Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

I LOVED "Seabiscuit". I LOVED "Unbroken". I LOVE this author! She is an amazing researcher and storyteller. I will read whatever she writes from now on.

I cannot stop talking about this book. What an amazing story. What an amazing man. Louis Zamperini would have been a terror as a child. As a "rule follower" myself, I can't even imagine what it would have been like to have a child like Louie. I would have cried myself to sleep MANY a night. Louie had an amazing family who supported him, despite himself. Pete was instrumental in shaping the man who Louie was. Being the handsome "golden boy", he could have blown off his younger brother. Instead, he loved him so much that he "saved him" in many respects by introducing him to running and NEVER giving up on him.

There was a point as I was reading when I thought, "I can't take any more suffering. I can't read ANY MORE about the torture and suffering that Louie is experiencing." Seriously. I was reading it - Louie actually LIVED it. And survived it. I wish I could say that I am a "Survivor", but after reading about Louie's life, I'm not sure if I would have made it TO the life raft, much less for 47 days! 

The Japanese POW camps were almost unbearable to READ about. I don't even know where the will to survive even came from after a certain point. Determination? Stubbornness? Anger? Hope? I always think that I would do ANYTHING for the sake of my children. But what if I didn't have children? Where would my will to survive come from? 

There are so many things in this novel that I have always believed and this book has provided proof to those beliefs:
-Positive thinking and HOPE will carry you far in life
-People loving you and believing in you, despite your faults, will give you the strength to carry on
-Everything happens for a reason
-God had a hand in everything

As I was reading about Louie's destructive behavior four years after the war ended, I kept thinking, "What is going to save Louie?" As I was reading Chapter 38, I got to the part of Billy Graham arriving in Los Angeles and I thought, "Wow! Of course!" Billy Graham was an amazing, charismatic, christian evangelist. Being raised as a Southern Baptist myself, Billy Graham was inspirational to me personally and I will never forget hearing him speak - as well as attending my own Grandfather's (in Tennessee) and our Minnesota Southern Baptist preacher's "Tent Revivals"! Being raised in this environment set the foundation for who I am today. If anyone could bring Louie back to God, it would be Billy Graham! :) My favorite part of the book is the second time Louie goes to see Billy Graham and Louie remembers what he said to God on the raft: "If you will save me, I will serve you forever."

Everything happens for a reason.

Wendy's Rating: *****