The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

If you like narrative non-fiction, in the style of Laura Hillebrand, you have to read Boys in the Boat.

Honestly, I couldn't really fathom how a book about rowing boats down a river was going to be soooo interesting, but I ended up really caring about the boys, their coaches, and the man who crafted their beautiful boats. Throw in some compelling history about the Nazi Germany propaganda machine, and I was pretty hooked.

The book follows an 8 man crew team from Washington University, and more specifically, one boy on the team named Joe Rantz. Joe had a very tumultuous childhood, and is the type of character you can really root for to succeed.

The book does a great job of keeping the reader engaged by weaving tales of Joe with stories of show more the extremely hard training the crew teams endures with anecdotes of the supporting cast of characters and history of the times.

The descriptions of rowing and the races make you feel like you are right there . . .so the excitement of the sport comes through.

Some might complain there was too much detail, but for me, this book was five star all the way.

UPDATE: Re-read this one, and it was just as good the second time around. show less

The Boys in the Boat - D.J. Brown
Published 2013
audio performance by E. Herman
4 stars

This is a very well told story. The 1938 Berlin Olympics is iconic in 20th century history. The winners, the losers, its location and its propaganda value, make it one of the most remembered of modern Olympics. Daniel Brown uses just the right combination of biographical human interest and historical stage setting to give the team rowing competition the same importance as Jesse Owens or Louis Zamperini.

The biographical focus of the story is Joe Rantz. All the details of his difficult family life (or lack there of), and his depression era financial struggles, become the backstory of one eighth of a championship team. Joe Rantz and his teammates are an show more underdog story. They are not from families of the ivy league, financial elite. The odds were stacked against them long before freshman team tryouts.

There were a lot of people involved in this story. I loved the way each personality was brought to life. Brown used direct interviews, diary and journal entries and newspaper quotes. He was not overbearing in his use of historical statistics. The grim financial figures of the depression were balanced with their individual human impact. I liked the way Washington State Crew team workouts were juxtaposed against Hitler’s rise to power. The only time that the story became a bit tedious was during Coach Ulbrickson’s interminable indecision about the final team choices for the Olympic boat. Having advance knowledge of the final decision made me lose interest for a while.

I listened to the great Edward Herman read this one. He was wonderful. It’s sad that he won’t be around to read any new books. I also had a text copy, which is very important because it has photographs. show less

Subtitled "Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics". This book has so much going for it, it's almost too good to be true. But, as they say, you just can't make this stuff up. This is the story of Washington State's 1930's rowing program-- its incredible coaches; the boat builder who was surely a wizard, and who provided them (and many of their competitors) with superbly crafted racing shells but also advised and inspired the boys; and, of course, the boys themselves. Young men from working class families (some with virtually no family), who struggled to compete with the privileged crews of Eastern schools like Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Penn and with their local perennial rival, Cal Berkley. I am amazed show more at the detail regarding boat-building, the physics of rowing, the play-by-play of so many races, the lives of the crew (one in particular) and most especially the narrative gift that kept me interested in all of it for close to 400 pages. The chilling look at Hitler's preparations for the Berlin Olympics in 1936 was worth reading the book for. It is essential to remember how easily people can be manipulated and deceived. I began this "read" as an audio book narrated by Edward Hermann. I had just finished another of his reads, and wanted more of his voice. This book came recommended, but I'm not sure I would have picked it up in print--it was really Hermann who brought me to it. Then I had to return the audio version to the library before I was finished, as there was a waiting list for it. I was somewhat surprised to find the text every bit as compelling for me without Hermann's magic to move it along. And may I say Brown's description of the 1936 Olympic gold medal race had me on tenterhooks...even though I already knew how it came out! This is narrative non-fiction at its best, and there is important history in it. Highly recommended.
February 2016 show less

As a reader of mostly fiction, this story in some ways seems fictional due to the manner in which its told. Back story of the coach, team members and boat builder coupled with flashes of the Nazi movement quicken the pace. We're drawn into the story of Joe Rantz, a boy who was rejected numerous times by his family, yet somehow manages to build mental toughness, compassion and find joy with his teammates. And boy what a group of guys these oarsmen were. But the story is FAR more than just Joe's; its the story of spirit, triumph, joy and synergy. One that inspires and quickens the heartbeat. I couldn't put it down especially when the boys make it to the medal round at the Berlin Olympics. It felt as if I was in the stands watching these show more fearless guys overcome adversity..AMAZING! show less

http://tinyurl.com/y87yk6z3

A delightful read, all around. If I had any issues with it, they were at the beginning.

If you ignore the blather about rowing being the most difficult sport ever, the beginning is palatable. For goodness sake, there are tons of sports that involve folks pushing past the limits of their endurance to just. go. one. more. little. bit. further. Just ask any runner, for instance.

So, that was ridiculous, but after that it is beautifully written. At its core, it's showcasing the personal growth of one specific member of the boat, while simultaneously telling the tale of their journey to the Olympics (hey, if you don't know they won, you're not paying close enough attention) and the sheer horror of Hitler's show more administration. Because Brown got to speak directly with that crew member and his daughter, there is a consistently strong element of veracity that really shapes and brings meaning to the story he's telling.

There were several times in this book when he brought tears to my eyes - especially at the end when he describes how life treated each "boy" after the Olympics, but also during the lead-up to the games when you realize how many false starts occurred, how often chance intervened in their favor, and how difficult it was to become the team they wanted to be.

Read this book if you want to remember the value of cooperation and what it can do for the human spirit. show less

I could care less about rowing or the struggles of the team positioned for the 1936 Olympics endured. However, from beginning to end, this was a fascinating read. The reader is instantly afforded the ability to picture perfectly what the author describes, from scenery to emotion. The struggles, the heartaches, successes and lives of each person involved in this story were illuminating and inspirational.

How did nine college students, many of them working class growing up in the Seattle area during the Depression, take the 1936 Berlin Olympics by surprise in their quest for rowing fame? Daniel James Brown takes you step by step, from the technical details of rowing, creating the boat, and the rivalry between Washington and California in rowing, when Joe Rantz and the other boys showed up as freshman in college to their varsity year and finally to the Olympics.

Joe Rantz's story from poor kid, the death of his mother and his father's subsequent remarriage, abandonment and his determination to make something of himself, is very much the heart of this story. Though I liked the technical details for giving me a grasp of a sport I knew show more nothing about, they also slow down the narrative occasionally "catching a crab" as rowing parlance would have it, making me feel a like the oar of my reading was just a tad stuck in the water. But then an exciting description of a race or the detailed care with which we get to know Joe's thoughts and feelings, or perhaps an observation from one of the other boys, carried me along and finally had me holding my breath through the description of the Olympic race even though I knew the outcome. I was surprised by how little the Olympics played into the story: mostly, it was all about the preparation leading up to that moment. Brown does an excellent job of bringing in other historical details that helped me set the story in a particular time and place, making connections between what was going on in Europe at the time and other sports legends and stories of the 1930s. show less