Friday, December 26, 2014

Opening paragraphs..............................

All he could see, in every direction, was water.
      It was late June 1943.  Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forces bombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a small raft, drifting westward.  Slumped alongside him was a sergeant, one of his plane's gunners.  On a separate raft, tethered to the first, lay another crewman, a gash zigzagging across his forehead.  Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had withered down to skeletons.  Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging their backs along the rafts, waiting.
-Laura Hillenbrand, from the Preface to Unbroken

My sweetie and I took the family to see the movie Unbroken last evening.  We suggest you see it.  After you do, if you are curious what post-traumatic stress can look like, read the book.  Powerful stuff.  A trailer for the movie is here.

1 comment:

  1. There's also a story on Laura Hillenbrand in last week's New York Times magazine (12/21/14). Includes background on the writing of the book...try this link (might need a subscription): http://tinyurl.com/pj8sfmh

    ...worth a read... - J.

    ReplyDelete