Grace under Fire : The State of Our Sweet and Savage Game

by Lawrence Scanlan

Genres: Hockey, Sports

Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

From Macmillan Books:

Lawrence Scanlan is the author of six bestselling books, including Wild About Horses and Little Horse of Iron. He is the coauthor, with Ian Millar, of Riding High, and has written three books for younger readers: Big Ben, Horses Forever, and The Horse’s Shadow. Scanlan worked closely with Monty Roberts on his acclaimed book The Man Who Listens to Horses. Winner of three Canadian National Magazine Awards for his journalism, Scanlan lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Reviews

[Parker Piccolo Hill]

Whilst a very interesting book, and had some crazy stats and deep dives into the game, I think it's more of a trend report/history than a solution. Of course, that's a lot to expect from a book, and Scanlan does propose solutions, but I think it is generally quite disheartening as to expecting the game to change. Also outdated, obviously, given that it's twenty years old, but I would like to know his thoughts on many aspects of the current game, and on the Canada Five trial. Forgot when I actually finished this so making up a date.

[Gary VandeBroek]

Very interesting read

[Teebz Hbic]

Review for Grace under Fire can be found on Hockey Blog In Canada.

[E.C.R.]

Scanlan relates literally hundreds of anecdotes about violence in hockey. Unfortunately, most of these are only a couple of sentences long and this leads the reader to a very disjointed experience. The book is at its best when dealing with extended descriptions of particular events, but this occurs all too rarely. For the sports or hockey enthusiast, such as myself, there is enough to give a weak recommendation, but all others would be wise to steer clear.