The Facts
Author: Daniel
James Brown
Publication:
2013 Penguin Books
Length: 370
medium pages
Genre:
Nonfiction
Target
Audience: 14 and up
Now for the opinions. I had to read The
Boys in the Boat for my freshman course beginning next week, so I was a bit
proactive. My rating: 8 out of 10. Recommended.
Subtitled Nine Americans and Their
Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, this is a bit of a sports
story, a bit of a boat story, a bit of a Depression story, and a bit of a Nazi
Germany story. The author opens on a “grey day in a grey time” to paint the picture
of a poor farm boy whose only hope of staying at Washington State in 1933 is
making the crew team—against a good stiff bit of competition. Brown takes us
back through his childhood and up to the defining moment of Joe Rantz’s life—rowing
in front of Hitler for the USA at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
I enjoyed this book very much. Crew was never a sport I paid much
attention to, but after reading this, I will! It made crew interesting and
emotionally involving—no small feat for a sport that involves rowing skinny
shells over the water. Brown does an excellent job contrasting Depression-era
US with Germany and the building attitudes and programs of both countries. Some
may be surprised to learn that messed-up family lives aren’t just a modern
thing—people sinned then, too. Of course, like any well-written sports story, the
conclusion is nail-biting—so don’t skip to the end!
