One of the gripes against genre fiction is that too often the heroes, even the flawed ones, are unbelievably cool—emphasis on the word “unbelievably.” For the romance genre that’s especially true because authors want to transport the reader to a place whose inhabitants are much more captivating than most of the characters they meet in everyday life. Nobody, the critics say, is as heroic as those Dudley Do-Rights in the novels.
A wonderful slice of history by Daniel James Brown
But wait. I just read a book—non-fiction, mind you— about a young crew member who puts 99.95 percent of romance heroes to shame. He was a guy named Joe Rantz and he’s the focus of the wonderfully compelling history, The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown. Brown’s tome tells the story of the nine-man rowing team from the University of Washington that competed in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The narrative follows Joe’s emotional and physical journey through that once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Did Joe slay dragons, pull children from burning buildings or single-handedly bring down the Nazi regime? Was he suave and debonair and did he break women’s hearts?
Not exactly. Joe was simply a young man who, when faced with a lousy childhood, refused to let it derail him, refused to succumb to bitterness. The character and fortitude he shows through the years when faced with, dare I say, a boatload of troubles, is so admirable, so inspiring, that I guarantee every mother who reads the book will sigh and think, “Now how can I teach my kids to be like him?”
Okay, it doesn’t hurt that Joe was six foot three, blond, good-looking, and strong as an ox.. But those attributes had absolutely nothing to do with the hero within.
It occurs to me that The Boys in the Boat reads like the best genre fiction in another way as well. Even though you know how the story ends, you are still pulled along inexorably by the excitement and drama of getting to that finish line, both literally and figuratively. You know what happens, but it’s how it happens that grabs you and won’t let go.
I loved this book so much that I put it down when I had fifty pages to go, because I didn’t want it to end. But that didn’t last long, because I simply had to finish the story. That’s the kind of fiction I want to write.
As a romance author, my goal is to create heroes that readers don’t just like, but love. To those who say men (and women) like that don’t exist in the real world, I can now point to The Boys in the Boat and say, “Au contraire, my small-minded friend – you obviously don’t know Joe.”
