An astonishing life

A few weeks ago, on my way home on a crowded rush-hour train, I was
slouched down in my seat trying to hide my uncontrollable crying. I was sobbing
not for the lost souls of the world but because I had reached the end of Unbroken,
a new book by Laura Hillenbrand. As embarrassing as my public display of
emotion was, I could not stop reading.

Unbroken is the story of Louie Zamperini, who had (and is still having!) one
of the most eventful, tragic, exultant, inspiring lives you'll ever hear of.
Hillenbrand called his life "incomprehensibly dramatic." He was a maniacal
troublemaker and thief as a child, a national high school track star, a 1936
Berlin Olympian, a WWII Army Air Corps bombardier, a veteran of many fierce
battles, survivor of a plane crash followed by 47 days at sea, and a prisoner
in a Japanese POW camp.

Reading Unbroken is an exercise in astonishment. There is not
a single phase of Louie's life that doesn't touch the extremes of the human
experience. Just as she did with Seabiscuit, her earlier bestseller,
Hillenbrand writes with an engaged but calm voice, letting the drama of the
story prove itself and letting you fall in love with Louie on your own. And you
will fall in love with Louie,
the rambunctious Italian who plays pranks on his Japanese prison guards, just
as he did with Olympic teammate Jesse Owens.