BOOK REVIEW--"UNBROKEN" by Laura Hillenbrand

Reviewed by Bill Breakstone, December 8, 2010


In May of 1943, a B-24 Liberator nicknamed Green Hornet took off from an airfield in Hawaii on a search and rescue mission for another bomber that had gone missing on a flight to Australia. Green Hornet was never heard from again, and despite a thorough week-long search, no trace of the lost Liberator was ever found.

The bombardier on Green Hornet was Lt. Louis Zamperini, affectionately known as “Zamp.” He and two others had miraculously survived the crash from a bomber with a reputation that caused fellow airmen to call it a flying coffin. The three Army Air Corps flyers drifted the currents for forty seven days, surviving steaming days and freezing nights, with no food or water, and virtually no rescue kit. In addition to physical exhaustion and malnutrition, the men had to deal with the constancy of circling sharks.

“Unbroken” is the story of these men’s ordeals, both raft-borne on the Pacific, and in Japanese prison camps on Pacific Islands and on the outskirts of Tokyo and northern Honshu. The brutality of the majority of the prison guards was practically indescribable, but one in particular, known as “The Bird,” was brutal beyond imagination, and his prime target for close to two years was Louie Zamperini.

Laura Hillenbrand is the author of the 2003 best-seller “Seabiscuit,” a brilliant and inspiring book about the famous race horse and the people who remained faithful to the potential of what was once a broken-down nag. She turns her attention here to another story of faith, but also of human depravity. The book was extensively researched over a seven-year period, and is filled with myriad details about Zamperini’s youth, career as an Olympic long distance runner, his difficult post-War recovery , his friends and family, as well as his fellow airmen and prisoners. As with any survival or prison story, there are descriptive stretches that seem to go on forever. However, in the end, the monumentality of the survivors’ courage, stamina and ability to withstand the harshness of life stranded at sea and the brutality of prison camp life, overrides all else.

“Unbroken” is by no means an easy or happy read. But it is a brilliantly rewarding one.