Rumble in the Jungle

    In 2010 there was Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand's celebrated tale of Louis Zamperini, WWII airman who survives a crash over the Pacific, 40 days on a raft, and then, as if life hadn't toyed with him enough----multiple Japanese POW camps.  A year later something similar, Lost in Shangri-La. More downed WWII aircraft. More tests of strength and endurance. More real people never giving in or giving up.
  While Unbroken is the story of one man in the middle of an ocean, Shangri-La is the story of three survivors in the middle of Dutch New Guinea's impenetrable jungles with cannabilistic tribesman thrown in for good measure. One of three passengers to survive the fiery crash was Margaret Hastings, a 30-year-old corporal in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) who looked more like a Hollywood starlet than a secretary assigned to the Far East Air Service Command. An informal picture taken of Hastings in 1945 appears in the book's opening pages, and I had to look twice because I thought Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon had shown up on page two.
   Hastings, an Owego, NY, native, signed up for an atypical field trip on May 13, 1945. Each seat in the "Gremlin Special," a C-47  Skytrain, was filled for the 150-mile trip to Shangri-La, a hidden valley found in the thick of the Oranje Mountains.
 Author Mitchell Zuckoff, whose marvelous book is on par with Unbroken in my opinion,  describes the objective that day as a place time forgot. The thousands occupying the 30-mile long valley looked like something out of the Stone Age--barely clothed men and boys, women in fiber skirts, gardens and fields teeming with workers, thatched-roof huts, and pigs on the loose. It was sighted from the cockpit of a reconnaissance plane scanning the island for potential landing sites, and soon after its discovery bored soldiers wanted a glimpse for themselves. The sightseeing flights were a welcome diversion to life on the island, and that day nine WACs  and 15 servicemen were aboard for a three hour tour that took a deadly turn.
  The fate of the aircraft and the survivors made each new chapter more exciting than the next. Zuckoff used diaries and Army documents, photos, interviews and his own trip to New Guinea to recreate each step out of the burning plane, through the jungle and into the hands of the local tribesman.
   But that's just the first half of the book. Wait to you meet the rescuers--brave paratroopers and medics who jumped in for the rescue without a firm plan to return home. Miraculous.
  This book should appeal to lots of people: WWII buffs, armchair anthropologists, maybe even fans of the weekly show Survivor. I never thought I'd read a book as gripping and taut as Unbroken, but this comes mighty close. It's the perfect antidote for these dog-days of August.

The Push from the Book: each book we read leaves its mark and gives you a push: a new way of thinking, a new take on life, new ideas, new goals. Here's what this book did to me: 
  I am re-evaluating my wimp factor. It's way too high. All these survivor stories are making me feel like I need to buck up. Margaret suffered serious burns. Another passenger, Ken Decker, emerged with a deep gash in his head. John McCollum, who lost a twin brother in the crash, heroically tended their wounds and guided them to safety. The soldiers who parachuted in to provide medical care and support knew there was no exit strategy. All great examples of the can-do spirit of the Greatest Generation, correct?
   Be calm. Be cool. Be brave. I'm workin' on it.