Boys in the Boat

By Daniel James Brown

The story starts off at the Washington University Shell house, this building was once an old military seaplane launch at the end of World War 1. This place will be a place of a lot of learning and pain. Joe Rantz, a twelve year old boy is left by his parents because his parents can no longer afford to feed him. This means that Joe has to live with his aunt and uncle in Seattle. Because of this Joe feels insecure but once he finds the University of Washington’s Rowing Crew his life changes for the better. Before Joe went to Seattle he spent most of his life chopping wood and working on a farm. All of these jobs mean that Joe has plenty of muscle of put into rowing. All of this is happening during the time that World War 2 was just starting and the Great Depression was going to start in a few years. The first day that Joe is at the Washington University shell house the coaches can see that Joe and the rest of his sophomore crew members have a great career ahead of them. Once the boys have trained for a little while they race against Washington’s JV (Junior Varsity) boat and win by a staggeringly large win of two boat lengths. After that race they race against their Varsity boat and they also beat them. Coach Bolles was proud of his boys but didn’t show that to them, they had to become better to beat their rival crew, California. The race starts of with Washington and California neck and neck for about the first 500 meters of a 2000 meter race. Washington starts off at a stroke rate of 32 and end with a stroke rate of 32, but on the other hand California has a very hard time to come close to the Washington sophomores. This was the final attempt of California to win the race, “In the Cal boat, Grover Clark pulled the whistle from his mouth and screamed out, ‘Gimme ten big ones!’-the standard call in rowing for ten mammoth strokes, strokes as hard and as powerful as each oarsman can muster.” After that race the boys go on to beat schools like Syracuse and Poughkeepsie. Without Rowing Joe would have had to go out back to his old house and chop some more wood.

I thought that the most interesting part of this book was when Joe and the rest of his crew were rowing on the North end of the lake and they were rowing at the prettiest time of the day, “At the north end of the lake, the coxswain called out ‘Way ...’nuff!’ The boys stopped rowing and the shell glided to a stop, the long oars trailing in the water alongside them. Dark clouds fringed with silver moonlight scudded by overhead, carried by the winds aloft.” I thought that this was one of the most descriptive quotes in a book I have ever read. I also liked how the author described how Joe felt when rowing, rowing will give you a peaceful and almost meditative feeling and the author knew exactly how to describe that feeling. “The boys had caught their breaths, and they were talking softly, not joking for a change, not horsing around, just talking quietly about the lights and what lay before them.” This meditative feeling is something that you can only feel if you have just rowed or are rowing.

This book has inspired me to continue rowing competitively. I learned from this book to continue rowing no matter the circumstances rain or shine, no complaining, just do it! I was amazed by what a good coach can do to some very motivated boys and how it can make them perform even better than they thought that they could perform themselves. All in all I am amazed by this book.