something I read | The Boys in the Boat

I picked the book up at Frenchys, because of the cover. It was a beautiful hardcover, and I noticed it was about a rowing team who went to the Olympics in 1936. As I read it, I was captivated by the lives of Joe, the other young rowers, and their mentors.

After his mother passed away, Joe's life was filled with hardships. As a boy and a teenager, he had to fend for himself over and over. He made a way to attend the University of Washington where he tried out for the freshman row team. It was far from easy. After he was named to the first-boat, the boys went out on Lake Union together. This moment caught me.

At the north end of the lake, the coxswain called out, "Way...nuff!" The boys stopped rowing. The shell glided to a stop, the long oars trailing in the water alongside them. The boys sat without talking, breathing heavily, exhaling plumes of white breath in the darkness. Even now that they had stopped rowing, their breathing was synchronized, and for a brief, fragile moment it seemed to Joe as if all of them were part of a single thing, something alive with breath and spirit of its own. Joe gulped huge drafts of the frigid air and sat staring at the city lights in the darkness --- the amber lights of downtown, the ruby-red lights of radio towers, the green lights on docks along the shore. He watched the scene turn into a soft blur of colors as tears filled his eyes. For the first time since his family had left him, Joe began to cry. - Daniel James Brown

I was moved by how this captures the deep need for belonging.