Toots. His siblings would recall him careening about, hurdling flora, fauna, and furniture. The instant Louise thumped him into a chair and told him to be still, he vanished. In , when two-year-old Louie was down with pneumonia, he climbed out his bedroom window, descended one story, and went on a naked tear down the street with a policeman chasing him and a crowd watching in amazement.
Sometime after their train pulled out of Grand Central Station, Louie bolted, ran the length of the train, and leapt from the caboose. In California, Anthony landed a job as a railway electrician and bought a half-acre field on the edge of Torrance, population 1, He and Louise hammered up a one-room shack with no running water, an outhouse behind, and a roof that leaked so badly that they had to keep buckets on the beds.
With only hook latches for locks, Louise took to sitting by the front door on an apple box with a rolling pin in her hand, ready to brain any prowlers who might threaten her children.
Contesting a footrace across a busy highway, he just missed getting broadsided by a jalopy. At five, he started smoking, picking up discarded cigarette butts while walking to kindergarten. He began drinking one night when he was eight; he hid under the dinner table, snatched glasses of wine, drank them all dry, staggered outside, and fell into a rosebush. When Louie came home drenched in oil after scaling an oil rig, diving into a sump well, and nearly drowning, it took a gallon of turpentine and a lot of scrubbing before Anthony recognized his son again.
Thrilled by the crashing of boundaries, Louie was untamable. As he grew into his uncommonly clever mind, mere feats of daring were no longer satisfying. In Torrance, a one-boy insurgency was born. If it was edible, Louie stole it.
He skulked down alleys, a roll of lock-picking wire in his pocket.
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