Tropic of Hockey: My Search for the Game in Unlikely Places

From Publishers Weekly
Canadian writer and rock musician Bidini (On a Cold Road) shares his rediscovery of hockey and the global odyssey that brought him back to his nation's sport. Bidini's narrative is funny and thoughtful as he comes to grips with national identity, which in Canada almost invariably means hockey. The book's central theme is that of a dispossessed fan, one who grew out of the sport as he embraced rock and roll, only to rediscover the joy and beauty of hockey as an adult. An avid recreational player, Bidini tells a funny story about his search for the real game. Bored nearly to death by the clutch-and-grab NHL of the late 1990s, he spends an evening watching Martha Stewart instead of his once-beloved playoffs. "I had no choice but to leave," he quips. And leave he does, searching the earth for hockey in its purest form. From Hong Kong to Manchuria, from Transylvania to the United Arab Emirates, the author discovers players and personalities the casual NHL fan would never imagine. Like all good travelogues, Bidini's carries a healthy dose of soul searching; a great storyteller, he's at his best when he stumbles upon revelations about himself or hockey. Perhaps the book's greatest strength is that it is among the first hockey books written by someone entirely outside the pro game. Free from the behavioral constraints and clannish codes of the locker room, Bidini tells a story about hockey that neither Wayne Gretzky nor the author's beloved Wendel Clark could mimic. Canadians have enjoyed this book for almost two years; it's time American readers got a chance to read this gem.

From Library Journal
The goal of Canadian hockey enthusiast, writer, and musician Bidini was to see whether the true game existed outside of North America. Technically, the game is played consistently around the globe; the real question was the cultural imperatives players brought to the game. Bidini's travelog is thus a humorous cultural expos‚ of people and how they play the game. The adventure included stops in China, Singapore, the Philippines, a rink on the eighth floor of a mall in Hong Kong, the desert city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Transylvania (in Romania), where hockey remains a war between rival ethnic groups. The result is a delightful read that both armchair travelers and aficionados will enjoy. Recommended for public libraries and all sports collections. Larry R. Little, Penticton P.L., B.C.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Devoted to a low-scoring sport impossible for neophytes to follow on TV, hockey fans are a breed apart--and not one restricted to northern Euro-American precincts. After a chance encounter in 1986 with a "spectral figure from Canada's game" in a small Georgia town, Bidini reconnected with the sport of his youth. More recently, disenchanted with the NHL's fascination with "the Trap, a form of hockey which is . . . the equivalent of playing Pong," he searched the world around for hockey "as it was before . . . the pro game had betrayed tradition for quick-buck teams and a style that relied more on chalkboard patterns than spontaneous, tongue-wagging, river play." He found it. In China, Transylvania, and the United Arab Emirates (!) were players and fans whose passion was much closer to his ideal. At his odyssey's end--"a rink in the coldest town in Romania"--Bidini immersed himself in the game and its reassuringly cross-cultural appeal. A just-plain-good sports book, must reading for hockey fans. Hey! No crosschecking in the stacks! Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
?One of the best books on the game this country has seen since Ken Dryden?s The Game?conversational, compelling, funny and raw. Not to mention literate and studied.?
?National Post

?This year?s best hockey book?
?Globe and Mail

?By travelling the world?Bidini renews his faith in this Canadian game. And with it, ours.?
?Exclaim!

??stands above the bookshelf in terms of page-turning imagination.?
?Toronto Star

Book Description
From Toronto to China, Dubai to Transylvania and back, a hilarious, moving account of one man's quest for "pure hockey." On a hot summer's day in 1998, when Dave Bidini found himself watching Martha Stewart rather than the Stanley Cup playoffs, he knew that something was seriously amiss: The game he loved had crossed the line. It was now an entertainment, not a sport. A passionate hockey fan and rec player, Bidini immediately resolved to follow Canada's best export to the rest of the world, to find out whether the true game still existed elsewhere. His quest took him to a rink on the eighth floor of a shopping mall in Hong Kong; to the gritty city of Harbin in Northern China, where a game much like hockey has been played for six hundred years; to Dubai in the desert of The United Arab Emirates, where hockey is brand-new and incredulous Bedouin drop by the Al Ain rink to wonder at the ice; and to Transylvania, where the game was introduced in the 1920s by a ten-second newsreel of Canadians chasing after a puck, and where it is now played as a vicarious war between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians. In Tropic of Hockey, Bidini weaves hilarious stories of encounters with rinks and players of wildly different talents and experiences with tales of his travels and spot-on observations about the game and players. (6 x 9, 320 pages, b&w photos)


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Two parts hockey book, one part travelogue and one part autobiographical essay, Tropic of Hockey teaches, saddens, occasionally enthralls and often excites. — National Post


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