Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II | 
 enlarge | Authors: Louis Zamperini, David Rensin
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 87540
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0060934212
Dewey Decimal Number: 355
EAN: 9780060934217
ASIN: 0060934212
Publication Date: February 2004
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Product Description
The "inspirational" and "extraordinary" memoir of one of the most courageous of the greatest generation, Louis Zamperini: Olympian, WWII Japanese POW and survivor. A juvenile delinquent, a world class NCAA miler, a 1936 Olympian, a WWII bombardier: Louis Zamperini had a fuller than most, when it changed in an instant. On May 27, 1943, his B–24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other survivors found a raft amid the flaming wreckage and waited for rescue. Instead, they drifted two thousand miles for forty–seven days. Their only food: two shark livers and three raw albatross. Their only water: sporadic rainfall. Their only companions: hope and faith–and the ever–present sharks. On the forty–seventh day, mere skeletons close to death, Zamperini and pilot Russell Phillips spotted land–and were captured by the Japanese. Thus began more than two years of torture and humiliation as a prisoner of war. Zamperini was threatened with beheading, subject to medical experiments, routinely beaten, hidden in a secret interrogation facility, starved and forced into slave labour, and was the constant victim of a brutal prison guard nicknamed the Bird–a man so vicious that the other guards feared him and called him a psychopath. Meanwhile, the Army Air Corps declared Zamperini dead and President Roosevelt sends official condolences to his family, who never gave up hope that he was alive. Somehow, Zamperini survived and he returned home a hero. The celebration was short–lived. He plunged into drinking and brawling and the depths of rage and despair. Nightly, the Bird's face leered at him in his dreams. It would take years, but with the love of his wife and the power of faith, he was able to stop the nightmares and the drinking. A stirring memoir from one of the greatest of the "Greatest Generation," DEVIL AT MY HEELS is a living document about the brutality of war, the tenacity of the human spirit, and the power of forgiveness.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 An amazing man; an incredible story, a must read!! July 27, 2008
Louis Zamperini was an amazing man, and his life story is so well written I have read it 3 times myself, recommended this book to many and sent it as gifts. I have never heard anything but high praise for the book. I read with disappointment the negative review by Belmonte who had to read it for a history class; my hat goes off to the teacher who recommended it. It made me sad that students of this generation would find reading about someone like Zamperini, a true hero of the "Greatest Generation", such a bore.
Couldn't put this one down! July 12, 2007
This tale reads like Candide or Forest Gump, but of course this isn't fiction. The life of Louis Zamperini is, in a word, incredible; it's no wonder that they know as the Greatest Generation. Anyone who is interested in WWII, military service, or survival tales will enjoy this story. This is a must read!
 Worst Book I've Ever Read March 16, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book has no plot and constantly repeats itself. He alo takes much of the time to promote the books of his other POW friends. The only touching pat of the book is one passge that lasts about a page. DON'T READ!!! I had to read it for a histroy class, but I had such a hard time staying focused on such a bad book!
Devil at My heels January 23, 2006
Having received this book as a Christams gift from a buddy of mine , it is an absolutelly astonishing and wonderful read!
A great story of a one of what we now call "The Greatest Generation".
My buddy was a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association's crew that travels with a world war two bomber called FUDDY DUDDY, and while at Van Nuys California airport , he met Louis Zamperini personally and told me Mr Zamperini just kind of "hung out" with the FUDDY DUDDY crew in April 2005 for about three days and shared his stories with them.
So my buddy bought two copies from Louis Zamperini and asked him to autograph them, so I received mine for Christmas 2005.
What a great story and hope someday I can meet Louis Zamperini!
He is truly an American Hero!
This review written by
Edward DeBolt
Grabill, Indiana
Testimony to the Apex of Human Forgiveness January 20, 2006
What More can be said or added to the astonishing account of survival by Louis Zamperini. After enduring forty-seven days in a life raft, being shot down in the middle of the Pacific, he prevailed for two more years as a POW in a Japanese prison camp.
Following his release and being welcomed home as a war hero, Zamperini sank into despair and heavy drinking,only to be rescued from the depths of hopelessness through the ministry of the great evangelist Billy Graham.
His story is at once extraordinary and inspiring-a powerful testimony to the stalwartness of the human spirit, particularly in light of the fact that upon revisiting the site of his tortuous existence he found it in his heart to forgive his brutal captors.
Even if one is only remotely inclined to revisit events that occurred surrounding US POW's in the Pacific during WWII,the reader will find this narrative the best of the best. This reader salutes you, Louis, and others like you for reminding us that the "greatest generation" continues to illuminate and enkindle.
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