A timeless reflection on hockey, not only as a sport, but as a lens through which to view a nation fromaward-winning author David Adams Richards.
With a voice as Canadian as winter, David Adams Richards reflects on the place of hockey in the Canadian soul. The lyrical narrative of Hockey Dreams flows from Richards' boyhood games on the Miramichi to heated debates with university professors who dare to back the wrong team. It examines the globalization of hockey, and how Canadians react to the threat of foreigners beating us at "our" game. Part memoir, part essay on national identity, part hockey history, Hockey Dreams is a meditation by one of Canada's finest writers on the essence of the game that helps define our nation.
If you think that you are a Canadian, then my boy I will show you I am a Canadian too—if they check me from behind I will get up, if they kick and slash I will get up. If we play three against five for fifteen minutes I will get up. I too am a Canadian. They will not take this away from me. Nor, can I see, will they ever take it away from you. At the moment they think we are defeated we will have just begun. I will prove forever my years on the river, on the back rinks, on the buses, on the farm teams. I will prove forever that this is what has shaped me.
“Richards has used a novelist’s gift for character, dialogue and imagery to produce a touching portrait of hockey-crazed kids.” —Maclean’s
“A lyrical and unapologetically personal narrative about the place of the game in the Canadian psyche . . . [Richards] has raised the standard of hockey literature.” —Vancouver Sun
A timeless reflection on hockey, not only as a sport, but as a lens through which to view a nation fromaward-winning author David Adams Richards.
With a voice as Canadian as winter, David Adams Richards reflects on the place of hockey in the Canadian soul. The lyrical narrative of Hockey Dreams flows from Richards' boyhood games on the Miramichi to heated debates with university professors who dare to back the wrong team. It examines the globalization of hockey, and how Canadians react to the threat of foreigners beating us at "our" game. Part memoir, part essay on national identity, part hockey history, Hockey Dreams is a meditation by one of Canada's finest writers on the essence of the game that helps define our nation.
Excerpt
If you think that you are a Canadian, then my boy I will show you I am a Canadian too—if they check me from behind I will get up, if they kick and slash I will get up. If we play three against five for fifteen minutes I will get up. I too am a Canadian. They will not take this away from me. Nor, can I see, will they ever take it away from you. At the moment they think we are defeated we will have just begun. I will prove forever my years on the river, on the back rinks, on the buses, on the farm teams. I will prove forever that this is what has shaped me.
“Richards has used a novelist’s gift for character, dialogue and imagery to produce a touching portrait of hockey-crazed kids.” —Maclean’s
“A lyrical and unapologetically personal narrative about the place of the game in the Canadian psyche . . . [Richards] has raised the standard of hockey literature.” —Vancouver Sun
