My Mixed Feeling for “Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give” In by Louis Zamperini

Louis Zamperini.  Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In: Lessons from an Extraordinary Life.  New York, NY: Dey Street Book, November 18^th, 2014.  238 pp.

I had mixed feeling about the book.  There’s no question that Louis Zamperini lived an extraordinary life.  Louis Zamperini is an Olympian, war hero, celebrity and famous convert of Billy Graham’s ministry.  Here in this book Zamperini talks about his life in his own words.

 

First with the positive.  It was insightful to hear Zamperini’s life being described by the one who knows it best: Zamperini himself.  I actually picked this book over Laura Hillenbrand’s biography of Zamperini because of the firsthand account.  I know the recent movie must have made this book popular but I wanted to read the book first before I watch the film (if I ever get around to it).  There were times I appreciated the first hand humor of Zamperini himself.  You get a feel for his personality.  You also get the feel of his positive “can-do” attitude.  I also appreciated the book for its stories of Zamperini meeting different kinds of people throughout his life.  What an interesting life he lived!  Very unusual for then and even for today.  I thought the most interesting chapters in Zamperini life was his account of being a POW in a Japanese prison camp and a notorious prison guard nicknamed “the Bird.”  I remember hearing this story for the first time during the Winter Olympics on Television when I was a kid in the 90s.  The fact that Zamperini was able to forgive this man was such a powerful testimony—and no doubt it has made Zamperini a famous household name for so many generations.

Yet on the other hand since Zamperini is often associated for his Christian conversion I also was disappointed with Zamperini’s shallow theology found in the book.  There’s not necessarily a biblical view of sin reflected in his worldview.  There’s a lot of unhealthy emphasis on self-confidence.  Zamperini at times sounds like a Pelagian.  I think even the positive part of the Gospel such as grace and mercy wasn’t as biblically explained.  I was really disappointed really.  Zamperini’s talk about loving and kissing Angelina Jolie was also kind of weird.  He’s talking about kissing her on the lips and saying that he told Brad Pitt that he wished he could have her.  I cringed.  Awkward.  She’s married.  Biblically speaking, there’s a line drawn somewhere between lusting after a man’s wife and there’s also a lack of personal wisdom with some personal boundaries with someone else’s man’s wife.  Some might have thought it was cute—but if it wasn’t a famous Olympian who survived in a plane that’s shot down in the Pacific who had a movie based upon his life—would people have thought Zamperini was a creepy old man let alone being Christ-like?

Purchase: Amazon