I may not be able to row at the moment, but I can still find the odd moment to read, and what better literature to pass the time than a book about rowing?
Happily, I’ve recently been sent three brand new rowing books to review, all very different – one novel, one historical account and one manual – so over the next few weeks I’ll be showcasing the latest writing talent in the rowing world.
First up is Flat Water Tuesday by Ron Irwin, a novel telling the story of a thirty-something documentary maker with a messy private life and a shameful secret. Bit it by bit we are taken back to his painful past when, as a surly teenage rower from the wrong side of the tracks, he turns up at a swanky Connecticut prep school, famous for its rowing, to complete a postgrad year and do his bit for the rowing club.
The author knows his rowing, and fans of the sport won’t be disappointed as they follow the crew in the ups and downs of training for the race of their lives. There’s plenty in it for the rowing aficionado, with detailed descriptions of the protagonist’s challenges on the water that will be familiar to anyone who, like, me, has struggled with their technique (slow catches, anyone?), though I did wonder if a non-rower might glaze over during some of the more technical passages.
The characters are well drawn and darkly complex – a far cry, I have to say, from most rowers I know who, though fearsomely determined and single-minded, are for the most part cheerily uncomplicated – but engaging enough to make for a good read, and the story whips along nicely.
If there is one thing that is missing from this book, it is the sheer joy and poetry of rowing. This isn’t a cheerful tale, and the best the protagonist seems to get from his rowing is a grim sense of satisfaction. I fully acknowledge that I may have become overly sentimental about the sport in my two months away from the river, but what I really miss about it is the changeable beauty of the water, the thrill when a stroke goes well, the sense of completeness when the crew moves as one. For all the traumas and pain and discomfort and frustration (and I know all about those), rowing is, for me, something uniquely beautiful, and that beauty somehow didn’t quite shine through the pages of this book.
But hey, look, that’s splitting hairs. It’s a good yarn, and there are precious few out there that focus on our sport, so give it a whirl.
Flat Water Tuesday goes on general international release on 4th June for $24.99. To purchase it click here.
