Sets the heart a-racing. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)
A thrilling account of the US women’s crew as it prepared to compete in the 1975 World Championships in rowing.
Journalist and rowing coach Boyne (Director of Recreational Rowing/Harvard Univ.) declares that “rowing helped pave the way for the current boom of female athletes.” He may be forgiven this venial hyperbole as he understandably finds himself caught up in the excitement of the remarkable accomplishments of the nine motley women who won a silver medal at the Championships, barely losing to an East German group of techno-athletes (see Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV) groomed from the womb to row. The author limns appealing portraits of the most prominent personalities in the crew, including Carie Graves (whose father had been a national champion), elder stateswoman Gail Pierson (along for her last hurrah), the fierce overachiever Chris Ernst (nearly a foot shorter than some of her teammates), and little Lynn Silliman, the 16-year-old coxswain who, like all who excel in her role, became the team’s “collective spirit.” Coaching the women was Harvard men’s crew coach Harry Parker, who had introduced a “new way of rowing” in the US and whose teams had dominated competitions for years. Unaccountably, he was not appointed the men’s Olympic coach and instead accepted the less-prestigious women’s assignment. Over time he manages to forge a strong bond with the women, who have initial difficulties adjusting to his laconic style. Boyne can stretch a simile too far—as when he elects to observe that rowers, like “Odysseus and his crew as they rowed past the sirens, . . . had to block out the alluring call of anything outside the boat.” Nonetheless, he understands rowing, racing, women athletes, coaching, and social history. His descriptions of races are stylish and stirring. A touching second epilogue reveals what has happened to each of the participants.
Sets the heart a-racing. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2000
ISBN: 0-7868-6622-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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