- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group); Film tie-in edition edition (7 Nov 1996)
- ISBN-10: 0553505394
- ISBN-13: 978-0553505399
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
622,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #46 in Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Water Sports > Boating > Rowing
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Product Description
Product Description
The story of the sporting event which shook Oxford University and its boat club in the harsh winter of 1986/7 when a group of American students arrived hoping to put some steel into a Boat Race crew still reeling from defeat at the hands of Cambridge.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
This book delves into the feelings and actions in the preceeding year to the 1987 Boat Race. This book follows the life of two of Oxford's most well known people, Donald Macdonald and Daniel Topolski. I have to say that I could not put it down. I have read it three times more and every time still found it to be a great book. Full of betrayal, deceit and the English men that conquered it.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Topolski tells a tale of brash American students attending Oxford trying to take over the greatest boat race in the world in the most cowardly and deceitful manner. A great tale of integrity and ability prevailing over nepotism. One of the greatest books I have ever read on man's determination to prove that hard work,honesty and ability will always rise above sportsmen believing they should be chosen,not on merit,but on reputation.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
It is not easy to explain to anyone what the big attraction of rowing is, and this book mostly succeeds (see also The Amateurs). The author's (or at least Topolski's) passion for the big race is communicated well, and the book is full of entertaining anecdotes about previous Boat Race legends.
However, given that this claims to be a true story, the characters have an unsatisfying comic-book feel about them, and are barely recognisable from their real-life equivalents. The action is full of noticeable omissions in the interest of a nice straightforward story. There are heroic goodies and dastardly baddies, and the simmering anti-Americanism that is never far beneath the surface of much English journalism shines through.
Regardless of who did or said exactly what in 1987, there is an interesting debate to be had around creeping professionalism in one of the last truly amateur sports, around the lengths that the universities will go to win this race, and around the vicious spitefulness that successful rowers (particularly in Oxford) often seem to incite, but this book isn't it.
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