A Beloved Book – A Review of The Boys In The Boat 12.12.23

When I reviewed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on this blog almost two years ago, I wrote then that my intent was “to put reviews of most, if not all of the books that I have read on the blog … one day.”  I now realize that will NEVER happen. However, there will be books that I will feel compelled to review.  And The Boys In The Boat is one of them.

Back in 2006 I started giving books to my children each year at Christmas with an inscription.  And I continue to do so.  They include nonfiction titles like The Road Less Traveled and Mere Christianity as well as fiction titles such as Cutting for Stone and Where The Crawdads Sing. In some instances, I had recently met the author. These books are not the top 50 books that I have ever read, but they contain a message or theme that was important or topical to me at the time. It was a way of sharing a part of myself.  So, after reading The Boys In The Boat in 2015, I gave each of my sons a copy of that book for Christmas that year.  And this will come as no surprise – like most books in the “Daddy Library,” it was not read by any of them. And that is ok.  Maybe they will form a book club after I pass away and will read them then.

Speaking of book clubs – I am now a part of one organized by our sons. It includes our three sons and several of their friends.  I am beginning to suspect that the only reason I am in the book club is to gain unlimited access to zoom for our calls. So, imagine my surprise and delight when our son Carter suggested that we read The Boys In The Boat in our book club! I am still not sure why he suggested it.  Maybe it was because we had just read HHhH, which recounts the successful assassination attempt of Reinhard Heydrich, who led the Nazi SS and was the architect of the “Final Solution.”  Like HHhH, it is based on a true story that takes place in the 1930s during the Nazi’s rise to power.  Or maybe it was because the book is about to be released as a major film produced and directed by George Clooney.  Whatever the reason, I was just happy that Carter had chosen one of the books from the Daddy Library for our book club. So, I read it again. Because all of us enjoyed the book so much, and because the move is being released on Christmas, we all agreed that we are going to see the movie together right after Christmas.

So, what is The Boys In The Boat about?  The inside of the jacket cover contains quotes with all kinds of superlatives from various newspapers and authors.  But I will quote James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys. “In 1936 nine working-class American boys burst from their small towns into the international limelight, unexpectedly wiping the smile off of Adolph Hitler’s face by beating his vaunted German team to capture the Olympic gold medal.  Daniel James Brown has written a robust, emotional snapshot of an era, a book you will recommend to your best friends.”

As Jack said in our book club as he began reading the book, “I know they end up winning the Gold medal, but based on how the book starts, I cannot imagine how they do so.” Because the book is organized into four parts, we met four times while reading the book.  And as we got deeper into the book and the story, Jack kept repeating that he still could not believe they actually pull it off.  And that is one of the many facets of the book that makes in compelling and inspirational reading.  After meeting Joe Rantz, the main character in the book, the author asked if he could write a story about Joe’s rowing days. Joe agrees but says, “But not just about me. It has to be about the boat.” And that theme of transcending oneself by giving yourself up to a group or idea that is bigger than yourself is what Joe meant about the boat. And the author does a masterful job of going back to that theme several times in the book without overdoing it.  It is almost as if Brown, like a painter who uses just a hint of a specific color or shadow on a canvas to create a masterpiece, knew exactly when to bring that theme back into the story to create the most emotional impact.

There is a scene where Pocock, an Englishman who relocated to Seattle to build the boats that most of the racing teams in the United States use, gives some friendly advice to Joe, “What mattered more than how hard a man rowed was how well everything he did in the boat harmonized with what the other fellows were doing. And a man couldn’t harmonize with his crewmates unless he opened his heart to them. He had to care about his crew. It wasn’t just the rowing but his crewmates that he had to give himself up to, even if it meant getting his feeling hurt.”

Like most of the boys who would form the final nine members who would make sports history, Joe has a very difficult and impoverished childhood. And like many people who became used to self-reliance as a way of life, Joe had to change his world view.  And inside the boat became the means by which he does so. And that is why he cried when he told the author it has to be about the boat.

But what makes the book so extraordinary is how the author uses beautiful prose to combine world history, sports, human interest, weather, oppression and inspiration into a narrative that builds into a suspenseful crescendo with the reader coming to tears by the end of the book.  Even after reading it a second time, I had an emotional hangover at the end.  That, my friends, is grand storytelling. During our final discussion last night Carter succinctly and accurately described the book as, “the perfect non-fiction mass market novel.”  I like that because the book is almost perfect, and it does have universal appeal.  As George Clooney said during an interview about making the movie, “This is a ‘feel-good’ story. And with all of the negative stuff the world is going through, the world needs a feel-good story right now.”

And I think Bradley is right when he said that “this is a book you will recommend to your best friends.” Last night I asked each of our book club participants if they would recommend this book to their best friends. They laughed and said their best friends had already read it because they were on the call. After a few chuckles one of them said they had not met a single person who had read the book who did not love it.  The boys in the book became very best friends and remained that way for the rest of their lives. Maybe that is why Bradley said it is a book you will recommend to your best friends.

So, I highly recommend reading The Boys In The Boat.  And if you are like me and have already read it, it is worth reading again.  I do hope the movie is half as good as the book. That would be a great Christmas present to the world.  Enjoy.