Awww, man. Louie Zamperini, the subject of Laura Hillenbrand's book Unbroken sent her one of his two Purple Hearts after he read about her struggles with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in her story for the New Yorker "A Sudden Illness."

(He hadn't known about her illness when he was collaborating with her on his story until he read that piece. Her story really is harrowing, btw: "A Sudden Illness.")

Wow, that is very, very cool.

Wow, thank you for that link. What an amazing essay.

What an amazing essay.

Isn't it? I think for anybody who's had to deal with a chronic illness that's been hard to diagnose, dealing with the doubts of physicians and your family it's incredibly validating.

It's hard for me to read because I remember her as a very bouncy, very bright, very sassy 18 y.o. with her whole life ahead of her.

And I was in occasional contact with her during her long illness, but I really didn't understand it while it was going on. I'd send her a tape and wouldn't hear back from her for two years. I'd just presume she wasn't interested in corresponding when she was desperately holding on to the edge of her bed with hellish vertigo.

Isn't it? I think for anybody who's had to deal with a chronic illness that's been hard to diagnose, dealing with the doubts of physicians and your family it's incredibly validating.

Absolutely. I just went to an internist yesterday about my (way, way more minor) fatigue issues. Each time I've seen a new doctor, I've been afraid they might think I'm making it up, or that it's "all in my head," but everyone I've seen has been great. It would make everything so much harder to have doctors responding the way she had to go through.

It's amazing that she's been able to write these books while living through that kind of sickness.

It's hard for me to read because I remember her as a very bouncy, very bright, very sassy 18 y.o. with her whole life ahead of her.

That is hard. Her life has really ended up differently than anyone would have expected.

Did you go to Kenyon, David? I didn't realize you knew her. Cool.

The Bad Girls of Literature.

Awww, man. Louie Zamperini, the subject of Laura Hillenbrand's book Unbroken sent her one of his two Purple Hearts after he read about her struggles with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in her story for the New Yorker "A Sudden Illness."

That was a wonderful thing to do. I had heard about Laura Hillenbrand having CFS, but I had no idea how severe it has been. What an incredible story.

Did you go to Kenyon, David? I didn't realize you knew her. Cool.

I was good friends with her older sister, Siouxsie, who also went to Kenyon. I was graduated by the time she started at Kenyon, but we'd started a correspondence when Laura was about Emmett's age. I remember I sent her something for her 16th birthday.

I had a long involved correspondence with Sioux when she was at Exeter for a year, and Ralf (aka, Laura) started writing to me as well. Their older sister and some of their friends started writing to me too. Ahhh, letters. It was fun. (I've got one of her doctored teenage postcards on my fridge. Presciently - considering Unbroken - it has a WWII bomber on it with her picture pasted on in the corner.)

And then we just had a sporadic correspondence over time as her CFS got worse. Actually I'd fallen out of touch with her when I went on Amazon in 2001 to check how my Bubblegum book was doing and saw that the #1 seller was by Laura Hillenbrand. And at the time you could email the author directly through Amazon, which I did and we reconnected.

And then...lost touch again until her sister emailed me last year and now (long story, sorry) I'm friends with her on Facebook.

In short: the only time I met her in person was when I was driving my mom's car back from Florida to Boston, and stopped to see them at their place in Maryland and it was the weekend of Live Aid. So we watched that for a couple hours and then I hit the road again.

The sloth talk in Natter reminded me to mention Lauren Beukes' Zoo City here - it's a pretty amazing read (& Arthur C. Clarke winner).