Short description
Almost every Canadian can hum the original Hockey Night in Canada theme - even those who don't think of themselves as hockey fans. For more than a century, Canadians have seen something of themselves in the sport of hockey. This book explores the critical aspects of this relationship.
Long description
Contributors include Julian Ammirante (Laurentian University at Georgian), Jason Blake (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Robert Dennis (Queen's University), Jamie Dopp (University of Victoria), Russell Field (University of Manitoba), Greg Gillespie (Brock University), Richard Harrison (Mount Royal College), Craig Hyatt (Brock University), Brian Kennedy (Pasadena City College), Karen E.H. Skinazi (University of Alberta), and Julie Stevens (Brock University).
From the book:
The Giller Prize-winning author, David Adams Richards, tells a humorous anecdote from his days as a writer-in-residence at the University of New Brunswick - Fredericton. It was in 1984, on the day after Team Canada had defeated the hated Soviet national team 3 to 2 in overtime and, a committed hockey fan, he was dying to chat with someone, anyone, about the great victory the night before. The first person he encountered was a young English professor, a good but perhaps pretentious scholar who had once been overheard saying that she could not see how anyone could live without reading Henry James. Despite her erudition, like Richards she was from small-town New Brunswick, and because of this, he thought, she must be a hockey fan. Did you see the game last night? No, she replied, we don't have a television ... don't approve of it, but continued on saying that her husband had been eager to find out the result that morning on the radio.
He's heartbroken, she said. We were going for the Russians. Richards' face displayed his bewilderment at her treasonous statement.
Well we both hate Gretzky, you see. Her accent now turned slightly British .. . he's just such a Canadian. She smiled. He paused, uncomfortably, and then asked her:
You hate greatness ... or just Canadian greatness?
Review
Canada's Game deals both critically and sympathetically with hockey's important place in Canadian cultural life, and helps to explain why - in addition to the nostalgic myth-making that surrounds the game - hockey is so important to so many Canadians. There is no other book out there that captures the complexity of hockey's historical and contemporary reach. Colin Howell, St. Mary's University Holman's introduction is gracefully written and provides one the best essays on hockey and the Canadian identity. Drawing on literature, history, and economics, and covering a wide-range of hockey-related subjects, the various collected essays are interesting and original contributions to the growing scholarship on hockey. David J. Whitson, University of Alberta