Although we had a smaller good group way back in October, it was a good meeting, despite my misgivings about the book (more about this later). Our dining choice made us feel a little guilty since we chose a Japanese restaurant and the Japanese are not depicted in the best light in this historical biography, but it didn't seem to affect our appetites! Our saving grace was Mary, who payed homage to the theme with a "South Pacific" coconut cream pie. Delicious!
As for the book, everyone thought it was a gripping story but horrible to read! Oddly, you find yourself unable to put it down, plowing through the sections - training for the Olympics, adrift at sea, in the POW camps - to see what happens, even though we know Louis survives. The fascination is in finding out how he manages to do it. It is almost inconceivable that any of the prisoners survived the horrendous brutality that they were subjected to for years, that they didn't just give up.
There have been countless movies, documentaries, and books about WWII and the German and Japanese prison camps. However, it seems to me that we haven't heard as much about the way military POWs in the South Pacific were treated compared to the well-documented facts about concentration camp prisoners. Hillenbrand actually provides some helpful and very illuminating statistics in the book about survival rates so you get a vivid picture of the impact that internment had on the enlisted men. She also includes some very shocking details about the dangers the airmen had to deal with, not only from the obvious threat of war but from the state of the disrepair of the planes they were forced to fly in and the follies of commanders who ordered search and rescue missions that had no hope of success.
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| The B-24, known as the "Flying Coffin" |
Now, about my misgivings... I have to confess that when this book was first suggested I was quite opposed to it. For one thing, I've always felt that biographies and memoirs limit how much you can discuss in terms of plot and storyline. After all, what can you say - "It should have had a better ending"? Second, it ended up being one of 3 non-fiction books that got picked this go around, the other 2 more appealing to me, so you can imagine that I was even more dismayed. Third, I just didn't feel like reading another chronicle about the horrors of war. Shallow of me but what can I say. In the end, I'm glad we read it because I was just as captivated by it as everyone else.
That said, I do have a few complaints. My biggest one is that the book is too long, with way too much minutiae about runners' qualifying times, drifting at sea, and the inconceivable abuse in the camps. Honestly, we would have had the same emotional reactions if it had been shorter. Also, given the author's attention to detail, it was a bit disappointing that she glossed over Zamperini's life after the war. She does tell us what happened to most of the other men though. So, adding another 100 pages wouldn't have mattered at this point, would it? Finally, I found the author's penchant for pop psychology to explain the cruelty of the Japanese guards a bit simplistic, and often nonsensical in its contradictions. It might have been better if she'd cited some research since I'm sure there is extensive literature on the subject.
In any case, it turned out to be an great story that even has a happy ending given that Louis is still alive and thriving at age 96, consulting on the production of a biopic about his life (coming this year). You can also look for episodes of the 1970s TV series "Baa Baa Black Sheep" that featured the exploits of Pappy Boyington, who flew missions in the South Pacific and at one point was in the same prison camp as Zamperini. I loved that show!
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