The Lonely End of the Rink

Deeply personal yet incredibly witty, this memoir about Grant Lawrence's relationship with hockey passes back and forth between tales of his life and a fascinating history of hockey, complete with lively anecdotes about the many colorful characters of the NHL. Through Lawrence's early life, he struggled with the idea of hockey. An undersized child who wore thick glasses and knee-braces, he understood what it was like to be in the attack zone of the hockey-obsessed jocks at his school. For Lawrence, bullying and the violent game of hockey seemed to go hand-in-hand. Yet he was also enamored with the sport and eventually learned that playing goalie on a hockey team isn't all that different from playing in a band, and that artistically-minded wimps can find just as much joy in the game as their meathead counterparts.