Unbroken - Hillenbrand

Is Laura Hillenbrand a biographer, a sports writer, a military  historian,  a survival writer, a political scientist, or a Christian revivalist?  Whatever she is her ability to recognize and capture the essence of a good story and convey its meaningful content with action, clarity, and balance are hallmarks of her craft. For these reasons Hillenbrand has taken her second book, “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” to the top of the best seller list. Her first book, “Seabiscuit: The True Story of Three Men and a Racehorse” also rose to #1 on the best seller list.  Should we be surprised that she did it again? She starts with a compelling story.  Just like Seabiscuit, many have never heard of Louis Zamperini and his harrowing saga as Olympic athlete turned, turner Army Air Forces officer, turned prisoner of war.  And in a similar fashion to Seabiscuit, those who study military history, in particular the War in the Pacific during WW II, are no stranger to his tale (as with those who know horse racing).  In addition, Louis Zamperini’s autobiography is already on the bookshelves and has been since 2003.  His work, “The Devil at My Heels” did not achieve the same lofty heights as Hillenbrand...but the story was told, and has been told, countless times in newspaper articles, interviews, and lectures given by Zamperini across the country since his return from the war in 1944.  However when Hillenbrand tells the story, her gift, and gift to us through her writing, is her ability to turn her subjects into household names.

As a biographer Hillenbrand gives us the mother/father town feel for a childhood growing up in a poor Italian family in the United States along with the good, the bad, and the prejudices they faced along the way...Mario Puzo would be proud.  She then transitions to sports writer and brings us, to quote from the old ABC Wide World of Sports “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat...[and] the human drama of athletic competition” necessary to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Germany.  We are not just in the stands, we are with the athlete, in the arena, on the track and we feel each step and each breath of the racers.  This particular story suggests the four minute mile was under serious threat from Zamperini if only he could get to the 1942 Olympics...as a former distance runner, based on the facts as given, I believe he would have broken the barrier.  

Next she puts on the hat of a military historian and brings us the Air War in the Pacific at the start of World War II.  Joseph Heller brought us the fictional Yossarrian, a bombardier on  the B-25 Mitchell, and the air war over the Mediterranean.  Hillenbrand brings us Zamperini, the bombardier on the B-24 Liberator, with all the drama, bureaucracy and insanity that is a Catch-22...but with the actual people who flew, and in this case crashed, into the wide expanses of the Pacific Ocean without a trace...the statistics are staggering and sobering and it’s good to be reminded of them from time to time.  So now she begin the castaway saga and the epic tale of being lost at sea on a tiny raft...for 47 hunger and thirst filled days.  They fight sharks, they fight death, until finally they are delivered from certain death straight into the hands of the enemy.  Can it get any worse?  Drawing from interviews with surviving POWs and the documentation taken from the archives of Post WWII Japan Hillenbrand writes one of the most explicit exposes on the Japanese treatment of the POW they captured during this dark page of world history. As she explores the evil that lurks just beneath the surface of men, with an undisciplined power over other men, she weaves an understanding of the utter brutality of war and it’s consequences.  While not a philosopher she does approach some plausible explanations for what was witnessed by many accounts of POW at the hands of their Japanese captors.

Another understanding that she reveals from the first-hand accounts of POWs on the ground in Japan during the Allied advance in the Pacific is that without the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Japanese people would have fought to the death.  While not exactly Richard Rhodes, “The Making of the Atomic Bomb”, with regard to military history, Hillenbrand nevertheless makes a compelling case.

Now the happy spoiler...Zamperini, of course survives and returns to his family in the US.  He still faces the demons of war and suffers with post traumatic stress and alcoholism. After marriage and the tough realization that he will never return to his Olympic form, he reaches rock bottom.  The book ends rather quickly at this point.  Zamperini finds God through the early ministry of Billy Graham, the demons he has faced since captivity miraculously leave his body, and he lives happily ever after.  Which by all accounts...and the fact that Zamperini is still full of life and happiness at 95 (as of March 2012)...is certainly true.

This is an amazing story of an amazing man by an amazing author.  There are some who have been critical of the believability of the Zamperini sorry and of the author’s writing.  I share a certain scepticism of both but find overall that so  many facts in this story are absolutely sound any incidental information which may not rise to the exact standards of historical fact are of little consequence in this epic saga of a true American hero...Louis Zamperini.