Worth Reading
Is The Boys in the Boat worth reading? My verdict is yes, with one warning about its pacing. Daniel James Brown tells the story of the University of Washington crew that won Olympic gold in Berlin in nineteen thirty six, and he does it through one boy in particular.
I’ll give you the verdict, what the book does well, where it drags, the key takeaways, and who should read it. This review is light on spoilers. The gold medal is announced in the prologue, so I’ll say nothing about the race itself.
What It Is
It is narrative nonfiction. Brown is a writer from outside Seattle, and the prologue tells how the book began. He met Joe Rantz, an old man dying of congestive heart failure, who had been one of the nine in the boat. Joe liked the idea of a book. But he told Brown it had to be about the boat, and not just about him.
That sentence sets the book’s structure. By my count, the text from prologue to epilogue is about one hundred forty six thousand words. It has a prologue, nineteen chapters, an epilogue, and an author’s note, in four parts, running from eighteen ninety nine to nineteen thirty six.
Every chapter, the prologue and the epilogue open with a quote from George Yeoman Pocock, the boat builder. I counted twenty one. He is the book’s philosophical voice, and the quotes are short enough to enjoy.
What Works
First, Joe. His story is the emotional spine, and it is the strongest material here. At about fifteen, he is left to fend for himself in an unfinished house. The book makes you feel the moment he decides to depend on nobody. Then it spends hundreds of pages showing that decision cost him something.
Second, the rowing is explained well. Brown tells you what the sport does to the body, and he does it with numbers. A two thousand meter race takes the same toll as two basketball games played back to back, in about six minutes. I had never thought of rowing that way.
Third, the setting. Seattle in nineteen thirty three is gray, wet and poor, with shantytowns on the waterfront. The boys are not rich. When the university needs money to send them east, and later to Berlin, you feel that the whole city is behind them.
Fourth, the main race. I won’t describe it. I will say that it fills most of a chapter, and Brown uses that space to follow the coxswain, the stroke, the coach on the balcony, and the crowd, one beat at a time.
Where It Drags
My honest opinion, which is a draft: the book is longer than the story needs. It has side trips, and some are very good, like Pocock’s workshop. Some are less so, like a long tour of Seattle sports history in the middle.
Then there are the Germany chapters. Brown cuts away from Seattle to Berlin, where the Nazi government is preparing the games. He shows Leni Riefenstahl, the filmmaker, Joseph Goebbels, and the cleaning up of the city before the visitors arrive. Hitler is named about one hundred times by my count. Joyce, Joe’s girlfriend, is named one hundred twenty three times, and Al Ulbrickson, the coach, more than four hundred.
I think the Berlin sections give the Olympics their stakes. But they interrupt the rhythm, and some readers will want to get back to the boat. If you do, the chapter openings tell you where you are.
Last, the cast is big. Nine boys, a coxswain, two coaches, a boat builder and rivals. Brown leans on Joe so you never get lost, and in the parts I read, some of the other boys get less room.
The Rowing Lessons
You do not need to know rowing, because the book teaches it as it goes. Here are things I learned from it.
A rowing eight is a long, narrow shell. The book describes keeping a vessel only twenty four inches wide on an even keel, roughly the width of a man’s waist. A top rower may need to take in as much as eight liters of oxygen per minute.
Ulbrickson likes to joke that a rower scrimmages on his posterior annex, since the sport happens from a sliding seat. The freshmen learn on a battered practice boat called Old Nero, then on wider, steadier shell barges, before anyone gets into a racing shell.
The coxswain is the one who steers and calls the race, and the book shows why that job is tactical. The best passages let you watch a coxswain think. It is strategy told at the speed of a boat.
Joe and Joyce
I want to say something about the love story, because it surprised me. Joyce is in the book from Joe’s teenage years in Sequim. He tells her he never fails to find a four leaf clover, because the only time you don’t find one is when you stop looking.
That line becomes a kind of motto, and the book returns to it. She is why his story is about more than a sport. Without her, the book would be a sports history. With her, it is a life.
Sources and Notes
This is nonfiction with a lot of research behind it. The author’s note says the original manuscript had well over a thousand endnotes, and the ebook prints a condensed version of them. That means you can check where a scene came from.
The ebook also has an index, photographs, and a dedication to the nine rowers. I like that Brown credits Joe’s daughter Judy Willman, and says the book owes its heart and soul to her.
Content Notes
Because of the Berlin chapters, the book includes antisemitism, the persecution of Jewish people and Roma families, and Nazi propaganda. They are told plainly. There is also real poverty and family abandonment in Joe’s childhood. None of it is gratuitous, but it is there.
Key Takeaways
Here are the key takeaways, as I read them.
One, you rely on the people around you. The book’s idea is that a boat only works when each person gives up being the star. Coach Ulbrickson looks for one quality above strength, the willingness to throw ego over the gunwales.
Two, trust is learned the hard way. Joe has to unlearn the lesson his family taught him. The book shows him stepping into a crew and realizing he can only row well when he trusts the boys around him.
Three, hard conditions make people. The boys cut from the original one hundred seventy five do not quit because they’re weak. Many quit because they never expected how much it would hurt.
Four, a craft is a philosophy. Pocock builds boats and thinks about harmony, balance and rhythm. The book keeps coming back to his idea that rowing well is a kind of touching the divine.
Five, the games were a performance. The book argues that Berlin was staged, and that the staging worked. That is Brown’s argument, and he backs it with scenes from the city. Judge for yourself.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you like true stories about underdogs. Read it if you want a history of the Depression that is warm rather than grim. Read it if you’ve never watched rowing, since the book assumes nothing.
It also works for sports fans, because the tactics are explained. It works for teams, coaches, and anyone who has worked in a group and wondered why some groups click.
The language is plain and the prose is warm. I would hand it to someone who says they don’t read nonfiction.
Who Should Skip It
Skip it if you want a fast, tight sports story. This is a slow build. Skip it if you want the Olympics told without the Nazi context. The book will not leave that out.
And skip it if you want a deep biography of all nine boys. The book picks Joe, and it keeps the rest in the background on purpose.
The Film
There is also a movie. As of November two thousand twenty six, it is reported that George Clooney directed a film of the same name, released in the United States on December twenty fifth, two thousand twenty three. I haven’t compared the two, so I can’t tell you what the film changes. What the book has, I can tell you. It has Joe’s whole childhood, Pocock’s philosophy, and the Berlin chapters.
My Score
These scores are my opinion, and a draft. Joe’s story gets five out of five. The rowing explained gets five. The pacing gets three and a half, because of the length. Readability gets four and a half. The Berlin history gets four and a half.
That is an average of four and a half out of five. The structure is lovely, and Joe is unforgettable. I took off points only for length.
If you enjoy rowing, history or underdogs, start at the prologue. If you only have an evening, read the prologue and the final chapters, and you will see why this book is loved.
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