Unbreakable: A Review of Laura Hillenbrand’s Book

Someone recently handed me this book and I knew I was having a difficult time. Some call it a midlife crisis, some would say it is a “midlife opportunity.”

I’ve basically been in this mode for two years, so neither really describes the situation. I quit my stressful banking job, a job that wrecked me mentally and spiritually before spitting on the sidewalk. I was at a crossroads. What do I do now?

The book was meant to bring perspective into my life, which it did in spades. The main character in the book goes through events that evoke very strong emotions in me. I will highlight just three of them, all varying in intensity, duration, and arduous.

1. Your fighter plane is shot down over the ocean. (<1 hour)

Although short-lived for the other two, this is the one that gets the hellish ball rolling. I think many have felt a little scared when flying. Fear of falling from the sky, defenseless. Time stands still when it becomes clear that the plane will crash. The world becomes dreamily silent, probably because the mind simply has too much to process at once. Finally, it is underwater, entangled in debris and slipping to and from consciousness.

2. Float on a life raft in the open sea for 47 days.

The detail given during this account makes me feel as if I am there, scorched by the sun, harassed by sharks, battered by hallucinations. At this point, I can’t put the book down. The immense impact and willpower that your body endures and its second nature to survive is nothing short of a miracle.

3. He is captured by the Japanese and tortured for more than 4 years.

Living in a 3-foot-square cage, being fed rotting worm-filled porridge, and suffering a constant bout of dysentery, it seems like daily torture is almost a footnote. But it gets worse. A leader of his prisoner-of-war camp finds him irresistible and beats him every day for four years, makes him empty human expression from the holes in the ground with his hands, and verbally abuses him for hours every day.

Needless to say, this soldier has severe PTSD for years after he, along with hundreds of other POWs, were rescued at the end of the war. But there is a great ending to this story, which I will save for you to enjoy.

I looked very carefully at this man and his many trials. Beyond respect and admiration, I look up to him as something of a mentor, a man I may never meet, but someone for whom I have become very grateful. After all, through their torture, they have set me free.