Unbroken

Louie Zamperini was a kid who was always into trouble. Until he found a way to harness his energy, thanks to his brother Pete, he was on the verge of going to jail. As time passed, he began to dream of an Olympic career, and began to push himself more and more.
Eventually war broke out and he became an airman in the US Army. After a several successful missions, they were tasked with finding a downed plane, but became down themselves. Many of the crew were killed and those that survived were in a raft. While they were out in the ocean, they were injured, without food, and very little water. They were unsure they were going to survive being in the ocean, if they would be found, and what their fate would be.

When they are found, there are just two of them left, Allen and Louie. They are claimed as Japanese POW's and sent off on the most horrific aspect of the war yet. The terrors and the horrors they faced would stay with them forever. But it would be the hope and the survival mode that kicked in that would keep them alive. Even though their families were told they were dead, they refused to believe it and held onto the hope that their sons would be found and returned home. Little did the know of the horrors that their sons were enduring at the hands of their captors. But life in the camps was never boring. There were networks of spies and information gathering, maps, food, and encouragement flowed as it could. Hope was kept alive, but it was fading, and all the POW's could do was hope for liberation before they were lost forever.

This book was such a great read! I was enthralled from the first chapter, and had a hard time putting it down! Definitely one that should be read by everyone!

I found the delivery of the story very poor at times. Also a good 100 pages too long. On page 168 of my copy the author writes “Louie was furious at the shark. He had thought that they had an understanding:the men would stay out of the sharks turf - the water- and the sharks would stay off theirs -the raft” Seriously? I know that Louis Zamperini may have said this to the author in phone conversations but to be a serious biography the delivery needs to be far less commercial. It reeked of the need to turn the story into a film script.

I thought the author was on better ground in the writing about the POW camps. There were many other witness to the events that the author was able to draw on and in my opinion that showed with better delivery. Be that as it may in the end I came away disappointed and feel that the delivery of the story did not do it justice.