Unbroken
Wow.
I had heard about this and it was on my TBR list for a long time… I even felt like I recognized snippets of the story, and wonder if I’d tried to read it once before and given up. If I did, I imagine it was because at about the halfway point, the story became so incredibly grim. I had to skip a few chapters that I just couldn’t handle reading… but the end made it SO worth it.
Louie Zamporini was immediately painted as a compelling character, which is rare for a biography. Hillenbrand captured his hellion days as a youth, where every rule to him seemed made to be broken (I felt very sorry for his mother at that point!) But knowing at least the synopsis of the rest of the story, it was clear that this was a critical part of what made him resilient enough to withstand what was to come. He eventually channeled his determination into running, and was on track to be perhaps the greatest runner the world had ever seen. My heart broke for him when the Olympics on which he’d pinned all his hopes was cancelled due to WWII. And then he was drafted.
When his plane went down in the Pacific, the story really picked up (and this was the part I felt like I remembered). Three survivors on a raft for 40+ days with no food or water, and sharks circling… it’s horrific, but this was the first (and only) time until the end that spirituality really came into play. Louie was not a Christian yet, but one of his raft-mates, Phil, was, and eventually Louie found himself crying out to God in prayer. Miraculous answers to prayer sustained them from one catastrophe after another, though it didn’t end the ordeal for them. One of the raft-mates died, and it was clear from the beginning which one it would be, since the author made it clear that Mack had no hope from the beginning, while Pete and Louie did.
But then when they landed on an island, it turned out to be occupied by the Japanese. This part of the story felt interminable, filled with some of the most horrific and brutal depictions of man’s inhumanity to man that I’ve ever read. That’s when I skipped some chapters–which I felt almost guilty about (after all, this really happened to someone), but I felt like I got the gist. Perhaps a quarter of the very long book took place in one POW camp after another, until the war finally ended.
Then Louie attempted to adjust to civilian life, and got married, but suffered from severe PTSD, alcoholism, bitterness, and despair. In this section of the book, I kept wondering, but the title is ‘unbroken,’ and this sure sounds like he was broken… and he was, until he found Jesus at a Billy Graham event. I really didn’t see that coming. It was such a complete 180. I won’t ruin the end of the book for you, but it made me cry, it was so beautiful. Highly, highly recommend.
My rating: *****
Language: none
Violence: severe. Horrific. But it happened, so, what are you gonna do.
Sexual content: this is weirdly kind of mixed in with the violence, but it’s not rape, just sadism.
Political content: historical only
