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

n.ca

Playing in a rock and roll band may be a trip in itself, but Toronto-based Rheostatics rhythm guitarist Dave Bidini sets out on a different kind of world tour in his second book, Tropic Of Hockey: My Search For The Game in Unlikely Places . (His first, On a Cold Road , offers a bands-eye-view of Canadian road rigours.)

Bidini is obviously knowledgeable; he's contributed to several anthologies, including The Original Six: True Stories from Hockey's Classic Era and Maple Leaf Gardens : Memories and Dreams 1931-1999 .

In those books a lot of the travelling is back in time--reveries about legendary NHL moments and rivalries, Canada Cup battles, and of course, Maple Leafs heartbreaks.

The travelling in Tropic is more spatial than temporal; Bidini's quest takes him to rinks in such far-flung locales as China and the Middle East .

As a fan, Bidini has an infectious enthusiasm that can propel rabid fans and the uninitiated alike into the mindset and emotion of the game, if not exactly to unlikely places. "Hatred as well as love, lives in my hockey heart, and I wouldn't trade one for the other," he declares.

He talks playoff-type trash like, "I thought I'd stumbled upon a sheik look-alike contest," in the United Arab Emerites, or opining, "Their faces were folded and pinched with age, as if they too might have been clubbed with the odd puck," about some passers-by in China.

And just like the game, Tropic is rough and unforgiving, packing plenty of dud one-liners but also some sporting zingers: "After the first period, the Singapore goalie had touched more rubber than the Marquis de Sade."

In the end, Bidini's offbeat candour comes off as either insightful and witty or petulant and boring, depending on your taste.

--sigcino moyo

 

original publication: Amazon.ca