Mind Over Water : Lessons on Life from the Art of Rowing

Rating:
Summary: An overly cerebral book about a highly visceral sport
Review: Other readers have criticized the author for being self-centered and somewhat uninitiated. In fact, this book is much more a series of intellectual/autobiographical essays than it is a book about rowing. This book is cerebral in exactly the way that rowing is not. In a way, Lambert's approach resembles the overthinking that many rowers have to conquer in order to compete well. As a portrait of the sport, it is mediocre, or worse. As a Montaigne-like series of essays which uses rowing as a metaphor, it succeeds fairly well. My guess is that people who enjoy personal essays will enjoy this book; serious rowers looking for a book about rowing will often find it unsatisfying.

Rating:
Summary: A funny, profound, exhilarating book
Review: This book is a gem: beautifully faceted, rarely found, and precious to keep. Craig Lambert is as skillful a wordsmith as he is a rower, and reading his intelligence at work on what it means--and what it takes--to master this sport is a delight. One of the pleasures of Mind Over Water is the way Lambert teases insight out of all aspects of rowing, as in his perfectly pitched meditation on balance in the section called "Equinox": "balance is no settled state: it is alive, dynamic, constantly emergent. Even those ideal moments when our boat sets up perfectly, flying across the water in silent, level splendor, only mean balance now. A second later, we must take the next stroke." Lambert is a transcendental rower, and he brings an Emersonian eye to the mind-body connection, as in this, one of my favorite passages: "The shell responds to motions of the body. The body follows the dictates of the mind. Hence the boat reacts to the rower's mind: when your mind quivers, so does your shell. . . . Conversely, a quiet mind levels the boat; stillness settles the body, and the shell, relaxing into agreement, takes the quietest, fastest route through the water." Lambert moves easily between the sublime and the prosaic, and when it's time to evoke the need to push the body to do more than it wants, he brings wit and humor to the task: "Don't tell me that this isn't the finish line, I think. This has got to be the finish line; I am already on my fourth wind and there is no way I can row another hundred feet, let alone another mile." And when he does finish, "I don't know about Tom [his rowing partner], but I have accomplished the impossible--several times over. Never mind that we were amazingly slow: we did it." Lambert has asked himself since childhood, Am I a real athlete? In other words, he's the perfect guide into the elemental and rarefied world of rowing. For those of us whose exercise regimes haven't been more ambitious than step classes, free weights, and weekend hikes, Lambert makes such a place accessible to the imagination. Mind Over Water is funny, profound, earthy, contemplative, even exhilarating. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: An inspiration for any athlete, occasional or serious.
Review: This book is a joy on several levels. Lambert writes a moving and educational tribute to the great practitioners of rowing, a sport of ancient rhythms and timeless beauty, and illuminates a number of unique personalities from the sport. He also tells a tale of personal awakening through his own participation in the sport, and speaks for "everyman" as he describes his middle-aged struggles to achieve athletic grace. Lambert's dry wit and keen eye for detail create some unforgettable and often hilarious images! And on a third level, Lambert extracts many intriguing insigts about teamwork and personal discipline which readily apply for any of us in our daily lives, and in our greatest personal dreams. Well done, Craig! A compelling and ultimately joyful jewel of a book.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing How-to Treatise on Living a Self-Absorbed Life
Review: Though drawn to Lambert's book as an amateur sculler, I saw any value of his informative dribbles on rowing repeatedly negated by his arrogance in offering Lessons on (Leading a Self-Absorbed) Life. A disappointing sinker, unlike the comparably intended work of Richard Bode.