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R. A. Geise: A great book of human fortitude

R. A. Geise
Dillon

The Pacific POWs who went home in 1945 were torn-down men. They had an intimate understanding of man’s vast capacity to experience suffering, as well as his equally vast capacity, and hungry willingness, to inflict it.”

That’s from the New York Times bestseller, “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” by Laura Hillenbrand, the true story of one of the most incredible lives ever lived – and one of the best books that I have ever read.

From inside the front cover: “On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.”



The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.



In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in “Seabiscuit.: Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, “Unbroken” is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

As I read about this remarkable American, I kept pausing and asking myself: “Could this possibly have been true?” and tried to imagine if I could endure even a fraction of what this man experienced. I highly recommend this book.


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