{"product_id":"9780684863306","title":"Rowing Against the Current","description":"Author: Barry Strauss\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780684863306\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Scribner\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 15 Jun 2001\u003cbr\u003ePages: 176\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the midst of the standard, dreary midlife crisis -- complete with wine-tasting courses, yoga classes, and a failed attempt at a first novel -- forty-year-old Barry Strauss falls unexpectedly and passionately in love with rowing, a sport in which a twenty-seven-year-old is a has-been. \u003cbr\u003e\n\n Strauss, a professor of classics and history, writes about the unanticipated delights of an affair that, like so many others, begins as a casual dalliance and develops into a full-blown obsession. Drawn to the sport in part because of his affinity for Greek antiquity, he develops a love for old boathouses, a longing for rivers at dawn, a thirst to test himself, and, ultimately, a renewed sense of self-reliance -- as someone who had experienced sports humiliation as far back as Little League suddenly finds himself bursting into athleticism at an unlikely age. \u003cbr\u003e\n\n From the awe-inspiring feats of the war-bound Greek triremes with their crews of 172 men rowing on three levels to the solitary pride of finishing a first race in which he gets stuck in the weeds and has to be fished out, Barry Strauss shows us why \"there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half as much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.\"","brand":"Print on demand - Ships in 1 to 3 months","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46871657119902,"sku":"HPC-9780684863306","price":24.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780684863306.jpg?v=1779618382","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780684863306","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}