Unbroken

by Laura Hillenbrand

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I find it difficult to review nonfiction books of this sort because of the stories they tell. If you don't like it, are you a horrible person? Zamperini survived a horrifying experience, and he and those around him were certainly left with formidable scars... But the book? If we can look at it solely as a piece of literature, it's not that great.

I was bored through about chapter 15. When there isn't a lot of "action" going on, jumping around like she did is confusing. She spent at least half the book focusing on people other than her subject and for a while I was infuriated because she made it seem as though the others were mere footnotes of importance compared to Zamperini's actions. That is not the correct way to treat history. She continued inferring her own opinion and embellishing throughout and any historian should be ashamed of that... It's all about the money; it helps sell books.

Seeing the trailers for the film as well, I don't think Hollywood is going to bring the story back down to earth. It sounds like a god will be made out of a man. Why can't we just tell stories as they happened?