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Title: The Amateurs by David Halberstam ISBN: 0-449-91003-2 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: May, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Look at a lonely calling
Comment: Someone recommended this book to me one day during the Olympics. I read it straight through at one setting. It is the story of a lonely sport, rowing, and the men who endure incredible pain and sacrifice just for the chance of competition. These are not men who party at night, sleep late and wave to the cameras. No, they are dedicated, serious students who have been called to wield an oar.
The author shares a trait with Paul Johnson and Daniel Boorstin- that is the art of intertwining personal tales within the plot of his story in such a way that both complement each other. If you want a good beach book, this is the one.
Rating: 5
Summary: Rowing as peak experience
Comment: With the Summer Olympics coming up, this book should be read and savored for its extraordinary writing quality and insights.
As a college oarsman (single sculls, then coxswain, bow and stroke of an eight), as a persnickety reader since childhood and as a writer of 20+ books, I approached the work of non-rower Halberstam with skepticism, reluctance to be touched by him. Was I wrong!
Rowing is one of the most unusual and difficult sports, and it seems remote to outsider, almost mechanized. Insiders know the real world under that surface: the loneliness of training, the necessity for precise skills and relentless focus, the gut-wrenching pre-race [jitters] and fear that vanishes at each start, the sense of being asked to perform brutal acts on one's own body, the appalling effort (especially for stroke) of trying to stage an attack or recover from being in arrears, the ectasy and elation of winning, the soul-searing agony of losing with its message of inadequacy, of being bested by a superior human or group of humans, the need to get back and try harder, to push the body further and further into pain.
Halberstam captured it all, and went deeper, into the minds and hearts of some of the greatest oars the U.S. has produced, to bring back a masterpiece of reporting. He managed to show the idiosyncratic nature of dedicated single-scull oarsmen, and the way these loners look at their lives and chosen sport.
As a rower, I was consumed by this book. As a critical reader, I was entirely satisfied. As a writer, I was envious of Halberstam's skills. My only regret is that rowing is not perceived as the great participant and spectator sport that it is, and that too few of us have the chance to enjoy it in either sense.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent, Fast Moving, Makes you want to pull hard@!
Comment: I always wondered why some people I know at school were totally into crew. All that training, winter on the rivers, getting up really early - why? Now I know.
Yes, I live to climb and climb to live. But rowing is unbelievably more intense. David Halberstam sure brings it alive. Not only the pain, the training, the loneliness and solitude at the top of an elite and obscure sport, but also the intense clash of personalities - the limited glory, the pain of loss, the pain of not even getting to row.
Who would think that one of the best books I've ever read is about rowing? Now all I want to do is go out and row, row, pull, pull, harder, harder...
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Title: The Shell Game: Reflections on Rowing and the Pursuit of Excellence by Stephen Kiesling ISBN: 0963846191 Publisher: Nordic Knight Press Pub. Date: September, 1994 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Red Rose Crew, The: A True Story of Women, Winning, And the Water by Daniel J. Boyne ISBN: 0786889861 Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: September, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: High Performance Rowing by John McArthur ISBN: 1861260393 Publisher: Crowood Pr Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: ROWING AGAINST THE CURRENT: On Learning to Scull at Forty by Barry S. Strauss ISBN: 0684863308 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Assault on Lake Casitas by Brad Alan Lewis, Scott Roop, Ed Moran ISBN: 1879174006 Publisher: Shark Pr Pub. Date: March, 1990 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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