The Boys in the Boat: The True Story of an American Team’s Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics by Gregory Mone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I heard about the Boys in the Boat on a book group on Facebook and decided to give it a shot. I accidentally requested the young reader’s version from the library.
I chose to get the audiobook because I like non-fiction on audio.
I loved it!
The story is about the 1936 rowing Olympic team in general but focuses very heavily on one of the team members. His story of loss and abandonment and resilience was inspiring. I felt genuine anger at some of the descriptions of the ways he was left to fend for himself.
There were several periods where I had tears as I was listening to this story. I’m a sucker for an underdog story and for a story where people overcome tremendous odds to achieve amazing things.
There were parts where I would have liked more details especially about other people in the boat but now that I know that it’s an adaptation I wonder if some of that would have been satisfied had I read the original version.
Also, the physical book has lots of pictures that I did not get to enjoy because of the audio format. I do think that would have greatly enhanced the emotional connection to the story.
Overall, Boys in the Boat was an excellent book and I plan to watch the movie soon.
My original rating was 4.5 stars that I rounded down to 4, but once I realized that this was a young reader adaptation I changed to round it up to 5 stars. Very well done to give important details but keep the story engaging for a younger audience.
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