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Flat Water Tuesday
When documentary filmmaker Rob Carrey flies back to New York from a shoot in South Africa to salvage his relationship with his lover Caroline Smythe, he unexpectedly finds himself called back to his former boarding school following a heartbreaking tragedy. Despite having long ago buried the memories of the brutal year he spent at the elite Fenton School in Connecticut as a postgraduate rower, Carrey finds that those days now return to haunt him.The Fenton School Boat Club’s top rowing team, called the God Four, is legendary. But the price that they pay for a shot at glory will scar each member of Carrey’s team far into adulthood.
Colin Payne, the Massachusetts blue-blood; Jumbo, the good natured giant; John Wadsworth the preppy lawyer-to-be; Ruth Anderson, the Yale-bound coxswain; and Rob Carrey, the scholarship athlete from Niccalsetti, New York — all of them are forever bound to one another by the terrible cost of victory. Over one tumultuous week, Rob Carrey will learn that he cannot leave the past in his wake.
Colin Payne, the Massachusetts blue-blood; Jumbo, the good natured giant; John Wadsworth the preppy lawyer-to-be; Ruth Anderson, the Yale-bound coxswain; and Rob Carrey, the scholarship athlete from Niccalsetti, New York — all of them are forever bound to one another by the terrible cost of victory. Over one tumultuous week, Rob Carrey will learn that he cannot leave the past in his wake.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published May 27, 2013
33 people are currently reading
2304 people want to read
About the author
Ron Irwin
2 books62 followersRon Irwin is an American writer who divides his time between Cape Town, South Africa and various places in the United States. He grew up in Buffalo, New York, where he learned to row. He attended boarding school and college in New England, where he was part of a number of winning crews. Ron has worked as a journalist, a documentary filmmaker, and as a teacher. He currently lectures in the Centre for Film and Media at the University of Cape Town.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 253 reviews
June 23, 2013
I have just added this book to books that have made a big impression on me. Rob Carrey, from a small town and with parents who want him to do better in life than they had, accepts a scholarship to crew on the God Four, even though this means repeating his senior year of high school. Have never much thought about crewing, know very little about it, but after this book I know quite a bit. As with most sports it takes commitment and much hard work to really be good, so Rob with his three fellow teammates and for the first time in history Ruth, who is their female coxswain start training and training hard. There is much competition between Carry and the team captain Connor and in parts I swear the testosterone was flying off the pages.
This book is, however, about so much more. It is about the impact tragedies can have, how in one moment a life can change, how what seems so important when young often seems trivial when we get older. This book is very intense in parts, and I love the way this author writes. I also like that he made Carry, in his later years a documentary film maker which was also one of the careers of this author. The book begins with a letter, and than goes back and forward in times, to relate the story of the God Four and the present of John Carrey. I loved it. I know there have been many books written about school, some well done, some not. This one goes of there with the winners, in my opinion of course.
This book is, however, about so much more. It is about the impact tragedies can have, how in one moment a life can change, how what seems so important when young often seems trivial when we get older. This book is very intense in parts, and I love the way this author writes. I also like that he made Carry, in his later years a documentary film maker which was also one of the careers of this author. The book begins with a letter, and than goes back and forward in times, to relate the story of the God Four and the present of John Carrey. I loved it. I know there have been many books written about school, some well done, some not. This one goes of there with the winners, in my opinion of course.
June 10, 2013
You Can Graduate Any Time You Like, But You Can Never Leave
Like its ancestors (A Separate Peace, This Side of Paradise, The Final Club, Art of Fielding), Flat Water Tuesday is the story of an outsider, Rob Carrey, entering an elite academic institution (Kent School in CT, thinly veiled in the novel as the Fenton School), who simultaneously struggles with, reviles, admires and exposes its various trappings. But FWT departs from its literary forebearers in a crucial way - it gives the reader a fully formed adult protaganist, and melds Rob's adult life and struggles with those of his prep school past. It is in the story's various veins, the thens-and-nows of Rob's life, that the novel draws connections, creates meaning and ultimately shines. Although this is a book focusing to a great extent on rowing (the rowing scenes and descriptions are taught, vivid and often exhilirating), it is ultimately a book about realizing the true import of, and making amends with, one's past - its traumas, mistakes and loves.
The prose flows beautifully and hauntingly, and the passages describing the break-up of Rob's present-day adult relationship are equal to the rowing scenes in their realism and emotion. Although some might critique the novel's other characters as stereotypes (among them Carrey's boatmates: Connor Payne, the wealthy scion ever-striving for elusive familial approval; John Perry, the good natured hulk indiscriminately abused by Payne, and Ruth Anderson, the cold, intense daughter of a neglectful wealthy mother), Irwin manages to infuse each with dimension outside the archtype. But the novel's journey is Carrey's first and foremost, and Irwin has the journey's lesson down pat - we can forgive (ourselves) the crucial moments of our past, but we never truly forget them.
Like its ancestors (A Separate Peace, This Side of Paradise, The Final Club, Art of Fielding), Flat Water Tuesday is the story of an outsider, Rob Carrey, entering an elite academic institution (Kent School in CT, thinly veiled in the novel as the Fenton School), who simultaneously struggles with, reviles, admires and exposes its various trappings. But FWT departs from its literary forebearers in a crucial way - it gives the reader a fully formed adult protaganist, and melds Rob's adult life and struggles with those of his prep school past. It is in the story's various veins, the thens-and-nows of Rob's life, that the novel draws connections, creates meaning and ultimately shines. Although this is a book focusing to a great extent on rowing (the rowing scenes and descriptions are taught, vivid and often exhilirating), it is ultimately a book about realizing the true import of, and making amends with, one's past - its traumas, mistakes and loves.
The prose flows beautifully and hauntingly, and the passages describing the break-up of Rob's present-day adult relationship are equal to the rowing scenes in their realism and emotion. Although some might critique the novel's other characters as stereotypes (among them Carrey's boatmates: Connor Payne, the wealthy scion ever-striving for elusive familial approval; John Perry, the good natured hulk indiscriminately abused by Payne, and Ruth Anderson, the cold, intense daughter of a neglectful wealthy mother), Irwin manages to infuse each with dimension outside the archtype. But the novel's journey is Carrey's first and foremost, and Irwin has the journey's lesson down pat - we can forgive (ourselves) the crucial moments of our past, but we never truly forget them.
July 13, 2013
Flat Water Tuesday
By Ron Irwin
Flat Water Tuesday is a gorgeous book. Ostensibly about the senior year of a rowing team known as the God Four (only God can beat them), the novel is also an examination of teamwork, competition, pain, love and the weight of familial expectations in prose as smooth as the water the team sculls over.
A fifth year scholarship student, Rob Carrey, attends an exclusive Connecticut prep school with the single goal of rowing well enough to attract the attention of an Ivy League university. He has talent and an attitude.
Connor Payne, the narrator’s nemesis, is the epitome of Fenton: “quiet and lithe as a panther. . . in the fashionably wilted Brooks Brothers blazer, Fenton School Boat Club tie and pressed trousers he always wore to class . . . Like all predators, he had a nose for weakness and wounds.” Although he is Rob’s teammate, Rob cannot help but regard him as an adversary. The two push each other to greater feats of athleticism, which is a good thing, right? Let the reader decide. Here is Rob watching Connor on the erg, a dry boat for rowers to train on indoors in the winter, and pitiless. (My daughter rowed crew, and she can testify to the pain the sport inflicts.)
By Ron Irwin
Flat Water Tuesday is a gorgeous book. Ostensibly about the senior year of a rowing team known as the God Four (only God can beat them), the novel is also an examination of teamwork, competition, pain, love and the weight of familial expectations in prose as smooth as the water the team sculls over.
A fifth year scholarship student, Rob Carrey, attends an exclusive Connecticut prep school with the single goal of rowing well enough to attract the attention of an Ivy League university. He has talent and an attitude.
I was mesmerized by the trees exploding out of the valley, the river snaking slow and thoughtful by the buildings. I always regarded this beauty with a sense of awe. And also anger and disbelief. I’d spent four years slugging it out at the Niccalsetti Senior School where a freight train ran right behind the one ragged football field we had. I’d never considered the existence of schools with this immense, unending, perfectly manicured splendor. It seemed to me that the entire season - all the trees and the grass and the perfection of the water - had been created just for us, the four hundred or so Fenton students who knew for sure they’d live forever . . .This narrator tells the story in flashbacks from a vantage point fifteen years after his time at Fenton, and we know from the get-go that something terrible occurs - so terrible that none of the team has seen each other for the past fifteen years or ever talked about what happened. But the pleasure of the book derives not from trying to guess the nature of the past tragedy, but in getting to know the characters and what drives them.
I had only nine months of this kind of living and then it would be snatched away again and I’d be sent back to where I came from unless I was very, very fast on the water. Which was just fine by me, because I was dead sure that I was the fastest thing these bastards were ever going to see.
Connor Payne, the narrator’s nemesis, is the epitome of Fenton: “quiet and lithe as a panther. . . in the fashionably wilted Brooks Brothers blazer, Fenton School Boat Club tie and pressed trousers he always wore to class . . . Like all predators, he had a nose for weakness and wounds.” Although he is Rob’s teammate, Rob cannot help but regard him as an adversary. The two push each other to greater feats of athleticism, which is a good thing, right? Let the reader decide. Here is Rob watching Connor on the erg, a dry boat for rowers to train on indoors in the winter, and pitiless. (My daughter rowed crew, and she can testify to the pain the sport inflicts.)
Let him be weak, I thought. Let him not be equal to his bullshit.Connor wins this one by three seconds, and the best that Rob can ever seem to do - in training runs, in rowing, in everything - is to stay even with him without ever passing him. Lots of testosterone in this book, and a very nuanced explanation of the sport of rowing. But clearly this kind of competition among team members is a problem to be solved, since they ultimately have to be willing to work together to win any races.Just to add a little more tension, the coxswain is a girl, Ruth, who, we realize, becomes a template of the woman with whom Rob falls in love in later life and is barely hanging onto when the book opens. Fenton does not prove to be a good training ground for relationships:
Connor balled his body, reach and pulled. The machine snarled, whirred, and ticked back. He brought up the pace, and the machine began to hiss, its numbers reacting to every second stroke. His rasping breaths came quicker, the hissing turned into whines and then screeches. A blue vein stood out on his forehead, rose and pulsed into the sweat towel binding his hair. . . Two minutes. . . Then it was five minutes. . . The muscles lacing his forearms were straining, shifting over one another. . .
I sat in the dust of the boathouse, watching, my stomach filled with a black acid of fear. It was horrible to see how good he was. How easy it would be, I thought, to relent, To give up a few strokes. By now Connor’s body was revolting against the pain, his veins were filled with poison, his head was thrumming. What compelled him to seat himself to this feast of agony? Two hundred strokes passed, his blond hair was a wet blur. . .
The hardest part of adjusting to this life was dealing with the constant insults, the bantering. Guys said things to your face here you’d kill them for at home. It was all we had in a world where you didn’t ever express affection or friendship, where to be overly committed to anything was considered in poor taste. This was as friendly as these guys could be.As the book weaves between the two narratives, Rob at eighteen, Rob at thirty-three, we see the race toward tragedy unfold in the past as the the race toward - what? redemption? defeat? we are kept guessing till the end - unfolds in the present.Both thought-provoking and pleasurable,this is a novel to be savored.
June 15, 2014
Ron Irwin turns out to be quite the story teller and I will be first in line if he writes something else. Here we have two time periods, one 15 years prior to the other about a crew of prep school rowers known as the God Four preparing for the big race, and then one of them recalling that time as he anticipates a school reunion while also going through an emotional time with his girlfriend.
This book is packed with emotions, about how emotional highs and lows can affect us at different times of our lives. "Throw-away" children of the rich, thrown into boarding schools to get them out of the way. Mentally and physically stressed teenagers being expected to act as adults, with all the psychological tolls. And of course there was much about sculling, crewing, pushing yourself to extremes you never knew possible, and ultimately winning, and losing -- more than just a race.
Its no secret from the onset that something very, very bad is going to happen. Waiting for it to come made for a very intense and engrossing read.
This book is packed with emotions, about how emotional highs and lows can affect us at different times of our lives. "Throw-away" children of the rich, thrown into boarding schools to get them out of the way. Mentally and physically stressed teenagers being expected to act as adults, with all the psychological tolls. And of course there was much about sculling, crewing, pushing yourself to extremes you never knew possible, and ultimately winning, and losing -- more than just a race.
Its no secret from the onset that something very, very bad is going to happen. Waiting for it to come made for a very intense and engrossing read.
December 4, 2023
There really is no good way for me to review this book so I’ll just get to it. I picked this book up because I wanted to read a fun book about rowing, that isn’t Boys In The Boat. A few chapters in it felt very familiar, so I googled what school it was based on, and turns out it the author wrote it based on his experiences at the Kent School. This was crazy because that’s the boarding school I went to. Anyway I kept reading and was now especially, interested in the parallels between my experience there and the author’s.
What I was not prepared for, was just how eerily
similar the parallels would be. The suicide of the student on campus that traumatized everyone was really just too much for me. His death was described in painstaking detail, including the response from the students who found his body. For anyone who knows anything about me, this is pretty similar to my own experience at Kent.
It’s hard for me to separate my own feelings about that from the book as a whole. It wasn’t a great account of rowing, but for someone who didn’t experience this literal exact situation I bet it would be a pretty good read.
What I was not prepared for, was just how eerily
similar the parallels would be. The suicide of the student on campus that traumatized everyone was really just too much for me. His death was described in painstaking detail, including the response from the students who found his body. For anyone who knows anything about me, this is pretty similar to my own experience at Kent.
It’s hard for me to separate my own feelings about that from the book as a whole. It wasn’t a great account of rowing, but for someone who didn’t experience this literal exact situation I bet it would be a pretty good read.
March 22, 2013
I received this book in a goodreads first reads giveaway.
I didn't really know anything about rowing going into this novel, and I didn't need to; the writing is vivid/clear enough to understand what's going on, you get used to the more technical terms, etc. It's about a group of high school students essentially training for one very important race, and I can see how those with a background in rowing might get more out of this novel than I did, but ultimately this is a very human story that anyone can enjoy. Many of the characters are difficult/complicated people, and even if some of their actions or choices are frustrating (like wishing Rob would suck it up and be a part of the team already, for example,) you understand their motivations. I enjoyed this a lot more than I initially thought I would; these characters are going to stick in my head for a while.
I didn't really know anything about rowing going into this novel, and I didn't need to; the writing is vivid/clear enough to understand what's going on, you get used to the more technical terms, etc. It's about a group of high school students essentially training for one very important race, and I can see how those with a background in rowing might get more out of this novel than I did, but ultimately this is a very human story that anyone can enjoy. Many of the characters are difficult/complicated people, and even if some of their actions or choices are frustrating (like wishing Rob would suck it up and be a part of the team already, for example,) you understand their motivations. I enjoyed this a lot more than I initially thought I would; these characters are going to stick in my head for a while.
August 1, 2013
The author clearly knows the sport of rowing from many levels. There is plenty here for the rowing devotee, with overly detailed descriptions of challenges on the water. Fans of the sport of rowing will certainly not be let down as they follow the crew in their efforts of training for the race of their lives, though non-rowers might miss some of the finer minute details found within some of the more than detailed technical passages.
The book opens well, with Rob receiving a long, rambling letter from one of his former team members. But as the story goes back to his school days, things begin to drag……and drag……all building up to the 15th reunion where we will learn the "Great Secret." A secret that turns out not to be that much of a secret and not that terrible. Honestly, I am still wondering what all their guilt was about. Once again, a big buildup to a conclusion that does not quite pay off.
If you are a big fan of competitive rowing, this one might grab you. Otherwise, I think the prep school angst thing has been done enough and there is nothing to really make this one stand out in a rather crowded field.
The book opens well, with Rob receiving a long, rambling letter from one of his former team members. But as the story goes back to his school days, things begin to drag……and drag……all building up to the 15th reunion where we will learn the "Great Secret." A secret that turns out not to be that much of a secret and not that terrible. Honestly, I am still wondering what all their guilt was about. Once again, a big buildup to a conclusion that does not quite pay off.
If you are a big fan of competitive rowing, this one might grab you. Otherwise, I think the prep school angst thing has been done enough and there is nothing to really make this one stand out in a rather crowded field.
February 22, 2013
I received the audio version thru a GoodReads FirstReads giveaway.
If you are into audio books, this is a MUST! Wonderful story, wonderful writing and FANTASTIC narration!! Even if you have never thought of rowing, or even care for rowing, I still this is is so much more in this book. The struggles they face as a team, and individually are very intense. You feel the struggle and the tension and fear dealing with "the big secret". I found myself wanting to listen more and more to learn the horrible truth and discover this secret terrible thing hanging over the heads of the rowing team. Flat Water Tuesday has friendship, struggles, secrets, and reveals that left me hangin on for more.
If you are into audio books, this is a MUST! Wonderful story, wonderful writing and FANTASTIC narration!! Even if you have never thought of rowing, or even care for rowing, I still this is is so much more in this book. The struggles they face as a team, and individually are very intense. You feel the struggle and the tension and fear dealing with "the big secret". I found myself wanting to listen more and more to learn the horrible truth and discover this secret terrible thing hanging over the heads of the rowing team. Flat Water Tuesday has friendship, struggles, secrets, and reveals that left me hangin on for more.
June 13, 2013
This book focuses around a rowing group at Fenton Prep school. Upon invitation to his 15th year anniversary, the protagonist, Rob Carrey, has flashbacks between his current life and his rowing days, where something went quite wrong. Carrey is a scholarship kid, a scull rower and is used to rowing alone and not in a team environment. Parts of this book were beautifully written, but some of the scenes dragged. I especially felt Ruth, Conner, and the last person of the God Four team is so flatly developed that I can't even recall his name or any one thing that stood out about him.
January 4, 2017
fast read novel of 'poor' outsider kid going to a prep school for his rowing prowess and the coming together of the team there, and its eventual dissolution. novel runs with a simultaneous story of 'poor boy' later in life and his work trying to build a relationship while also pushing it away. lots of detail on scull and crew and rowing, some prep school details, but mainly about choices we make and their impacts and the impacts others have on us, if we let them.
author lives and works in cape town now
author lives and works in cape town now
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July 8, 2021I read this several years ago in MN on vacation & much of the story has stayed with me. So much so that after reading Boys in the Boat I think I’ll hunt this down for a re-read. It seems to be really underrated for how much I remember enjoying it.
September 25, 2013
Successful relationships and winning teams mimic each other. They require trust. They require empathy. They, at times, require the surrendering of the self to better the union.
Flat Water Tuesday by Ron Irwin parallels relationships and teams in the telling of Rob Carrey’s teenage and adult life. The novel opens with a present-day letter sent to Rob from John Perry, one of his high school crew mates. The letter hints at events that occurred while Rob and John rowed in Fenton School’s elite rowing four. The hint, a modicum of a clue, powers the story to conclusion 353 pages later.
Rob Carrey joins the Fenton team as a blue-collar scholarship kid from Nicalsetti, New York. Rob’s a sculler, a single rower; yet, the team’s coach, Channing, chose Rob because of the talent that Rob could bring to the school’s premiere rowing four, aka, the God Four. Rowing in the four means that Rob will have to trust, empathize, and surrender a bit of himself. An ant hill of an obstacle for most, but for Rob the obstacle equals climbing Mt. Everest.
The God Four is actually five. Four rowers – Chris Wadsworth, John Perry, Connor Payne, and Rob, plus the coxswain Ruth Anderson. Chris features minimally in the story as John Perry’s best friend. John functions as Connor’s verbal punching bag and the boat’s heavyweight power. Connor, the boat’s stroke and team captain, plays the arrogant, rich boy and Ruth fills in as the level-headed leader directing from the boat’s stern. Chris, John, Connor, and Ruth have rowed together for years before Rob’s addition to the team. They are a tight and loyal group. Rob’s reluctance to immerse himself into the team leads to a tragedy that haunts each member of the boat well into adulthood.
Irwin’s skilled character development casts Connor and Rob as villains and as heroes. Rob is the quintessential outsider to the opulent boarding school. He’s the underdog you cheer for, at first. Connor is the snarky, smug prep school boy whose extreme privilege taints his likeability. Rob and Connor compete on every minutiae, a rivalry that ferments Rob’s apathy toward Connor and eventually morphs Rob into the villain and Connor into the hero.
Connor’s hero-within peeks through his cocky shell when Rob falls into an icy river. Connor endangers himself by rescuing Rob. As Rob’s recovering in the infirmary, his coach, Channing, rebukes Rob’s for his riskiness and for Rob’s dislike of Connor: “You may hate him, but he is the only person on this team with wits and courage enough to rescue you, and I am not sure how he managed to do it.” The incident begins the slow erosion of Rob as hero into Rob as villain.
As an adult, intimacy still evades Rob. His long-time girlfriend and business partner, Carolyn is kicking him out of their shared New York city apartment. The death of yet another relationship in Rob’s life coupled with the truths that John’s letter arouses finally spurs Rob to examine his failure at being on a team and prods him toward fixing his relationship with Carolyn.
His love for Carolyn is paramount. In some of the most romantic words I’ve ever read, Rob recalls the intensity of emotion he felt with Carolyn:
“And what I wanted to whisper to her, if I had the words (if such thoughts come to a man so utterly overwhelmed), was that she could have this section of my life right now, and the rest, too, if she wanted it. It was the crazy, silent deal you make with yourself when you suddenly touch the woman who was made for you and feel that searing terror of loneliness after years of living by yourself. It happened to me in a crooked room against a body I yearn for like nothing else, need more than water, or blood or breathing.”
The fact that Rob could fumble his relationship with Carolyn so badly when he loved her so deeply speaks loudly to Rob’s flaw. Who, in feeling this way for another person, would ever want to part from the person’s company?
Irwin leaves no relationship type untouched. A sub-narrative about relationships between children and their parents swim through the novel. He contrasts the supportive unconditional love between Rob and his Dad against Connor’s parents’ habit of doling out small parcels of love only when Connor achieves certain goals. What’s peculiar is that Connor, whose parents are despicable, would risk his life for his friends; while Rob, whose parents are ideal, fails to merely console his friends when doing so would mean preserving a life.
Child psychologists warn that when a child hits adolescence peers influence the child’s beliefs more than their parents do. Rob often describes his hometown as an atmosphere of be tough or die. Was his teen-life a contributing factor in his lack of team skills? Or is Irwin arguing that parents do hold a strong sway over a teen’s self-esteem? Is it Connor’s neediness for a family that allows him to reach out to others when they need help?
Irwin confesses to editing the story to ensure optimal pacing, which he did well; yet, questions about the source of Rob’s inability to be on a team pecked at me while I read and reread the story. Was something nixed that could have explained Rob as well as the soul of intimacy better?
Subtracting my unanswered curiosity about Rob’s back story, I loved the novel. Irwin’s thesis on relationships is as beautifully written as his depiction of rowing; depictions Irwin earned by rowing in high school and at university. If you’ve ever blistered your palms on an oar and even if you haven’t, Flat Water Tuesday is a page-turning must read.
~reviewed by pagecravings.com
Flat Water Tuesday by Ron Irwin parallels relationships and teams in the telling of Rob Carrey’s teenage and adult life. The novel opens with a present-day letter sent to Rob from John Perry, one of his high school crew mates. The letter hints at events that occurred while Rob and John rowed in Fenton School’s elite rowing four. The hint, a modicum of a clue, powers the story to conclusion 353 pages later.
Rob Carrey joins the Fenton team as a blue-collar scholarship kid from Nicalsetti, New York. Rob’s a sculler, a single rower; yet, the team’s coach, Channing, chose Rob because of the talent that Rob could bring to the school’s premiere rowing four, aka, the God Four. Rowing in the four means that Rob will have to trust, empathize, and surrender a bit of himself. An ant hill of an obstacle for most, but for Rob the obstacle equals climbing Mt. Everest.
The God Four is actually five. Four rowers – Chris Wadsworth, John Perry, Connor Payne, and Rob, plus the coxswain Ruth Anderson. Chris features minimally in the story as John Perry’s best friend. John functions as Connor’s verbal punching bag and the boat’s heavyweight power. Connor, the boat’s stroke and team captain, plays the arrogant, rich boy and Ruth fills in as the level-headed leader directing from the boat’s stern. Chris, John, Connor, and Ruth have rowed together for years before Rob’s addition to the team. They are a tight and loyal group. Rob’s reluctance to immerse himself into the team leads to a tragedy that haunts each member of the boat well into adulthood.
Irwin’s skilled character development casts Connor and Rob as villains and as heroes. Rob is the quintessential outsider to the opulent boarding school. He’s the underdog you cheer for, at first. Connor is the snarky, smug prep school boy whose extreme privilege taints his likeability. Rob and Connor compete on every minutiae, a rivalry that ferments Rob’s apathy toward Connor and eventually morphs Rob into the villain and Connor into the hero.
Connor’s hero-within peeks through his cocky shell when Rob falls into an icy river. Connor endangers himself by rescuing Rob. As Rob’s recovering in the infirmary, his coach, Channing, rebukes Rob’s for his riskiness and for Rob’s dislike of Connor: “You may hate him, but he is the only person on this team with wits and courage enough to rescue you, and I am not sure how he managed to do it.” The incident begins the slow erosion of Rob as hero into Rob as villain.
As an adult, intimacy still evades Rob. His long-time girlfriend and business partner, Carolyn is kicking him out of their shared New York city apartment. The death of yet another relationship in Rob’s life coupled with the truths that John’s letter arouses finally spurs Rob to examine his failure at being on a team and prods him toward fixing his relationship with Carolyn.
His love for Carolyn is paramount. In some of the most romantic words I’ve ever read, Rob recalls the intensity of emotion he felt with Carolyn:
“And what I wanted to whisper to her, if I had the words (if such thoughts come to a man so utterly overwhelmed), was that she could have this section of my life right now, and the rest, too, if she wanted it. It was the crazy, silent deal you make with yourself when you suddenly touch the woman who was made for you and feel that searing terror of loneliness after years of living by yourself. It happened to me in a crooked room against a body I yearn for like nothing else, need more than water, or blood or breathing.”
The fact that Rob could fumble his relationship with Carolyn so badly when he loved her so deeply speaks loudly to Rob’s flaw. Who, in feeling this way for another person, would ever want to part from the person’s company?
Irwin leaves no relationship type untouched. A sub-narrative about relationships between children and their parents swim through the novel. He contrasts the supportive unconditional love between Rob and his Dad against Connor’s parents’ habit of doling out small parcels of love only when Connor achieves certain goals. What’s peculiar is that Connor, whose parents are despicable, would risk his life for his friends; while Rob, whose parents are ideal, fails to merely console his friends when doing so would mean preserving a life.
Child psychologists warn that when a child hits adolescence peers influence the child’s beliefs more than their parents do. Rob often describes his hometown as an atmosphere of be tough or die. Was his teen-life a contributing factor in his lack of team skills? Or is Irwin arguing that parents do hold a strong sway over a teen’s self-esteem? Is it Connor’s neediness for a family that allows him to reach out to others when they need help?
Irwin confesses to editing the story to ensure optimal pacing, which he did well; yet, questions about the source of Rob’s inability to be on a team pecked at me while I read and reread the story. Was something nixed that could have explained Rob as well as the soul of intimacy better?
Subtracting my unanswered curiosity about Rob’s back story, I loved the novel. Irwin’s thesis on relationships is as beautifully written as his depiction of rowing; depictions Irwin earned by rowing in high school and at university. If you’ve ever blistered your palms on an oar and even if you haven’t, Flat Water Tuesday is a page-turning must read.
~reviewed by pagecravings.com
August 30, 2023
This book is Dead Poets Society sad prep school vibes meets Whiplash sports intensity. The concept is interesting, but I found myself wishing that there were different POV’s or something to switch it up from Rob. I also kept imagining Armie Hammer’s character from The Social Network every time I saw the word “crew.” Justice for John Perry, the kindest and most likable character in the book. So annoying when his “friends” called him a nickname he hated 🙄🙄🙄🙄
https://images.app.goo.gl/fecpQ1pa3PG...
https://images.app.goo.gl/fecpQ1pa3PG...
July 19, 2021
This was a great read that immersed you in an intense sport/boarding school world and allowed you to see the character as an adult reflect back on that time and how it made him who he is today. I always find boarding school settings to be interesting because it is so insular. This reminded me a lot of A Separate Peace. Irwin did a great job with making the characters have depth and give the reader a good sense of them. Ron Irwin did row at a boarding school so there is a lot of technical description of rowing which sometimes I skimmed through. Overall though really good read.
December 27, 2016
J.M. Coetzee has a recommendation on the cover, so of course I picked this up. The story is so compelling, it flips back and forth between prep school rowers and present-day, they reunite under tragic circumstance. Great if you liked A Separate Piece, a good coming-of-age read.
August 9, 2021
Well-written & painfully detailed. Would recommend this to bookclub readers. A believable description of tragedy, cause and effect.
May 9, 2013
Rob Carrey is a young man with a chip on his shoulder against authority, but an amazing athlete. He is unpolished, a loner, who attends a high-brow boarding school and learns to work as part of a team on the school’s rowing team. The journey to his maturity is fraught with angst, rivalry and full of equally damaged teammates who all feel the pressure of being expected to be number one. The rich kid has issues, the lone girl on the team has issues, each member has their own personal demon that drives them to be the best. As the team comes together for the big win, the pressures mount to unbelievable levels far beyond the maturity level of a high school student. Tragedy is inevitable and the bonds are broken between this strange group. Lives are forever changed. The only question that remains is who will be stronger and who will succumb to events that sped out of control.
Ron Irwin spins life under the pressure of constant scrutiny, the pressure to perform, the pressure to push beyond all limits, and the looming fear of failure with a dark stroke. His characters seem overly jaded to life for such a young age and doomed to fail at happiness in later life. The plot is full of dark drama and the intense emotions of its characters, often making it difficult to remember they are only teens. The story is well-written and it seems the author knows his rowing and the pressures of competition, rounding out each scene with the mental and physical pain of the characters!
An ARC copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for my honest review. Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Ron Irwin spins life under the pressure of constant scrutiny, the pressure to perform, the pressure to push beyond all limits, and the looming fear of failure with a dark stroke. His characters seem overly jaded to life for such a young age and doomed to fail at happiness in later life. The plot is full of dark drama and the intense emotions of its characters, often making it difficult to remember they are only teens. The story is well-written and it seems the author knows his rowing and the pressures of competition, rounding out each scene with the mental and physical pain of the characters!
An ARC copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for my honest review. Publication Date: June 4, 2013
July 7, 2013
Ron Irwin's new book about a rowing team at a high school prep academy in New England and their life experiences beyond is a thoughtful portrayal of five kids and their coach who are all carrying baggage from their earlier lives. It is also a book about the "big race" which ultimately happens and has a different effect on their lives than they had thought. I think this book could be adapted nicely into a movie and we will see what happens on that in the future. My only slight complaint was that many times these 18 and 19 year old kids speak and act in a manner that is far beyond their years. I kept forgetting they were supposed to be in high school.
June 5, 2014
This novel was very interesting with the theme of sculling and rowing and the competitive nature of this sport. I never realized the amount of strategy and skill involved. I enjoyed the characters and the past and present of the main character, Rob Carrey. The author's writing style of leaving you in a suspenseful state at the end of a section or chapter and switching the story to the past life or present situation made for a page turner. I highly recommend this novel!
March 11, 2013
Page-turner with wonderful, clear descriptions. I came to care for the characters and revel in their victories. The story moves along like a wind rippling on the calm water and draws you into its curving path. The rowing element is very tangible and the conflicts within the sport create a tale that is both memorable and haunting.
March 26, 2013
Don't know anything about rowing, didn't think I wanted to know anything about rowing, but this book was terrific and I especially liked all the rowing stuff!
A coming of age story that will fit neatly on the shelf with all the greats.
I can see this being assigned in High Schools for years to come.
A coming of age story that will fit neatly on the shelf with all the greats.
I can see this being assigned in High Schools for years to come.
October 3, 2019
The setting reminded me of where I spent my first 2 years in college- a small college town in New London, N. H. It brought back memories of meeting people with so many backgrounds.
A very touching love story intermingled with doubts about a childhood past and uncertainties of an upcoming race on the water and a tragedy among the crew .members. I was held in a wondering mode throughout the book.
A very touching love story intermingled with doubts about a childhood past and uncertainties of an upcoming race on the water and a tragedy among the crew .members. I was held in a wondering mode throughout the book.
August 4, 2023
An enjoyable book that floats between the present and the past, focusing mainly on the current derailing of a relationship and the year spent in preparation of the biggest and most influential race of a young man's life.
Full review: http://www.theowlreads.com/2020/06/fl...
Full review: http://www.theowlreads.com/2020/06/fl...
June 9, 2013
To quote myself, from a Boston Globe review: This book is much better written that it needs to be. Unexpectedly excellent ... a friend of mine didn't like this, I think she found it too classist. I didn't, thought it was grand.
March 7, 2021
Exceptional sport/coming of age novel I'm very pleased is now in feature film development under the title The God Four.
August 6, 2013
Best book of summer reading 2013! Similar to A Separate Piece but even better.
October 11, 2019
Really enjoyed this book - well developed characters and quite a story to tell.
February 16, 2022
Crewing fascinates me. Having read The Boys in the Boat, I have respect for the effort crews expend to work as a team. I looked forward to Ron Irwin's take on the story of a young crewman.
Flat Water Tuesday's story dips its oar into many sides of the main character's whole life story, and that structure diluted the crew story for me.
Our guy films documentaries for National Geographic, a topic that also interests me, and he's at the point of break up with a woman he loves. I found the chapters veering back and forth in these subjects, (including thoughts about genocide and turmoil around the globe) and turning back and forth in time from youth to the adult's life work, romance and return to the campus to be distracting. However, Ron Erwin writes with authority, and I would read another work by him.
Flat Water Tuesday's story dips its oar into many sides of the main character's whole life story, and that structure diluted the crew story for me.
Our guy films documentaries for National Geographic, a topic that also interests me, and he's at the point of break up with a woman he loves. I found the chapters veering back and forth in these subjects, (including thoughts about genocide and turmoil around the globe) and turning back and forth in time from youth to the adult's life work, romance and return to the campus to be distracting. However, Ron Erwin writes with authority, and I would read another work by him.
January 13, 2018
This is a pretty typical story and one that's been done before: Think "Dead Poets Society meets The Emperor's Club meets Good Will Hunting on Water."
Talented working class kid comes to an elite program and has to overcome his own stubbornness and resistance to "The System".
There's an ultra-talented, ultra-rich team-mate who he butts heads with.
Tough but brilliant Coach.
Goofy side-kick.
There's a love interest.
Tragedy.
Triumph.
Sweet remembrance of youth.
This book has it all.
This is what I'd call a 'beach book'.
Made to be read in a chair at the cottage or on vacation.
As long as you don't expect great literature, you won't be disappointed.
Not surprised it was optioned for a movie, although I can't see it being a great movie, as many of the things don't translate.
Talented working class kid comes to an elite program and has to overcome his own stubbornness and resistance to "The System".
There's an ultra-talented, ultra-rich team-mate who he butts heads with.
Tough but brilliant Coach.
Goofy side-kick.
There's a love interest.
Tragedy.
Triumph.
Sweet remembrance of youth.
This book has it all.
This is what I'd call a 'beach book'.
Made to be read in a chair at the cottage or on vacation.
As long as you don't expect great literature, you won't be disappointed.
Not surprised it was optioned for a movie, although I can't see it being a great movie, as many of the things don't translate.
March 27, 2018
3.5 stars
A very well-written story about a guy who gets recruited from high school to join a very exclusive school as a "post matric" and member of their rowing squad. The book jumps between then and current - which 15 years later when his relationship is falling apart and he's just been invited back to a high school reunion. Slowly the author leads us through the events of that year - and those that happened thereafter - culminating in the weekend of the reunion itself.
Besides the writing, I also quite enjoyed learning more about the sport of rowing from a crew's perspective. I hadn't realised quite how technical the actual race itself is.
A very well-written story about a guy who gets recruited from high school to join a very exclusive school as a "post matric" and member of their rowing squad. The book jumps between then and current - which 15 years later when his relationship is falling apart and he's just been invited back to a high school reunion. Slowly the author leads us through the events of that year - and those that happened thereafter - culminating in the weekend of the reunion itself.
Besides the writing, I also quite enjoyed learning more about the sport of rowing from a crew's perspective. I hadn't realised quite how technical the actual race itself is.
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