The Boys in the Boat

I was up until 3:00am this morning finishing one of the best books I've ever read. The title is "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown.

It's not a brand new book; it's been out long enough for someone to be making a movie from it. But if you haven't read it, it's well worth doing so in my opnion.

In brief, it's the story of the University of Washington 9-man rowing crew who won the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The story is centered on one of the crew members, Joe Rantz, and it follows his life in the depression through a series of events that I doubt people of that age today could even survive.

The book is extremely well written in my opinon, and covers all the aspects of the sport, from the sheer physical agony of rowing a 60' shell in competition, to the buidling of the boats by the legendary George Pocock, to the mental struggles of achieving what it takes to win, to the blow-by-blow descriptions of the races themselves.

The book teaches a lot about character and what forms it.

Outstanding story, in my opinon. I gained a hell of a lot by reading it.

The 1936 UW crew is pictured below.

Agreed. It's a compelling and well written story. Pretty cool how the scrappy upstarts from a little town somewhere out west did so well!

Marin- Thanks for the tip, Just placed an order via Amazon.
AMJ

I probably should have added that the book is available on Kindle for quite a bit less than the paper edition.

My wife's book club recently read that book. At their meeting to talk about it, they invited Joe Rantz' daughter Judy to speak. She lives in the Seattle area. Very cool.

I'll track it down.

Got a few other recommendations but that may be too much of a hijack.

Our school was into rowing, of course our hero's were the Ist VIII.

I still vividly remember the six boats appearing at the bend in the river, neck a neck with the finish line 400 meters ahead and a couple of thousand school kids cheering their teams on for all they were worth.

In my six years we never managed to win, came very close though.Great sport.

Kindle?::confused Sheee Marin, forgive me for I have just come into glass boats from drift wood!!

Al

I rowed competitively for 7 years in secondary school and college so I was interested in this book and just got it.

Having a bit of difficulty getting into it as I am not sure I like the author's writing style. Will keep going though.

Used to row in wooden Pococks and Garofalos. I sank a Pocock 8 in the East River (NY) one time when swapping into the shell from a launch and my foot broke through the step plate and down and out the bottom. I was not popular that day. Shots (both medicinal and alcoholic) were required for all after the swim in those waters.

Thanks. Just got it on my Kindle!