I have just
concluded reading the first half of the book “Hockeytown Doc: a Half-Century of
Red Wings Stories from Howe to Yzerman” by Dr. John Finley. This book is a collection of stories from the
former physician of the Detroit Red Wings.
Overall, I enjoyed the first half of the book. It provided some amazing, hilarious, and
heart-wrenching stories. I had two main
takeaways: firstly, the stories Finley writes about are simply amazing and even
though the writing style and flow of the book perhaps is not as good as a
professional writer, the kinds of stories that are being told overshadow that
fact. Secondly, Finley does not provide
a ton of background information on the Detroit Red Wings, so unless you are a
Red Wings or NHL fan, this book may seem alien, which it did to me in a couple
of places.
One example
where it is evident that Finley is not a professional writer is in his story
about concussions. He writes, “Players who
have suffered from the long-term effects of head injuries are left with
permanent disabilities, so early detection, treatment and minimizing or
avoiding them in the first place is of utmost importance” (Finley 57). It is somewhat of a choppy sentence, and the
use of “so” in the middle seems a little bit amateur. He is clearly not a master of rhetoric, but
he goes on to write and incredibly intriguing passage about his take on concussions. Thus, he can hide his few flaws as a writer
with his interesting character.
The other main
takeaway for me was how little hockey I knew before reading this book. I found
myself having to look up players, names, dates, competitions and more all the
time. But at least I knew the basics of
the NHL; if someone read this book not knowing much at all about hockey, they
were be incredibly confused and lost.
I enjoyed the
first half of the book and look forward to the second half…hopefully some more
interesting stories will be shared.
No comments:
Post a Comment