Book Description
My Life in Boats, Fast and Slow, by Andy Larkin, is an appealing memoir, an indispensable rowing history and a lyrical paean to river boating. As memoir, it flows from the boyhood of a doctor's son through the cultural turmoil of the late 1960's into the calmer waters of late middle age, evoking memories of times and places which will be familiar to many of its readers. As good writing, it resonates particularly in Larkin's descriptions of his solo sculling journeys in recent years on New England waters. As history, it provides a heretofore unseen perspective of life at the top of the sport's pyramid - Larkin was a multiple Sprints champion and an Olympian - from the early years of Harry Parker's reign at the helm of Harvard rowing. This first-person narrative offers a unique view of how some of the issues that roiled the 1968 Olympics - and remain unresolved a half-century later - were used to malign one of our country's greatest collegiate teams.
