Title:
Unbroken
Review: I thought I was reading about a person’s experience as a
Japanese prisoner of war, and it was that for the most part. The retelling of Louis Zamperini’s experience
as a Japanese prisoner of war was compelling and kept me reading. This book was more detailed than I was
prepared for however. The first 175
pages were back story. While
interesting, it was lot of detail that seemed nonessential for the story. While telling about Louis’s experiences many
other prisoners are introduced often including a lot of details about their
lives. All of this was interesting, but
made it difficult to maintain a good flow in the story. The book continued with a lot of detail about
Louis’s life after the war. Again, it
was interesting. Quite honestly I think it is important to tell the full
story. Nonetheless I was not prepared
for the story to be so expansive.
In
short, the first and last sections of the story were slow to get through. The middle held my attention fully.
Thanks
Amanda for this review.
ISBN: 9781400064168
Page
Count: 473
Quick
Review: 3 out 5 stars –
Why I
Read this Title: A friend recommended this book to me.
Synopsis:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE •
Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult
Nonfiction Book of the Year award
On a
May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean
and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline,
and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young
lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and
pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the
Second World War.
The
lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and
incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home
to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running,
discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and
within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had
become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny
raft, and a drift into the unknown.
Ahead
of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering
raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.
Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with
ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.
His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of
his will.
In her
long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid
narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of
a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of
the human mind, body, and spirit.
Author
Information: Laura
Hillenbrand (born 1967) is the author of the acclaimed Seabiscuit: An American
Legend, a non-fiction account of the career of the great racehorse Seabiscuit,
for which she won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2001. The book
later became the basis of the 2003 movie Seabiscuit. Her essays have appeared
in The New Yorker, Equus magazine, American Heritage, The Blood-Horse,
Thoroughbred Times, The Backstretch, Turf and Sport Digest, and many other publications.
Her 1998 American Heritage article on the horse Seabiscuit won the Eclipse
Award for Magazine Writing.
Born in
Fairfax, Virginia, Hillenbrand studied at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, but
was forced to leave before graduation when she contracted chronic fatigue
syndrome, which she has struggled with ever since. She now lives in Washington,
D.C.
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