Author  Lauren Hillenbrand struck literary gold with her first book, "Seabiscuit". now, nine years later, she?s unearthed another story of endurance and triumph with "Unbroken" the harrowing tale of Louie Zamperini

Louie Zamperini, a second generation Italian American and Olympic long distance runner at the 1936 Berlin Games,had his  career as a runner cut short by World War II. He enlisted, became a bombardier and, after his plane went down in the South Pacific in May 1943, he and two other men spent 47 days on a life raft, burning under the equatorial sun, starving and with little water. The story only gets grimmer from there, from fighting off sharks with his fists to his eventual imprisonment in a Japanese POW camp, where he was starved and tortured until the end of the war. There is, it should be noted, a happy ending to this story. Zamperini returned home to America with a hero?s welcome, became and inspirational speaker and, at 93, is still kicking. 

Periscopepost.com; By Linda Rodriguez McRobbie;  November 15,  2010

In 2001, Author Lauren Hillenbrand struck literary gold with her first book, Seabiscuit, the story of an undersized racehorse, who along with his half-blind jockey, became a symbol of against-odds hope during the American Great Depression. And now, nine years later, she?s unearthed another story of endurance and triumph with Unbroken.

Unbroken is the harrowing tale of Louie Zamperini, an second generation Italian American and Olympic long distance runner at the 1936 Berlin Games, whose career as a runner was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. He enlisted, became a bombardier and, after his plane went down over the South Pacific in May 1943, he and two other men spent 47 days on a life raft, burning under the equatorial sun, starving and with little water. 

The story only gets grimmer from there, from fighting off sharks with his fists to his eventual imprisonment in a Japanese POW camp, where he was starved and tortured until the end of the war. There is, it should be noted, a happy ending to this story. Zamperini returned home to America with a hero?s welcome, became and inspirational speaker and, at 93, is still kicking (and is with it enough to have given Hillenbrand more than 75 interviews). 

And there may be a happy ending for Hillenbrand, who appears to have survived her sophomore effort with accolades: The critics are fans, though they are perhaps less effusive in their praise for Unbroken than for Seabiscuit. 

James Hornfischer, reviewing for the Wall Street Journal, called the book a "powerfully drawn survival epic"  and noted that though Zamperini?s story was in danger of being forgotten, ?Ms. Hillenbrand has a gift for dusting off history and presenting it as compelling drama.? Hornfischer?s only quibbles seemed to be that Hillenbrand sought to frame Zamperini?s captivity in a ?slightly synthetic?, though ?gripping?, dramatic ?mano-a-mano? between Zamperini and his main tormenter; and that in all her meticulous research, she didn?t once reference the book that Zamperini himself had written about his experiences. 

Janet Maslin, reviewing for the New York Times, hinted that the prose tended a bit towards the purple, though Maslin seems more charmed by Hillenbrand?s "muscular, dynamic" storytelling than put off. Maslin concludes, though without giving a clear sense of her opinion of the book as separate from Zamperini?s story, It manages to be as exultant as Seabiscuit as it tells a much more harrowing, less heart-warming story. 

" Benjamin Svetky, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, was a bit more definitive. Svetky, a self-professed WWII story fan who has never read Seabiscuit, gave the book a solid B noting, "Hillenbrand is a better writer than a lot of historians and biographers. At times her prose even veers toward the poetic. But she?s still a historian, and she gives this story a chronological structure that frankly gets a little plodding." Moreover, Zamperini?s story and the horrors to which he was subjected don?t make for pleasant reading, "All of which makes Unbroken a good book, sometimes even a profound book, but it?s probably not going to be anybody?s favorite book." 
http://www.periscopepost.com/2010/11/
unbroken-by-laura-hillenbrand/
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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