Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Wow! Wow. I've read a lot of books about guys in the military and their heroics (Five Years to Freedoom, Into the Mouth of the Cat, Flags of our Fathers, Bat 21), but this story tops them all. It traces the story of Louis Zamperini (an Olympic track star of whom I had never heard) during his time in WWII in the Pacific as a bombadier in a B-24 Liberator. Thank goodness the book includes a map of the Pacific Ocean (lots of ocean, not much land) and a diagram of what the plane looked like. I was constantly referring to the map; the story made me appreciate how vast the Pacific Ocean is, and how tiny and insignificant man is. The book has several parts: the part where Phil and Louis lose their plane and drift in the ocean for 46 days just blows my mind. The things they had to do to stay alive are almost beyond belief (they learn to snatch birds, grab fish, and snag small sharks to eat; they learn to improvise to catch rain water). The whole time they are drifting, they realize they are drifting west--toward Japanese controlled islands. Finally, they are rescued--by the Japanese, which doesn't feel like much of a rescue since they become POW's. Hillenbrand is careful not to slam the Japanese (although they were extremely brutual to their POW's), and I appreciate her clarifications about the Japanese culture back then. Reading this book takes time, not because the story is complicated but because there is so much information to process. I read the story over Memorial Day weekend as an accident of scheduling---but it was perfect timing to appreciate what our military members have done over the years. Amazing.