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

Dave Bidini

3.86 · Rating details · 243 ratings · 17 reviews

From Toronto to China, Dubai to Transylvania and back, a hilarious, moving account of one man's quest for "pure hockey."
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Paperback, 312 pages

Published September 1st 2004 by Lyons Press (first published January 1st 2000)

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Jan 13, 2018 Paul Meloon rated it it was amazing

Dave Bidini is a Canadian Mark Twain. This book is chronicling his trip around the world to find hockey in unexpected places and is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in awhile.

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Feb 20, 2012 Enikő rated it liked it · review of another edition

So, an okay book, considering I am not a big hockey fan... not really a hockey fan at all, to be truthful. I also admit that I would have a hard time naming even one Rheostatics song. Yet, Dave Bidini made it to Canada Reads this year, so I thought it might be interesting to read something by him.

All in all, not a bad read. The fact that I kept reading owes a lot to the writer's style. Down-to-earth and easy to understand, he also peppers it up with some hilarious outbursts and understatements. So, an okay book, considering I am not a big hockey fan... not really a hockey fan at all, to be truthful. I also admit that I would have a hard time naming even one Rheostatics song. Yet, Dave Bidini made it to Canada Reads this year, so I thought it might be interesting to read something by him.

All in all, not a bad read. The fact that I kept reading owes a lot to the writer's style. Down-to-earth and easy to understand, he also peppers it up with some hilarious outbursts and understatements. His one-word sentences made an interesting impact. With that one word, you knew what he meant.

Part One of the book tells of Bidini's visit to China to participate in a hockey tournament. The are teams from several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, which is where we find Bidini is Part Two. Bidini's chinese is pretty much limited to "I play hockey", but there are a few interesting conversations where he and other players throw players' names at each other and receive nods and grunts as replies. As Bidini explains, he could not have had such a conversation about other topics because they were too complex. But to hockey fans, a player's name evokes images, memories and emotions that are easily shared without words. I also found it hilarioius when Dave skated over to the Chinese bench to talk with the players, and came away ruminating about what a funny friendship it was, and then just as the game gets back under way, one of the guys he befriended slaps him with his stick so hard that Bidini eventually goes back to the bench to find a huge red welt. His response, another one-word sentence, made me howl with laughter.

Although not a hockey person, I was able to enjoy this book because when Bidini writes about hockey he uses a simple language that I can understand. Although there were some hockey terms I was unfamiliar with, not to mention the seemingly neverending parade of players' names, I was able to get the gist of what he was talking about clearly enough to appreciate the moral of the story, or the hilarity of the anecdote. It was also interesting to observe some universal aspects of the sport, like the dad who pushes his son to play better and better, yelling from the sidelines (or from directly behind the net in one young goalie's case) during the whole game, while the son just wishes Dad would go away and let him play and have fun already. One aspect of the game I was less taken with - because I don't understand it, frankly - is how players can go nuts in the heat of the moment, swearing, yelling crude insults and behaving way too brutally for my liking. It's hard for me to reconcile the image of a nice guy traveling the world to discover hockey at the grassroots level with the brutality and the profanity that sometimes exited his mouth during a match. I also really wish that one of the anecdotes in the book about such behavior weren't about a musician in my favorite band. *sigh* But, what can I say. Everyone is human and, although humans are a social animal, they are still, at some basic level, sometimes just animals.

The second part of the book was very interesting in showing how hockey culture was evolving in the desert among arab players. Bidini's narration was hilarious when describing the conditions he expected to see as opposed to what he actually came across. I also liked to read names such as Dubai Penguins and Mighty Camels.

For me, Part Three was the hidden gem in this book. Picking up a book about hockey - about hockey around the world - I don't know why I was surprised, but I WAS, (and pleasantly so!), to find all of Part Three dedicated to Hungarian hockey players. Actually, they were Transylvanian Székelys, but, as any Hungarian will tell you, same difference! So I guess it IS ironic that, similar to how Bidini often said that at certain moments of his journey, he felt like he was home, and that I found a story that was so interesting to me not becuase it was about hockey, but about Hungarians for whom hockey is part of their identity, something that once meant life or death to them in the political turmoil of Romania. I have also added Ciuc, Transylvania to the list of places I would like to see one day. I want to go to Vakar Lajos Arena and look at the photos in the lobby. I want to see a photo of Lajos and his wife Elizabeth and think how funny it is that I am standing there becauase of a book about hockey I read in Canada. ...more

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Apr 16, 2015 J.C. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, sports

It's more of a travel memoir than a hockey book. I liked most of it. A few things bothered me.

First, Dave Bidini's goal for his hockey trip was to find the game being played in interesting and obscure places; places where one would ask oneself, "I wonder what a hockey game in Transylvania is like" (pretty awesome apparently). He made his trip in 1998 and published this book in 2000. He has a lot of negative things to say regarding the state of professional hockey at the end of the last century ...more

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Oct 08, 2008 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

An excellent book to read at the hockey rink! I'm sure many of the other parents on my sons' hockey teams wondered why the heck I was cracking up in laughter during early-morning practices. Written by musician/night-league hockey play Dave Bidini, this book is a must read for all hockey fans. A few years after reading the book I still chuckle over the first thing the author thought when looking at an elderly Chinese woman on the Great Wall of China. The great Leaf goalie Johnny Bower! Perhaps th ...more

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May 23, 2007 kate rated it liked it

Dave Bidini, bad hockey player, big hockey fan (even if it is the leafs) and punk musician, has a casual, funny writing style, it's kind of like anthony bourdain's cooking show only nowhere near as umm..crude/new jersey/new york - it's definitely canadian. clean punk rock. only in canada.

It is an easy read about strangely enthusiastic and poorly equipped hockey players all over the world. a tribute to bush leagues and kids growing up yelling "car" who just really love to play the game - only the ...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Nick rated it really liked it

Shelves: what-is-stephen-harper-reading

I don't read much sports writing that doesn't include advertisements for tractors in northern Wisconsin or any number of suggestive banners asking that I categorize myself among niche lonely hearts, let alone about hockey, a sport I've watched once live (Thrashers/Leafs probably six or seven years ago). But this book makes me want to seek more excellent sports writing and to maybe pick up watching hockey so I can complain about how much the NHL is ruining a pure sport. Something it has in common ...more

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Apr 15, 2010 catechism rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: o-canada, nonfiction, biography-and-memoir, sports, going-places

I am not sure what shelves to put this book on! It's a travel memoir about the author's journey around the world looking for hockey. He goes to China, the United Arab Emirates, and Transylvania, checking out these grassroots hockey cultures developing in places that aren't Canada. It's hilarious and touching and smart, and I had a lot of trouble putting it down. I'm pretty sure I would love this book even if I were not on a hockey kick right now. ...more

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May 03, 2015 Lee rated it liked it

Shelves: sports

An interesting book most hockey fans will enjoy. The author goes around the world to play hockey in unusually places, a tournament in Hong Kong, playing with a group of older American Tourists in China, a tournament in the UAE and ending with a grudge match in Transylvania. Interesting look at hockey and how it is perceived outside North America.

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Oct 08, 2013 Emmalynn Herbstritt rated it it was amazing

I loved reading this book!!! It was super funny. Yes, it was more of a bad sense of humor, but isn't that the best type of humor. I recommend this to all hockey players who want to read a good book about hockey. It did help me learn more about the sport I love and made me love it even more:) ...more

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Aug 12, 2014 Marc rated it liked it

When a writer is characterized as "direct", it means their prose is either concise or unsophisticated; The Tropic of Hockey is remarkable for its topic but certainly not how this content is delivered ...more

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Jun 04, 2008 Neill rated it really liked it

I would give this 4 stars if it only contained the story of Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo losing it during a a game and smashing Bidini's head into the ice while screaming "fuck you Bidini!!" But really I don't even like hockey and I liked this book a lot. ...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Susie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

One part travelog, one part sports memoir, and one part social commentary on hockey. I liked this book so much more than I thought I would.

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Apr 11, 2015 Stanley Lee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Entertaining.

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Nov 19, 2013 Lynnsy added it

loved it, so real and hilarious. very insightful and you don't even have to like hockey ...more

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May 13, 2009 Tim rated it liked it

http://prairieprogressive.com/?p=971 ...more

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About Dave Bidini

Dave Bidini

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DAVE BIDINI is the author of nine books. His play, "The Five Hole Stories," was performed by One Yellow Rabbit and toured Canada in winter, 2009, and his two "hockumentaries," The Hockey Nomad and The Hockey Nomad Goes To Russia were Gemini-nominated films, and The Hockey Nomad won for Best Documentary.

Bidini is the recipient of numerous National Magazine Awards, and is a weekly columnist in The N ...more