Publisher's Weekly Review
Retired U.S. Navy captain Coffee was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam from 1966 to 1973, most of the time in Hanoi and in a cell by himself. How he endured and what he learned from the experience are the subjects of this inspiring book. By calling on his inner resources, such as his faith in God, his conviction that the United States was right to be in Vietnam, his love for his wife and children, and his respect for his fellow prisoners, he was able to overcome loneliness and the pain of occasional torture. Each chapter is headed by a paragraph of invincible principles that Coffee discovered for himself during his ordeal: ``The only real security we have is the certainty that we're equipped to handle whatever happens to us''; ``Humor is integral to our peace of mind and ability to go beyond survival.'' First serial to Reader's Digest; Troll Book Club alternate. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
In the prison-inspirational tradition of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice--the heart-clutching memoir of a man who forged meaning while mired in hell. Coffee's crucible was his seven-year stint as a POW in North Vietnam. Coffee--now a professional speechmaker--begins each chapter of his extraordinary chronicle with a short homily (e.g., ""Laughter sets the spirit free to move through even the most tragic circumstances. . .Humor is integral to our peace of mind and ability to go beyond survival""), then illuminates that message by the light of personal example (e.g., how in the midst of POW camp horror--""here I was in this dismal, stinking hole, body broken, totally uncertain of my future""--he noticed a sign in the wall--""Smile, you're on Candid Camera""--that allowed him to laugh out loud at ""the beautiful guy who has mustered the moxie to rise above his own dejection and frustration and pain and guilt to inscribe a line of encouragement to those who would come after him""). Not that Coffee had much more to laugh at: this is a hallowing tale, rife with passages of physical and psychic suffering--beginning with then-fighter pilot Coffee's February 1966 ejection, arm broken and face burned, from his crippled jet into a North Vietnamese river and soon the cruel hands of NVA captors. Coffee holds little back: the wrenching of his arms from their sockets while hanging from the wrists during torture; his terrifying loneliness, and then elation when making clandestine contact with other Yank POWs; his reversion to masturbation to relieve sexual tension; his writing, under torture, a letter critical of the US--all forming a brutally frank background against which to soft-pedal his hard-won affirmation of positive humanitarian values: American values, by his consistently patriotic account. Only modestly inspiring--the tinge of jingoism undercuts the moral lessons--but effectively sentimental, and wholly gripping as a POW adventure. Cleverly aimed at a mid-American readership--serial rights sold to Reader's Digest--and it could hit a bull's-eye. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Coffee found some eternal principles within himself and others during the barbaric and brutal experience of being a Vietnam POW. ``Invincible Principles,'' such as faith in himself, faith in God, self-forgiveness, humor, and love of fellow POWs, enabled Coffee to survive seven years of extreme mistreatment and abuse. His gripping, compelling narrative of imprisonment certainly testifies convincingly that with a few simple certitudes one can survive dire circumstances. Coffee's ordeal makes most of life's ordinary setbacks seem eminently survivable. A well-written book; for general readers interested in the POW experience or inspirational and self-help advice.-- Mark K. Jones, Cincinnati (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.