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CM . . .
. Volume XII Number 18 . . . .May 12, 2006
excerpt:
Leslie McFarlane�s Hockey Stories, with a biographically-rich foreword from son Brian, contains four short stories of traditional Canadian hockey pride that root for the underdogs of amateur, small-town hockey. The four stories, �Montville Boy Makes Good,� �Goalie Garrison�s Goat,� �Too Slow to Count,� and �They Didn�t Know Hockey,� represent a moment of fame � noticed by a crowd, the team, or a coach � for one of the lesser-known players on fictional amateur teams. The overall message of �if at first you don�t succeed� threads the tales together. Although McFarlane is best known for his work as Franklin W. Dixon, one of the ghost-writers for the Hardy Boys, his writing comes alive when it follows Canada�s national sport. The stories share the same Depression-era flavour that McFarlane, who wrote during this time, captures easily in his work. The language for modern-day readers is somewhat dated; in �They Didn�t Know Hockey,� the narrator notes, �Mary was Dan�s girl; and when he met her, as was his custom, after the game to escort her home, he was astonished to find her in bad humour.� Despite�or rather due to�the aging colloquialisms in McFarlane�s writing, the language brings out a familiar echo of the time, and would, most likely, create an exciting read aloud from parent to hockey-crazed fan before bed, or be a good silent read for any avid fan of traditional hockey stories. McFarlane knows hockey, and he manages to bring the lively, rough-necked, cutthroat sport to life in the pages of each story. He weaves tales of fast-paced ice action, the stuff of which urban hockey legends are made. McFarlane plays with points of view with natural ease, moving from the perspective of an entire town in �Montville Boy Makes Good� to that of a coach in �Goalie Garrison�s Goat�; he switches from the weak-legged Tim Cordell who �played every game as if it were a Stanley Cup� in �Too Slow to Count� to the temporary puck-hog, Dan Hawkley in �They Didn�t Know Hockey.� He deftly alternates from limited omniscient to first person perspectives, and creates distinctive, unique voices for each story while managing to maintain a cohesive style. McFarlane gives little-known characters the most honoured spots in the stories; in every story a player�not necessarily the protagonist�faces some sort of obstacle, possibly his own greed for fame�or a town�s greed for fame�that they have to overcome. The ultimate win at the end of each story is inevitable and predictable; repetitive moral lessons find their way into every story, but the most important lesson is the love of the game�and loving the game not for fame or for money but for the game itself. Hockey Stories not only brings the game alive, but also represents what is quintessentially �Canadian� about the sport; McFarlane digs into small-town hockey mentality and comes up rich. Hockey Stories makes an excellent addition for any collection of Canadian tales of small-town life during the Depression. Recommended. Sandi Harrison currently a student in the Master of Arts in Children�s Literature at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca. Copyright � the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
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