Book #18: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

I randomly picked this book up at the library where I teach because I vaguely remembered hearing about it a while ago. This book tells the story of the 1936 American Olympic rowing team and their origins at the University of Washington, particularly the story of one "boy in the boat," Joe Rantz, and his difficult childhood and upbringing and how rowing and the crew team saved him. The book and story reminded me of Seabiscuit and Unbroken, probably mainly because of the time period in which it was set, and also because it was a very well-written historical book. Both of Hillenbrand's books have really interesting chapters where she describes side issues like planes in WWII or the requirements of being a jockey in the 1930s, and this book had a lot of interesting information (but not too much to be overwhelming) about rowing/crew, which I'd never honestly thought much about before. It was fascinating learning about the development of the program and the rivalry between UW and UC Berkeley, and how the team trained and developed their skills. I also really liked reading about Joe's story and how he overcame these difficult, demoralizing obstacles without becoming bitter or hateful towards those who treated him badly. It was a really great sports story about a sport that I didn't know anything about, and it was a very good read.

I kind of just wish that Brown had had the idea about this story ten or fifteen years beforehand, so that he could have interviewed more of the original crew before they passed away. Joe Rantz's story was really fascinating, and I think it would have been really interesting to hear more about the other members of the team since Brown told his story so well. It felt a little misleading for the book to be named The Boys in the Boat when it was really just about one boy in the boat, but I guess it was inevitable because Rantz was one of only two surviving members by the time he started writing this book.