Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is a 2010 non-fiction novel by Laura Hillenbrand, author of the best-selling book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend". Unbroken is a biography of World War II hero Louis Zamperini. Source: Wikipedia. The New York Times said this about the book: Zamperini joked to Hillenbrand that he’d be an easier subject for her than Seabiscuit because he could talk. But that also presents perils. Though his wartime experiences faded with time, talking about them was pretty much all Zamperini did for years. From more than a thousand retellings, in newspaper and radio interviews and in inspirational speeches — “This Is Your Life” even devoted an episode to him — his story had been sanded down, and while Hillenbrand ably assembles its component parts, she rarely gets beneath the surface. That Zamperini does not seem especially introspective and may have forgotten or repressed certain memories only compounds the problem.



The Statesman had this to say about the author and book: Hillenbrand is careful not to demonize all of the Japanese guards; parts of her account of Zamperini's time as a POW are based on interviews with former Japanese soldiers at the camps who were clearly disturbed at the time by the goings-on. Yet it's hard to sugarcoat some of the incidents she relates. Zamperini was made to clean out a pig's sty with his hands. (He was so hungry that he shoved some of the pig's befouled feed in his mouth.) He was lined up with other officers and hit in the face by the enlisted men at the orders of guards, who finished off the beatings with a kendo stick after two hours of hitting. Like many of the other prisoners, he suffered from dysentery, at one point visiting the latrine as many as 20 times a day.

A World War II Story of Survival & Redemption from KERA's Think Podcast

[2010-12-06 12:00:00] What does it take to survive the worst the world can dish out and still manage to go on to lead a happy life? We'll hear the remarkable story of Louis Zamperini this hour with author Laura Hillenbrand. Her new book is "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" (Random House, 2010).

Download the podcast here. See also: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Seabiscuit: The True Story of Three Men and a Racehorse, Seabiscuit - An American Legend, Seabiscuit

The 'Unbroken' Spirit Of An Ordinary Hero from NPR Podcast Fresh Air

Laura Hillenbrand is shaping up to be the Woody Guthrie of contemporary narrative historians. It's not just that she has an affinity for singing the ballads of dark horses, who through tenacity, luck and a lot of heart turn themselves into folk legends. It's also that Hillenbrand has a gift for recovering the spirit of mid-20th century America — its despair, sure, but also its humor and its graceful refusal to put on airs. Seabiscuit, of course, was an almost impossible act to follow, but as Hillenbrand says in the acknowledgements to her new book, Unbroken, she knew she had found her next subject when she spoke to a then-octogenarian Louis Zamperini on the phone and the wisecracking spirit of that bygone age came through loud and clear: "I'll be an easier subject than Seabiscuit," Zamperini said, "because I can talk."

Download the podcast here. Check the NPR Fresh Air full story out here. See also: Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Seabiscuit: The True Story of Three Men and a Racehorse, Cleopatra: A Life