Book Review Time

Hey All,

Just a quick note to let you know that I finished Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken this past week. Laura Hillenbrand is most remembered for her 2001 Seabiscuit. She is a native of Northern Virginia and currently resides in Washington, DC. Not that I knew it at the time, but feels good to support a local writer. This was also my first book read cover to cover on a Nook. If you don't have one, get one, it is a great way to read and makes having your book(s) with you all the time totally convenient. That's my plug for the nook.

Now for the book, it was in one word, unbelievable! That word fits this book to a "T" for me for a couple of reasons. First, though the tale of Louis Zamperini is a true one, it is utterly unbelievable. Louis is befallen by a truly unbelievable series of events that conspire to deliver one of what has to be the wildest rides anyone could ever imagine. His life is proof that "truth is stranger than fiction", you couldn't dream up a plot like the one that is Louis' life. From back alley hooligan, to world class athlete, to surviving a crash landing in the Pacific, to enduring over forty day on a raft with no supplies, outlasting his captors during over two years of interment in a Japanese prison camp to returning to the states hitting rock bottom, finding his girl, and then finding redemption. The sequence of events is utterly unbelievable and totally enthralling, it is nearly impossible to put down just for the sake of the action that keeps the pages flying by.

Second, this book is unbelievable because it is impossible to fathom how one man could be so talented, so lucky, so resilient and so forgiving all in one form. Losing yourself in a daydream about Louis trials adrift on the Pacific or in the prison camp is easy to do, but this book also had me day dreaming about being like Louis. Watching as the rage built in him, as he was broken down and beaten to within an inch of his life and yet all through it he maintained a dignity and and constant belief he would return to his family, alive. Whether it's the story or how it's told, I don't know, but I constantly found myself getting lost in Louis and his physiological and emotional torment and eventual triumph. Unbroken made me want to be a better person. I am sure if you asked Louis, he be indifferent about such praise, but it is truly unbelievable that he can be all these things. If you read Unbroken you'll know what I mean.

I'll close with this, and I don't want to give to much away, but the moment that Louis life changes goes unnoticed by him and most likely the reader. It is in the end, when a single moment, one that we've all had is revealed and Louis is forever finally changed. In that split second all the events preceding that moment, the rise of a world class athlete, the triumph of surviving the crash, the agony of enduring his cruel imprisonment it all makes sense and all falls in place as Louis' turns on a dime and his purpose is illuminated. Read it you'll lover it!! It gives you hope that within each of us, there is a little Louis Zamperini.

I hope there is some Louis in me and most of all in Graeme. It is on his must read list already!

Peace.

Will