Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The narrative in Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is so immediate, fast-paced and emotionally charged that it reads like fiction and unfortunately at several points I found myself doubting it’s veracity. How could Laura Hillenbrand know what the Japanese War Criminal was thinking and feeling when he was alone in the mountains eluding capture after the war? How could she know the precise chronology of events and precise feelings of those stranded on a raft for more than 40 days in 1942?
Because read Unbroken on a Kindle, I couldn’t easily page to the notes, acknowledgements, or even easily access footnotes because they appeared at the end of each chapter and were not readily visible at the bottom of the page. This was unfortunate for my reading experience. I am a fan of the kindle, but it does have limitations.
Had I read Hillenbrand’s acknowledgements first, I may have been able to suspend some of my cynicism and rightfully applaud her diligent research and precise imagining corroborated by extensive documentation. In the end, she may have come closer than anyone, even Louie Zamperini himself, who she interviewed extensively, at approximating the truth. That’s the best we can ever hope for and Hillenbrand has done a masterful job at it.
In Unbroken, we get a stunning and highly readable account of some of the torturous events of WWII, often overshadowed by the Holocaust, the searing emotional and physical pain is rendered with all too much clarity. A harrowing read, and ultimately uplifting experience.
Jeffrey Penn May, author of Where the River Splits, No Teacher Left Standing, and others.
