Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Discuss | Reviews | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
by Daniel James BrownFor 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 togethera 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 timesthe 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.
Prologue
In a sport like thishard work, not much glory, but still popular in every centurywell, there must be some beauty which ordinary men can't see, but extraordinary men do. George Yeoman Pocock
This book was born on a cold, drizzly, late spring day when I clambered over the split-rail cedar fence that surrounds my pasture and made my way through wet woods to the modest frame house where Joe Rantz lay dying.
I knew only two things about Joe when I knocked on his daughter Judy's door that day. I knew that in his midseventies he had single-handedly hauled a number of cedar logs down a mountain, then hand-split the rails and cut the posts and installed all 2,224 linear feet of the pasture fence I had just climbed overa task so herculean I shake my head in wonderment whenever I think about it. And I knew that he had been one of nine young men from the state of Washingtonfarm boys, fishermen, and loggerswho shocked both the rowing world and...
Book Suggestions - Ones I LOVED
When I did Readers Advisory while working at the public library, I always suggested "Ordinary Grace" & "River We Remember" by William Kent Krueger, "Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown, "Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer, "Bookish Life of Nina Hill" by Abi Waxma...
-Carol_Ann_Robb
If you liked The Boys in the Boat, try these:
The Boys in the Boat meets A League of Their Own in this true story of a Depression-era championship women's team.
The inspirational, untold story of impoverished children who transformed themselves into world-class swimmers.
Dictators ride to and fro on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!