My First Book Report in Many Years

I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with seniors. The generation that Home Instead Senior Care currently serves is aptly described as "The Greatest Generation." While I am sure that each generation can lay claim to its own aspects of greatness, the generation that survived the depression and stormed the beaches at Normandy deserves a special place in history and a title to go along with it.

Yesterday, I finished reading The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. In it, Brown tells the remarkable story of the men's eight oared rowing crew which stunned the world by winning gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Many will choose to pass by this book due to a lack of interest in the topic of men's rowing, they will make a mistake in doing so.

The Boys in the Boat is about far more than rowing or the Olympics. The story of the 1936 team is a microcosm of the story of many young men of that generation. These were not carefully cultivated and well-bred athletes that seem to be emblematic of Olympic athletes today. These were boys coming up through impossibly difficult circumstances in order to triumph over adversity in life and on the water. In the book, Brown does a masterful job of interweaving the thickening plot of European politics of the time and the pilgrimmage of the Husky Clipper, the boat which carried the boys to gold. The rise of Hitler's Germany and the recovery of the United States from the Great Depression both serve as dramatic backdrops to the journey of those nine boys from Seattle to Berlin. Their victory was over more than just impossible odds. Their victory was a knife into the heart of an idea which would soon engulf the world in a horrible war. Perhaps more importantly, their victory blew new wind into the sail of an American dream which for many during those dark years seemed to have disappeared completely.

My favorite part of the book was the epilogue where Brown takes his readers beyond the race and briefly explores the lives each of The Boys in the Boat went on to live. Not surprisingly, the grit and determination they showed in conquering the world was evidenced throughout each of their individual lives as well.

I am glad that I read the book. I am blessed to work with many who belong to that generation and who have similarly remarkable stories to tell.