![]() Louie was a juvenile delinquent from the get-go, always stealing food from neighbors' houses and concocting homemade explosives. Zamperini's story, in a nutshell, is this: He was born in 1917, a son of working-class Italian immigrants who made a life for themselves in Torrance, Calif. The tale Zamperini has to tell, augmented by mountains of diaries, letters and official documents, is a stunner. He sure can and sure did - for seven years' worth of interviews with Hillenbrand. Seabiscuit, of course, was an almost impossible act to follow, but as Hillenbrand says in the acknowledgements to her new book, Unbroken, she knew she had found her next subject when she spoke to a then-octogenarian Louis Zamperini on the phone and the wisecracking spirit of that bygone age came through loud and clear: "I'll be an easier subject than Seabiscuit," Zamperini said, "because I can talk." It's also that Hillenbrand has a gift for recovering the spirit of mid-20th century America - its despair, sure, but also its humor and its graceful refusal to put on airs. ![]() It's not just that she has an affinity for singing the ballads of dark horses, who through tenacity, luck and a lot of heart turn themselves into folk legends. ![]() ![]() Laura Hillenbrand is shaping up to be the Woody Guthrie of contemporary narrative historians. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption ![]()
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