Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption in The Dusty Bookshelf

Jan 20, 2017 Darlene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, biography, for-review, non-fiction, young-adult, audio-1000, read-in-2017

Both heartbreaking and inspiring, Unbroken will most definitely move you!

Louis Zamperini, son of Italian immigrants, grew up in Torrance, California. He was a very mischievous boy, smoking at the age of 5 and drinking by age 8 with a penchant for stealing. In an effort to keep him out of trouble and give him something to focus on, his older brother, Pete, whom he idolized, started to train him. He discovered that he enjoyed running, and his dream was to run in the Berlin Olympics in 1936. He was Both heartbreaking and inspiring, Unbroken will most definitely move you!

Louis Zamperini, son of Italian immigrants, grew up in Torrance, California. He was a very mischievous boy, smoking at the age of 5 and drinking by age 8 with a penchant for stealing. In an effort to keep him out of trouble and give him something to focus on, his older brother, Pete, whom he idolized, started to train him. He discovered that he enjoyed running, and his dream was to run in the Berlin Olympics in 1936. He was the youngest distance runner to ever make the team, and he was 19 years old when he went to Berlin. He finished in eighth place, but it was his sprint at the end of the race that captured everyone’s attention.

Following his return to the United States, Louis enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and graduated from flight school as a second lieutenant in 1942. He was sent to war in Oahu. While on a search and rescue mission in May 1943, his B-24 crashed into the ocean. Only three men survived the crash: Louis, his best friend Russell Allen “Phil” Phillips, and Francis “Mac” McNamara. They were presumed dead, but they were adrift at sea in two rafts that they tethered together. They battled the elements, with little food (which should have been rationed but, instead, was eaten by Mac in a state of panic), and water. They survived on rain water and the fish that they could catch, but the sharks circled them constantly and even rammed the boats. At one point, they thought a rescue plane had finally found them but it was a Japanese bomber that fired at them, shooting holes in their rafts but miraculously missing the men. Louis prayed that if God would allow him to survive that he would spend the rest of his life serving Him. By the time that the raft reached land after drifting more than 2,000 miles, they were captured by the Japanese and there were only two left; Mac had died at sea.

As a Prisoner of War, Louis was subjected the unimaginable horrors. He was tortured, beaten, starved, and humiliated. He lost more than half his body weight, and he remained a POW for two years.

After his return to the United States, he was hailed a hero. Phil survived as well, and they both got married. However, Louis was plagued with flashbacks and suffered severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He turned to alcohol to numb his senses, and he became violent. At one point, he shook his baby daughter to get her to stop crying and that’s when his wife planned to leave him. Instead, she became a born-again Christian after attending a Billy Graham revival and urged Louis to go with her. He was reminded of his prayers on that raft, his promise to God that he would serve Him the rest of his life if only God would save Him, and that’s when his life changed. He went home and gathered up all the alcohol in the house and dumped it down the drain, and he never again suffered from PTSD or flashbacks. He even returned to Japan to confront the men who tortured him who had been captured as war criminals, and he offered them his forgiveness.

This was an incredibly moving story, and Louis Zamperini is pretty inspiring! In spite of everything that he had endured, his heart had not hardened. His captors may not have deserved his forgiveness, but he gave it and was able to move past that pain to start the healing process. Laura Hillenbrand is a very gifted writer, and the story was hauntingly beautiful. She writes in such a vivid and descriptive way that she made me feel as though I was right there in the life raft with Louis, Phil and Mac! The only thing that made this author’s story better was the narration by Edward Hermann, which was top-notch. He brought this remarkable story of one man’s determination to life.

This review was posted on my book blog:
http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.ca/2...

I received a complimentary copy for voluntary review consideration. ...more

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Nov 12, 2013 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: my-library, biographical-thoughts, action-adventure

I read this for a discussion at my local library. I've had this book for over a year and the discussion forced me to read it. The first section for very boring(for me) so I had to force myself to read 75 pages a day just to get it done. The story picked up once the crew was floating in the middle of the pacific. I wonder how anyone couldn't hate the japanese during wwII. They were brutal. We hear so much about the holocust but the japanese were equally as terrible to other asians and pow as the ...more

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Jun 25, 2012 The Loopy Librarian rated it it was amazing

Unbroken is a well-researched and well-written work that is by turns humorous, heartbreaking and inspiring. I learned a great deal about the bombers of WWII and the men that courageously flew them. The horrors that the Pacific POW's endured were unspeakable and gut-wrenching, but the will that they had to survive and even defy was a testament to their character. They refused to be broken. I came to adore Louis Zamperini and his comrades. What an amazing, miraculous life that he has lived, and wh ...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Melissa rated it it was amazing

Unbroken –A World War II story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand should be made into a movie. It is a story that is one of an unbelievable man and also his friends all who are hero in my book. This book takes you through Louis Zamperini’s life. It starts in beginning of his life. It takes you through how the kids from school made fun of him just to hear him swear in Italian to his time training for the Olympics. You cheer for him when he beats the triple digit heat of N ...more

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Feb 22, 2014 Deb Hendry rated it really liked it

This book seemed to take me forever to read, but that was because there was a lot of the book I had to take in small pieces. Some of the events were hard to read about, but the book was a very inspirational story of "survival, resilience and redemption". Glad I stuck with it and finished it~ ...more

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