What John Irving has done for prep school wrestling, Ron Irwin does for rowing in Flat Water Tuesday. Rob Carrey is a tightly wound singles sculler at the blue-collar Black Rock Rowing Club in upstate New York. After barely graduating from high school, he is recruited by Charles Channing, the old-school coach of the tony Fenton School, who needs a strong third seat in his varsity four to beat rival Warwick Academy.
To lure Rob and convince his widowed father to let him leave the family construction business, Channing dangles a full ride to Harvard (unofficially promised by its rowing coach) if Fenton wins. Rob arrives on Fenton's campus, with its "immense, unending, perfectly manicured splendor" and "kids and parents with good forehands and firm handshakes," feeling as out of place as he does in a four-man boat.
Before Irwin dives into this coming-of-age plot, though, he opens with an e-mail sent to Rob 15 years later, from another member of the four-man crew--hinting at a fatal event at Fenton that caused the team members to split apart without any future contact. Rob, too, suffered from this event, refusing the Harvard scholarship and instead shooting freelance documentary films. Weaving past and present, Rob tells a story of learning to win and to lose--on and off the river. Sports metaphors permeate our lives. In rowing, Irwin has found one that is not only original, but also engaging. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.