The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics: by Daniel James Brown

This book is a marvelous tale told by a Pacific Northwest author about a triumph of Pacific Northwest men on a national stage and then an international stage. It's the thrilling tale of the crew team of the University of Washington of 1936. While Daniel James Brown begins with and focuses on one of the members of the crew, Joe Rantz, he includes the stories of all of the crew, of the coaches, and even of the boatwright who lovingly built their shells.

Brown came across this story when he met Joe Rantz near the end of his, Rantz's life. And a fascinating story it is. Orphaned at four years of age, he was forced out of his father's home, at the age of ten, by his new mother-in-law. He coped through the persistence and hard work that characterized him throughout his life. Joe Rantz's way of affording to attend the University of Washington was by going out for crew in his freshman year, 1933. Having been selected to occupy seat three of the first boat of freshman crew, Joe met the cast of characters who fill the rest of the book. George Yeoman, boatwright transplanted from England and entirely devoted to rowing and to the construction of the finest shell possible; Tom Bolles, freshman crew coach, who successfully taught lads who knew next to nothing about crew how to row a shell; Al Ulbrickson, Phi Beta Kappa head crew coach.

Brown unfolds the story of the unlikely victories of Rantz's crew as freshmen and as upperclassmen. There are the victories over the West Coast nemesis, the U. of California, over the East Coast Ivy Leagues crews accustomed to dominating the sport. In 1936 the University of Washington crew beat Cal, won the national championship, won right to represent the US at the Olympic Games, and then triumphed over the favored German and Italian teams, with an appalled Adolf Hitler watching.

What makes this book special for me is the skill with which Brown teaches me about the intricacies of rowing, of shell-building, of the superhuman effort required of each member of the crew during every race. Brown is especially good at describing each race. Though we know the outcome each time, Brown keeps me reading breathlessly, almost stroke by stroke, until Rantz's shell crosses the finish line.

It's a full book and a full read. Brown includes fascinating detail about life in the Great Depression, the preparation in Hitler's Germany for hosting the 1936 Olympics, and much more Just as the story is about a group of upstart proletarians achieving victory over the socially elite rowers of the Ivy League, The Boys in the Boat has won runaway best seller status despite being ignored by the East Coast book industry-no review in the New York Times, none in the New York Book Review of Books. Just one in the Boston Globe. You'll enjoy this book.