Unbroken: A Review

So I finally got on the boat (got on the bandwagon? caught the boat that I missed?) and opened the copy of Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken that has been sitting on my shelf in my proverbial "to read" pile for many, many months. I don't know what took me so long. So many people recommended the book to me, but I also knew it was going to be a difficult read, content-wise, and I think maybe I just wasn't ready to jump right in to a long story of suffering, violence, and cruelty.

And I was right. It WAS a difficult read. Unbroken tells the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was a bombardier during WWII. His plane crashed in the Pacific and he lasted 47 days on the water, only to be captured by the Japanese and sent to several horrible, awful POW camps where he was starved and beaten and continually hunted by a certain maniacal Japanese guard.

It's a gripping story, but I also feel like I had to read it while keeping some distance—skimming over especially difficult parts, purposely not fully processing the extreme brutality of it all because I didn't think I could handle it. I couldn't believe real people acted the way they did and that kindness and compassion were so rarely seen. I had to keep telling myself that I know he survived because we have this book as proof, but I eyed the pages left with wariness, knowing that they meant the suffering continued.

So yes it was challenging, but I'm so glad I read it. Besides the cruelty and suffering, the name of the book tells the real story. Despite all he goes through, the main character survives and his spirit remains unbroken. I just read a passage that basically sums up the major theme of his time in the prison camps: "The Pacific POWs who went home in 1945 were torn-down men. They had an intimate understanding of man's vast capacity to experience suffering, as well as his equally vast capacity, and hungry willingness, to inflict it." But even so, he survived. He survived unbelievable thirst and starvation and sharks and disease and cruelty.

There have been many beautiful parts, like when Louis is floating on a raft in the middle of the ocean for days on end with sharks constantly circling and, dying of thirst, he prays for the first time in his life and it rains. And he prays two more times, and it rains two more times. Or like when he and his fellow crew member enjoy a brilliant sunrise on the water that they know was a gift from a compassionate divine being. Or like rare kindnesses shown by a few compassionate guards. And many others, which I won't ruin here in case you haven't read the book yet, but I was grateful for the hope they offered. Though these experiences ravaged Zamperini and so many others, it is a wonder to read about what the human body and spirit can endure.

This story is especially touching because Anna's great-grandfather, who passed away last month, also flew on bombing missions in WWII and was the lone survivor when his plane crashed over Germany. He too was a prisoner of war and overcame incredible odds to escape and make it home. Reading Unbroken made me want to read the book about Grandpa Joe's experience again, which is called A Distant Prayer. It's pretty amazing, and he was an amazing man.