Today was a better day at work…but then the car battery was dead so my husband was late picking me up. My car is in the shop, so of course the other car decides to act up as well. Happened last time my car needed to be fixed. Oh well, it’s Saturday and I have the next three days off.
For readers of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Unbroken, the dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics.Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936. The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism. Drawing on the boys' own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam's The Amateurs.
I listened to the audio version of this, narrated by the late, great, Edward Herrman.
If Edward Herrman wasn’t the narrator of this book, I probably wouldn’t have read/listened to this book. I don’t follow sports, especially rowing (or crew as I think it’s called). It definitely would have gone over my radar but I enjoyed listening to Unbroken, which also would have flown over my radar.
I am glad that I gave this book a chance. It wasn’t the best book I have ever read, and honestly, there were a few times that I questioned my choice to listen to this. I held on though, and while this wasn’t my favorite book, it was the type of book that grew on me. I do enjoy stories where a person works their way up from nothing, and this was exactly that type of story. That it was a true story just makes it all the better.
Rating: Four stars.
“It takes energy to get angry. It eats you up inside. I can’t waste my energy like that and expect to get ahead. When they left, it took everything I had in me just to survive. Now I have to stay focused. I’ve just gotta take care of it myself’ Joe Rantz”
― Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Portable Magic 