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4.21k reviews for:
Remando Como Un Solo Hombre: La Historia del Equipo de Remo Que Humilló a Hitler
Daniel James Brown
4.36 AVERAGE
4.21k reviews for:
Remando Como Un Solo Hombre: La Historia del Equipo de Remo Que Humilló a Hitler
Daniel James Brown
4.36 AVERAGE
This is one of those books that was ALMOST really good. Brown is a great sports writer. The account of the final race was particularly well done and he did a great job of depicting the victory as a culminating moment in the life of Joe Rantz. If I weren't reading this for book club, there is a good chance I would have abandoned it pretty early on though. Joe's life was pretty compelling but the author kind of meandered into too many details about people who played supporting roles in this drama.
Ultimately I think this book would be much more interesting if it were 50-100 pages shorter. Sometimes Brown errs on the side of doing too much showing and not enough telling. There was excessive setup for most of the races he describes and a lot of extraneous information that could have been cut. I also didn't find the Pocock quotes at the beginning of each chapter to be particularly poetic or inspiring.
One of the main things that kept me reading was the fact that I have lived and traveled to enough of Washington state that I recognized many of the places and found accounts of what things were like here in the 1930s pretty interesting. I was fascinated to see the real roots of some of the culture of this region and I appreciated some of those cultural traits reflected in Joe. All in all, I like Joe Rantz, and I would have appreciated it if the book hadn't pretended to be about the whole boat.
Ultimately I think this book would be much more interesting if it were 50-100 pages shorter. Sometimes Brown errs on the side of doing too much showing and not enough telling. There was excessive setup for most of the races he describes and a lot of extraneous information that could have been cut. I also didn't find the Pocock quotes at the beginning of each chapter to be particularly poetic or inspiring.
One of the main things that kept me reading was the fact that I have lived and traveled to enough of Washington state that I recognized many of the places and found accounts of what things were like here in the 1930s pretty interesting. I was fascinated to see the real roots of some of the culture of this region and I appreciated some of those cultural traits reflected in Joe. All in all, I like Joe Rantz, and I would have appreciated it if the book hadn't pretended to be about the whole boat.
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
I was absolutely riveted by the story of these 9 boys, and their coaches as they trained and raced their way to the 1936 Olympics. I just wish it didn't take half the book for the story to focus and stop drifting to backstory that, I felt, didn't really help propel or flesh out the story.
This best-selling book can be found in multiple forms, print, audio, movie and documentary. However, its themes of perseverance, overcoming adversity, and working towards our dreams may be more relevant today than when it was released in 2013. My book club recently read it through our Orange County Library's Book Club Kit program (Please support your library!) Daniel James Brown's research is deep, his writing engaging, and the plot remains tense even when we know the ending!
Synopsis: Out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It was an unlikely quest from the start. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.
I highly recommend this book and then the movie! Both are that good.
Do you have a favorite book that was made into a movie that you can recommend?
Synopsis: Out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It was an unlikely quest from the start. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.
I highly recommend this book and then the movie! Both are that good.
Do you have a favorite book that was made into a movie that you can recommend?
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I loved this so much, a totally emotional reading experience. Even if you don't have the same connections to rowing and Seattle that I do, it's still fantastic.
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Read for summer of sport 2025! I was so much more intrigued by this story than I was anticipating. Daniel James Brown does an incredible job of weaving together daily life in 1930's Washington, pre-war Nazi Germany, the relationship dynamic between the boys, their families and their coaches, and the technical art of rowing. This was close to a perfect book for me, but there were a few rare chapters that I felt dragged on for me, especially all the attention given to the training and boat swapping that happened between big races. One of the most intriguing parts to me was the grand success of the 1936 Berlin Olympics for Joseph Goebbels and his propaganda machine. I will be thinking about this book for years to come and I will never think of rowing the same way again. Highly recommend.
If I could give this more then a five out of five star rating, I would. Beautifully written and beautiful meaning. Definitely recommend.