Long Distance Book Club: The Boys in the Boat

Like many recent college grads, I am navigating the challenges of the twenty-something-awkward-phase with my closest friends scattered across the U.S. (and the world). iPhones, GChat, Whatsapp, and FaceTime certainly make the distance more manageable, but the decline in shared experiences can be an adjustment. Especially for those like my friends and I who love to talk.

In February, I mentioned my goal of reading more often to one of my best friends who currently lives in Boston. We decided to take on the challenge of reading more together with a Long Distance Book Club. Our first book was The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. A quick read and a tear jerker, I quickly learned how great it was to be able to talk about something that we were doing together, even though we are hundreds of miles apart. Another one of my best friends who currently lives in New York joined, too. While I wish that our Long Distance Book Club could meet in person and include wine like the book club my aunt belongs to, I am grateful that technology makes our book club possible. 

This is what I imagine non-long distance book clubs are really about...

This month, we're reading The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. The book is a biography of sorts that follows the 8+ (a boat with eight rowers and one coxswain) from the University of Washington as they attempt to qualify for and medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 

Disclosures: I joined my university's rowing club my freshman year and fell in love with the sport. I speak German and Berlin is one of my favorite cities. I have spent a great deal of time research the Holocaust and the rise of Nazism. As my friend Jessica put it, this is basically the perfect book for my interests. I am enthralled by the author's descriptions of the sport during the 1930s. I had no idea how well covered rowing was by sports journalists, gamblers, and the general public. That type of cross-country fanfare doesn't exist today. That being said, I would highly recommend this book to anyone. 

The story centers on the life of Joe Rantz, a boy from an unimaginably difficult childhood who the author met much later in life. Without giving too much of the plot away, Joe was forced to survive on his own at a very young age, and learned that he could not depend on others for his happiness or wellbeing. His lack of ability to trust others puts his chance at racing in the boat slotted for the Olympic trials in jeopardy. 

As one learns in the Prologue (so no spoilers!), "the boat" becomes so special to Joe that he has trouble describing it in words. The author conveys what I think most rowers feel about their "boats" beautifully, stating:

"At first I thought he meant the Husky Clipper, the racing shell in which he had rowed his way to glory. Or did he mean his teammates, the improbable assemblage of young men who had pulled off one of rowing's greatest achievements? Finally, watching Joe struggle for composure over and over, I realized that "the boat" was something more than just the shell or its crew. To Joe, it encompassed but transcended both-- it was something mysterious and almost beyond definition. It was a shared experience-- a singular thing that had unfolded in a golden sliver of time long gone, when nine good-hearted young men strove together, pulled together as one, gave everything they had for one another, bound together forever by pride and respect and love..."

The book is also about the struggle of America during the Great Depression in general. Rowing has traditionally been a sport for the wealthy and elite. Yet the boys in this boat did not come from the families of wealthy businessmen, politicians, or heirs, like the boys in the boats they raced out East. These boats came from families of loggers and miners and the unemployed and hungry. These were the boys who made it through high school and to college against all odds. And then, against all odds, to Berlin.