I knew how far two thousand meters was down the course and I allowed some time, because you rowed with the current to get down the river and fought it coming back. I hunched over and drew a stopwatch from my sweatshirt and did the daily math, looking at the digital numbers through watery eyes. Even this late in the season I could feel the heat rising up off the banks, as if the valley had kept part of summer's warmth for the fall. I could turn and see the dock floating four inches above the waterline. The blades of my sculls kissed the smooth surface as I neared the Fenton School boathouse.
A million trees up, the mountain threw rippled reflections across the water. I leaned back and the shell ran out beneath me, gliding over the water like a bird. The freshly painted goalposts marked the end of my practice session, and passing them I tasted my speed, closed my eyes and inhaled it, the vibrations of the boat in my spine. The endless lawns to starboard turned into soccer fields and then into the practice football field. I heard only the splashing and the zing of the water dripping from the blades as I slipped by the ancient school. I felt the pull of the sculls in my legs, then in my back. It surged forward, then coasted while I recoiled for another stroke. Jonathan Welch, Talking Leaves Books, Buffalo, N.Y.My fragile rowing shell was moving fast and light down the river.
We witness two comings-of-age here-a skilled, arrogant young rower learning to compete with, rather than against, his crew, only to be scarred by tragedy, and years later as a guilt-ridden, solipsistic documentary filmmaker coming to a mature understanding of the power of human connection. The elegant unity of the rowers on the water plays against the chaos and turbulence of human ambition and desire. Skillfully interweaving the two narrative strands, Irwin steers us through a tale that’s moving, tragic, brutal, elegiac, and hopeful in equal measure, with a cast whose complicated motivations pull them together and apart.
Fifteen years later, his romantic relationship in crisis, Rob returns for the first time for a class reunion and memorial service for a teammate. Working-class rower Rob Carrey, 18, spends a turbulent senior year at a New England prep school on a special scholarship to help the school beat its arch-rival. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne, June), is making the kind of waves a scull isn’t supposed to. Ron Irwin’s powerful debut, Flat Water Tuesday (St.
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