I’m not much for non-fiction war stories.
While I can suspend my disbelief and GI-Joe-it for a while for fictional films, the actual reality of brutality and loss, even when the good guys win, generally makes me too sad.
Yet at the same time, the core of many war stories is what’s best in each of us and lessons my mother imparted to me as a young boy: dedication to a valuable ideal (survival, freedom, leaving the world better than you found it, telling the truth) sacrifice, courage, camaraderie (“If not me, then who? If not now, then when?”) and endurance (“Once more into the breech dear brothers.”)
And these are the elements that, for me anyway, rise to the top of the utterly un-put-down-able WWII story of Louis Zamperini and Russell Allen in Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
Not only is this one of the best-researched books I have ever read, Hillenbrand’s narrative is (stand-by for English-major jargon)–#@$%^&* incredible.
Charge your Kindle—or make provisions for an extension cord—and make sure the hallways in your house are clear because if you react like I did to this masterful story told so honorably told about men fighting evil then you won’t put it down to, say, get a glass of water or feed your cats (it’s possible I actually missed the bowl pouring out kibble.)
Hillenbrand flies high in this true story of WWII bombardier—and rare athlete who might have broken the 4 minute mile before being drafted—Louis Zamperini and his pilot Rusell Phillips. From personal insights and memories to the documents and records of two nations that corroborate the recollections, Hillenbrand sets free the towering human achievement of souls unwilling to concede their humanity, even in the face of mind-bending cruelty and evil.
This is a record-breaking book.
