I am not a hockey fan. But sometimes, when you live in Canada, it cannot be avoided. Luckily, hockey in literature is much more fun for me than hockey on ice.
Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard (Invisible Publishing)
I almost didn’t read this. I thought, what am I doing with this book about hockey with a young male protagonist? But I saw a write-up for it by Sarah Sawler in Atlantic Books Today that convinced me to give it a try.
Our man, Adam, is coming home to Pennington, Nova Scotia (a fictional “stand-in” for all small NS towns) after being away for ten years.
Pennington is a small town the way all towns in Nova Scotia are small. In the summer, it smells like salt, and in the winter it snows that wet, heavy Maritime snow — heart-attack snow, they call it. Everybody knows of everybody else and their business. The same guy has been mayor for thirty years and will be until he doesn’t want it or, more likely, he drops dead, at which time his son will probably take over. It’s a town that thrives on routine and expectation and neighbourly kindness. There are hundreds of towns just like this – Pennington, Pugwash, Tatamagouche, Antigonish, Pictou. The specifics don’t matter.
When Adam left, his mother had just died – he was running away more than he was making a deliberate choice to leave. He did okay while he was away – not great – but now he’s fallen on hard times and is hoping to come home to interview his ex-hockey star father (“Terry Punchout”) for an article in a sports magazine.
Adam’s dad played in the NHL, but was known more for his fighting than anything else. And he was wanted more for his fighting than anything else. After an unfortunate incident, he retired from the game and came home to Pennington. At first, he was a hero, but soon enough he just became the reclusive ex-hockey player who lives at the arena and drives the Zamboni.
Terry, reluctantly at first, shares his story with his son. And, although, there’s lots of hockey-talk, this book is really about fathers and sons, and reconciling with your past in order to move forward. As Sarah Sawler puts it, “… he finally realizes moving away isn’t quite the same as moving on.”
Along with hockey, this book has good characters, funny lines, a little romance, and a touching story.
A few good lines:
In small towns, there are two kinds of people: those who can’t wait to leave and those who can’t imagine being anywhere else.
I’m self-aware enough to know I’ve got a half-baked scheme that doesn’t stand up to a lot of scrutiny, so I try not to scrutinize it.
It turns out the reason we, as a society, haven’t cured cancer or economic disparity or, really, anything, is because our smartest and most talented people have spent the last several years devoted to video game advancement.
East coast hockey (not that I would know)…
Hockey parents are invested. They spend an unreasonable amount of time dragging their kids to and from rinks. The kids develop lifelong rivalries with other kids from other towns – they play and win and lose and fight with each other for years. And after each game, their parents reward them with pizza and pop. It conditions them to think that beating those kids from those towns is good. Then they grow up and have their own children and the cycle repeats itself. Winning, losing, fighting. Pizza and pop. And parents in the stands yelling at players, referees, each other, and so on, shitheads begetting shitheads for all of time.
I’ve watched a lot of hockey across the country, but there’s something different about East Coast hockey. It seems more violent. Watching boys slam into each other, swing sticks, and throw punches is barbaric. Everyone here should be ashamed to be spending fifteen dollars for a ticket. I hate that I’m enjoying myself.
Six Six Two Fifty by David Huebert
This is a short story from Best Canadian Stories, edited by Russell Smith (and published by Biblioasis). It seemed like too much of a coincidence that I would read two stories about hockey fighters in a row.
There are few things as lovely as the sight of blood pooling on white ice.
Six Six Two Fifty (which refers to a player’s height and weight), starts off with the coach sending his fighter out onto the ice and nodding in the direction of his target.
Scab says something about the snatch of the sister I don’t have and the ref drops the puck and we’re dropping mitts and cocking elbows and squaring up in the bright white open.
The sweet cool balm of the ice under me while the crowd howls above. Scab’s body curls into mine and the heave of our lungs gradually merges. We hold each other, breathing in synch. A drool of my blood leaks down onto the white of his sweater. The lovely warm clarity of it. “Good fight,” Scab pants, and I tell him same.
From what I can tell from both Hellard’s book and Huebert’s story, these guys get picked specifically to be fighters. At first they might be happy just to be playing in the NHL, but soon they start to miss playing real hockey. And they worry about being traded or replaced if they don’t do what’s asked of them.
And how to explain that you are not actually a particularly violent person when what circulates on YouTube is a shot of you skating across the rink at full speed, holding two halves of a stick you’ve just broken over your knee, the ends like mouths full of jagged splintery fangs.
One of the worst things is the waiting. Waiting through the plane ride and the bus from the airport and warmup and the pregame speech and the national anthem, knowing the whole time that you are going to have to get violent. Sitting on the bench listening to the crowd turning frenzied and knowing you’ve got to face a professional fighter who will open your face in an instant if you have a lonely second thought about pounding him first.
Like Terry in Hellard’s book, the hockey fighter in this story is not happy. He’s lonely and regretful and he drinks too much.
(Some of you might remember that I loved David Huebert’s story collection Peninsula Sinking. All of the stories in that book include animals in some way. I didn’t want you to go away thinking he had written a story completely void of an animal. This one has a pug named Gorgonzola with an eyeball that pops out.)
Home Ice by Angie Abdou (ECW Press)
And yet another book about hockey. This one, however, is the “Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom”. And from what we’ve learned from the stories above, I can see why she might be reluctant. However, her son is only nine years old in this book. There is more fighting between Angie and her husband than there is between the hockey players.
Home Ice is insightful and entertaining. Abdou digs into hockey culture, how hard it is to change it for the better, how it affects the children playing it (or not playing it), and how it affects the families with children who play.
I am not a hockey mom. But I’m a football mom, a volleyball mom, and a dance mom. I loved this book and found so much of it relevant and insightful. Abdou delves deep into sport for kids (not just hockey), and how to parent them. When do you push? When do you hang back? What messages are you bringing from your own experiences? How far do you go to help change the way sports are run, especially considering they are often run by volunteers? Do you let them play even though you don’t like it, or you don’t agree with the way it’s run? Do you let them play despite the terrifying physical risks?
Using research studies as well as her own experience, Abdou explores what it means to be a hockey mom, a hockey family, and a child playing hockey in Canada right now. She discusses cost, time, travel, competition, discrimination, abuse of power, sexism, elitism, risk of concussion, and general hockey culture.
Sounds kind of scary, right? But Abdou also explores the benefits of sport for children, and the reasons behind her desire to support her son’s passion for hockey (even though she and her husband have misgivings about it). She draws on her own experience as a competitive swimmer, and uses what she knows to guide her own children.
Those who play for a true love of sport measure success in a different currency.
So far, most of the ratings for Home Ice are positive, but there are a few one-star reviews on Goodreads. I read them to understand why they didn’t like a book that I found completely captivating. Their main complaint is that they think the book is more about the personal shortcomings of the author than about hockey. But this is one of the things I love about the book. Abdou reflects on all aspects of her life as a hockey mom – not just hockey. And she is ruthlessly honest about her shortcomings, which I appreciate. I don’t think there is a mother alive who doesn’t doubt herself, or a marriage on earth that doesn’t need work. I like her all the more for writing about these things.
I recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone.
… I’ll be his enthusiastic audience, even when it means sitting in an ice rink for a week in August. I’ll have confidence in him even when he does not have it in himself. I will wear that confidence in my eyes so he sees it every time he looks at me, sees it so often he can’t help but believe in it.
Further Reading:
Another good hockey novel: King Leary by Paul Quarrington
Other good books by Angie Abdou: Between, The Bone Cage, and The Canterbury Trail
More good stories by David Huebert: Peninsula Sinking
How about you? Do you like reading sports literature? Are there any books about sport that stand out for you?
Consumed by Ink 
You really did go the whole hog, or perhaps that should be puck. Not entirely sure about my terminology there. I felt much the same about The Art of Fielding before I read it knowing nothing about baseball but I loved it.
Exactly. Because, unless you’re picking up non-fiction, the book is probably not really going to be about the sport itself. And it turned out to be interesting to learn more about hockey in a more enjoyable way than actually watching it. 🙂
I feel like I would never deliberately pick up a book about sports. BUT sometimes a novel where a sport is a major element can still win me over, like The World According to Garp (wrestling) or The Art of Fielding (baseball). It’s great that you got so much out of these three books and that you could draw the connection across a novel, a short story and a memoir. (That pug sounds ridiculous!)
The pug does sound like a funny addition to a story about a hockey fighter, but it fit right in. (And the eyeball problem is explained to be a real thing!)
I love a bookish coincidence – I did not set out to read about hockey – it just happened!
P.S. Funnily enough, I’m now reading a novel that features ice hockey: Love Story by Erich Segal. I had no idea when I started it that it had that element!
That *is* funny! Another funny thing is that I read Love Story years ago and have no recollection of it including hockey (or anything else about it, for that matter). Maybe your review will remind me!
The male lead plays hockey for Harvard.
ha! I’m the same way you are, I hate sports, but I probably wouldn’t mind reading a book about sports-Abdou’s hockey mom book sounds interesting to me.
It’s quite sad the thought of those ‘fighter’ hockey players-I find watching fights in hockey so upsetting, that’s one reason I don’t like it. I’m secretly hoping my kids are just as athletically inept as I am that I don’t have to drag myself to practices and games at rinks/courts/etc. but I do like taking my daughter to swim lessons, so perhaps that’s not so different…
It’s amazing, actually, how you can suddenly love watching a sport when your child is one of the players! I never imagined my son would fall in love with football and that I would love going to the games, but it happened. Now I’m very curious to find out where your kids will lead you!
you and me both! LOL
I don’t read a lot of sports related books either Naomi, but like Susan I read and loved The Art of Fielding. Maybe I should be more open to different books.
I remember how much you loved The Art of Fielding. I’ve been meaning to read it ever since!
I actually enjoy watching hockey, though I don’t do so regularly. My husband and I have always joked though that none of our kids are allowed to play. It’s just so all-consuming, it seems, though I’d be interested in reading Abdou’s perspective.
I have several friends who like watching hockey, but I’d rather watch football, baseball, even golf over hockey. I wonder if that’s because I used to watch those other sports with my dad. I don’t remember him watching a lot of hockey.
I think you’d find Abdou’s experience interesting. I don’t think she or her husband were keen on hockey, either, but their son loved it. I’ve always been happy we avoided it, but would I support my child if they loved it? Probably. I just got lucky!
I may have avoided it by having girls but you never know!
There are so many girls playing hockey now! But still not as common.
Always so (surprisingly) good to read outside an supposed area of interest… I hate sports yet have a few friends who rattle on about baseball in this almost holy way that finally piqued my interest enough that I began noticing baseball related books. (Take the smallest interest and they will come. It’s magic.) Finally chose ‘The Utility of Boredom’, by Andrew Forbes. These are essays. About baseball. I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought the book. Essays. About baseball… However, it is brilliant. I adored it, some essays more than others but so much of that book has stayed with me and has to some degree explained the fascination people have with the game. Next up is ‘Baseball Life Advice’, by Stacey May Fowles.
Also, the only hockey book I’ve read is ‘Indian Horse’, which blew me away for how Wagamese describes the game right down to the rhythm of movement and sound.
Ah, Indian Horse is one I keep meaning to read but seems to keep getting away from me. I know it will be good.
That’s so interesting to hear your experience with baseball and baseball essays. Fiction is one thing, but essays…! Literature is amazing, isn’t it?!
I’ve just added “The Utility of Boredom” to my list and also noticed it shares the same publisher as “Searching for Terry Punchout”.
I’ll be interested in hearing what you think of “Baseball Life Advice”. I loved “Infidelity”, but wasn’t sure about reading a book about baseball. (When will I learn my lesson?)
Like Susan, The Art of Fielding means I keep an open mind on sports novels! I know nothing about any sport but if the story is how the sport acts as a force in people’s lives and how that plays out, it’s interesting to me. These all sound really appealing, despite the fact I’ve never seen even a moment of a hockey game 🙂
It’s pretty amazing really that literature can get us reading about things we didn’t know we would love to read about!
Well, you would definitely have to be Canadian to want to read that amount about hockey! 😉
Or even to have it happen by accident! Do any other countries write as much about hockey as Canada, I wonder?
That’s probably a no. For Britain it would be football and cricket, maybe rugby too. And we know the US it’s American football, basketball and, of course, baseball. 😀
I played hockey on grass (or gravel sometimes), no doubt an alien concept to Canadians. I looked up Zamboni, for some reason we don’t have them in Australia. I was a ballet dad and a scouting dad and I’m glad I didn’t have to introduce my kids to a sport that normalized violence.
We also have floor hockey and ground hockey here – our eight month long ice hockey season isn’t enough, I guess!
Ballet and Scouts! Our family is very familiar with both of those activities. Our oldest daughter has been dancing for 11 years, and my husband is a scout leader. Our youngest has been a cub/scout for several years now and will probably go on to Venturers – she loves it!
I’m also very glad to have avoided hockey. Although, it could be argued that football isn’t much better. There’s no fighting, though. Unnecessary roughness is not allowed.
I like sports Lit and books … mainly about tennis. I’m not too into hockey admittedly. But in general I think sports are very positive for kids …. for a number of reasons: releasing energy, teaching them focus and team work, and keeping them out of trouble and having fun!
I agree! Despite the scary stuff about football, I’m glad my son loves it. It’s been so good for him in so many ways.
I love it when reading aligns like this. And, you’d think – overall – that it would happen with hockey reading more often than not here in Canada. 🙂
Lynn Coady’s The Antagonist is another hockey story that I really was not expecting to enjoy. But it was surprisingly gripping. (Thoughts here.)
Also, Bruce McDougall’s The Last Hockey Game was nominated for the Toronto Book Award a couple years ago, so I read that too (and, surprisingly, enjoyed it well enough as well). It went into the history of various teams, so that was good.
Another that I enjoyed is Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse. Wait a second, I’m starting to think maybe I am more Canadian than I thought!
But Angie Abdou’s memoir was incredibly readable. I found all the inward (and outward) debate about whether it was a “good” choice for their son (and the tension resulting from somewhat differing opinions on the matter between her and her husband, which led to some additional tension in their marriage) fascinating and ordinary, real and relatable. There is an interesting interview on CBC about the book too (not one of the book programs, I don’t believe, but one of the reportage shows) which reveals some other interesting stuff about what parenting-in-hockey turns out to be like and how differently different parents approach it.
I would love to read The Antagonist and Indian Horse. I also have a newish one on my shelf called The Last Hockey Player. Self-published, I think.
I agree with everything you say about Home Ice. I’ll have to find that interview!