Book Description

"A skeptical Canadian's odyssey and modern-day search for the American Dream while walking the famous Mormon Trail. Chisholm's solo journey from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City is both a revealing and tongue-in-cheek account of the Mormon pioneers as well as a contemporary and compelling narrative of the American dreamers he came across on his 1100 mile walk. Hard-edged, sardonic and at times brutally revealing in his writing, Chisholm contrasts the failed dreams of "community" with the dream of "individuality" that dominates today's mythic West - reminiscent of John Steinbeck and William Least Heat-Moon but penned with the irreverence of Edward Abbey." ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Well of Hope
Is the American Dream an empty hole(or whole)? Clive Chisholm takes a hard look at that in his trek across the American West, following the trail the Mormons blazed in 1847. Those Mormons were seeking their dream, their promised land. Chisholm, looking deeply at their experience through their journals, overlaps them with his modern day rediscovery of what is left of their trail. In the process, he digs deeply at the Mormon faith, at himself and at all of us, trying to find what gives us the courage and the passion to get up each morning and try it all again. The stories of the young brides who, far from home, died the horrible death of cholera, and his battles with dysentery and toothache; how they drug all their worldly belongings in handcarts, and he a dilapidated hand-golfcart, soon discarded in a highway culvert. Their is no shortage of dispair and heartache for either story, yet there is hope. Chisholm fills the pages with his gift of humor, and the quirky characters that he collects like mile markers on his road. He masterfully weaves both stories together. In the end, he questions what it all meant. Americans, he determines, believe everything works out simply because they are Americans. It's not the same experience for the rest of the world but we, as americans, are comprised of the peoples of all the world. We inherit a legacy of ancestral dreams. The dream is a lie, but it's the dreaming that counts. That's what fills our "common well of human hope." Buy it.

One Man's Saga
I was enthralled by Clive Scott Chisholm's brilliant meld of personal experience, social criticism, and history. On his 1100 mile trek from Omaha to Salt Lake City, he encounters a rich variety of experiences involving the weather,the landscape, historical markers, towns, and human personalities which he describes in vivid detail. Independence Rock in Wyoming, for instance, evokes a discussion of the natural forces which created it and its role as "a geological semaphore of good-bye" for travelers venturing into the unknown West.
Threaded through this account are Chisholm's thoughts about his life, his friends, western history, and particularly about "the American Dream" and the Mormons. He is often brutally frank in his judgments, especially of the Mormon leader, Brigham Young, for whom he can say nothing good. All-in-all, this is a brilliantly written, deeply personal account of one man's adventure in space and time.

Following the wrong god home
Clive Scott Chisholm recounts his walking retracement of the Morman trail across Nebraska and Wyoming to Brigham Young's"Zion",Utah.This book is about people,places,perceptions,and the nebulous envisagement of the American Dream.
To Chisholm,born into a Morman Family and faith,the walk it vividly personal.He weaves parenthetical"Acccording to Hoyle" chronicles of Morman history in each chapter.
The author crosses the bounds of genre with timely placed sidebars.He touches geography,natural history,hydraulics,soil management,native indian movements,railway and highway beginnings,politics and a host of others.
He describes eating,sleeping and entertainment establishments past and present;"watering-holes",museums and libraries with a generous portion of humor.There are no sacred cows,be it presidents or prophets.
This book just gets better as it goes.Clive Scott Chisholm doesn't disappoint his readers by slipping off the rails in the final chapter.He runs strong to the end.
The last entry adds a homey"Where are they now"(fifteen years later) about many of the people and personalities we meet in the book.
End

a study in landscape
scott MacDonald wrote a book called "The Garden in the Machine" and this book reminds me of "Following the Wrong god home" because they both discuss the meaning of landscape. But if you read both books together you can see how Chisolm's book on the mormons is much more personal mostly because he actually is doing the traveling himself and having the experiences he is talking about. I think that a lot of people who don't know anything about Mormon history could love this book because he is using the mormon history as a way of writing about the western dream. The writing of this book is superb and it is one of those rare books that I never wanted to finish.

American Dreaming Revisited
You can't judge a book by its cover or, in the case "Following the Wrong God Home", by the advertising blurb on the dust jacket. An acquaintance who works at a local bookstore fairly frothed at the mouth while singing the praises of this book, and she had only finished half of it (the first half). As her tastes agree with my own generally and as Mormon history happens to be my bag, I bought it and started to read.

After the first chapter, I put it down and scratched my head. Somehow the reading wasn't going as planned. I've read hundreds of volumes on as many aspects of Mormonism as I can think of, but something wasn't clicking with me. I didn't want to admit to my bookstore acquaintance that I didn't "get it". So in an act of preemptive bravado, I plunged back into its pages, determined not to be outunderstood by the bookstore lady. As chapters rolled by, I grew more accustomed to Scott Chisholm's meter. Although I'm sure his method may be shoehorned into "the seven holy principles of good prose" and thereby explained, this book does not have the feel of such an effort. Rather, the structure and tenor of the tale mirror the rhythms of the difficulty of those first Mormon pioneers. Instead of simply describing the experience, he paints it as a work or art. Like the Russian masters, the most poignant observations of life are made by those who have experienced the worst of it. Suffering has no value without the introspection that follows and Scott Chisholm guides us through that experience.

Spoiler: the Mormons do make it to Utah. ... Read more

Book Description

Lilies and Fireweed is packed with unforgettable stories of women surviving in the unforgiving, sometimes hostile environment of pioneer and aboriginal British Columbia. Based on award-winning journalist Stephen Hume's popular series "Frontier Women of BC" that appeared in the Vancouver Sun in 2002, this collection of essays contains stories, photographs and other materials that have never before been published.From hospitals to dance halls, and from the classroom to the cannery floor, this insightful pictorial history examines indigenous and immigrant women's positions in the workplace, home and wilderness. Hume delves into the lives of aboriginal and pioneer women who had an important and multifaceted influence on the development of British Columbia.We meet women such as 17-year-old Frances Barkley, who insisted on accompanying her husband on a merchant voyage to British Columbia in 1786 and subsequently twice circumnavigated the world; Lady Amelia Douglas - a Cree woman and wife of Governor James Douglas - who had her own important but often overlooked role in the forging of British Columbia; Mrs. Washiji Oya, the first Japanese woman to settle in Canada in 1887; and Maria Pollard Grant, who, in 1895, became the first woman elected to public office in BC.Brimming with fascinating historical photographs, Lilies and Fireweed brings to light the forgotten stories of mothers, dance-hall girls, artists, teachers and adventurers that are as enthralling and diverse as BC itself. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Fantastic retelling of a Canadians life in WWII
I bought this book almost in a state of doubt.I had seen the name Farley Mowat and automatically assumed it was a good piece of writing as is most if not all of his other pieces of work.He is perhaps one if not the best Canadian writer ever to pick up a pen and paper. And after reading this book, i quickly realized why.

I had been searching for a book that could possibly inform and educate me on a Canadian's standpoint of the second world war.I quickly realized that I had picked out a good book.It puts you in the mind of a young man reaching adulthood and as had every other young man at the time, had his mind set in joining his fellow Canadians and Allies in the battle. This mindframe had been to be fairly excited and actually happy to go to the frontlines.As it had obviously not been programmed to the unfortunate reality of the war itself.Farley Mowat tells a great and wonderful story of his life before and during the timeline of the Canadian military's part in the war itself.Whether it was the obvious anxiety of waiting to be shipped overseas to the frontlines, or the brutal and graphic reality of the battle itself, Mowat unveils a true and dramtically emotional story of World War II.

Myself I was seaching for a book such as this one.It retold the historically correct graphic and terrifying nature of war, more specifically that of the Second World War.I know that one such as myself will never know and hopefully never experience the reality of war but, I can honestly say that I have infinite gratitude and thanks for those who fought for our freedom.All in all, a WONDERFUL book and I highly recommend it to any Farley Mowat fans or anyone who likes great historical literature.I just cannot seem to express how great of a book this really was.Hope you like it too!

Beautifully Funny and Thoughtful
I remember reading this book way back in Grade 12.Its not so way back considering that it was probably two or three years ago.This book ranks among the best war books I have ever read.In some places, I laughed so hard I nearly dropped a lung.In other places, I remember being so sombre and imaging the horror experienced by Mowat and his band of Hasty Ps.

This is a must read for any Canadian even remotely interested in the Canadian role in World War II.

A good book, but not a great book
I didn't really want to read another war book, but a friend convinced me he thought this was the best one ever written.However, I came away from it thinking it wasn't as good as "The Forgotten Soldier".The last chapter about the battle over the Moro river was just as good.However, the depth of the first three chapters I felt was diminished by the author's sense of humor and his tendency to exaggerate.For example, the dying of the inscrutable A K Long - taking out his pipe for a smoke and a book to read when he was so seriously wounded, calm in the midst of terror - struck me as unrealistic.In sum, this was a good book but I would say, not really memorable.

A Canadian Classic
Undeniably the best war memoir written by a Canadian who served in the Second World War.The book chronicles Mowat's experiences in 1943 as a participant in the invasion of Sicily and Italy, and in classic Mowat style captures both the stark reality and lighter side of his experiences.Mowat also wrote a history of his unit--one of the first books he published, and which was later revised (and is somewhat difficult to find at the moment)--entitled The Regiment.

An Anti-War War Read
This book was a great surprise for me. I picked it up at a local library because I saw the name Mowat and thought, "Funny, Isn't he a Canadian naturalist? What's he doing in the History section?" What followed was a fascinating voyage of war,adventure,hilarity and,ultimately,tragedy and pain. Walking into the experience of WWII with a completely innocent demeanor, anxious to get into a fight, this brilliant writer has many funny and almost fatal false starts. When the fighting gets serious, the glib descriptions of his units treacherous challenges are positively riveting. I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN. If you like your war personal, exciting and honest, get this book to a comfortable chair and be prepared to not move for a night and a day. A brilliant book by a Canadian national treasure. ... Read more

Book Description

Many Black Nova Scotians proudly claim ancestry from the Jamaican Maroons exiled to these shores in the last decade of the 18th century: this book recounts the fascinating story of their migrations.

Scholar and teacher John Grant chronicles the Maroons' struggle to maintain their proud and independent culture in the harsh conditions of Nova Scotia, and traces their contributions to the development of colonial society. He describes attempts to establish Maroon communities, attempts thwarted by racial and cultural tensions, hostility and indifference. He brings together the elements that show how many Maroons finally arranged for passage to Sierra Leone, leaving Nova Scotia's hard shores behind them.

This lively and well-documented text illuminates an important passage in African-Canadian history, combining historical records and modern research to present a substantial portrait of the times, the people and the events that comprise the Maroons' saga in Nova Scotia. ... Read more

Book Description

Blue Trust has all the ingredients of a gripping thriller -- except it's all true. In the late 1980s Bruce and Lynne Verchere had it all. He was a successful tax lawyer whose clients included Brian Mulroney, and bestselling novelist Arthur Hailey. She was a computer software entrepreneur whose innovative systems revolutionized office management throughout North America.

When Lynne's company was sold Bruce could finally afford the extravagances he had long coveted: a plane, a yacht, a summer home in Maine, and a condo in Telluride. Through intricate manipulation, he was able to secrete his family's wealth beyond the reach of the taxman and even his wife.

Then Bruce Verchere fell in love. The desperate affair and dangerous ultimatum that followed provide this true story with a chilling climax. Blue Trust is a complex tale of high drama brilliantly told by one of Canada's most admired investigative journalists. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Grim Satisfaction
The Blue Trust chronicles the rise and fall of two highly ambitious people, Bruce and Lynne Verchere. For those of us who worked at Manac Systems in the mid-eighties there is some grim sense of satisfaction with respect to the destiny of Lynne Verchere. The author avoids the darker side of Vercheres personality, but for those of us who knew her, any sense of pity that the story elicits is mitigated by the reality of having dealt with her on a day to day basis. Lynne Verchere was not a victim. The final tragedy of Bruce Verchere is a metaphor for the gaping hole in her own psyche. Notwithstanding the mess he had made of his life, Bruce Vercheres last desperate act was undoubtedly triggered by her final "victory" over him.

Ramble, Ramble
Interesting because it's a true story, and for Canadians some recognizable names, but oh does it ramble. This story could have and should have been told in 100 pages not 373.

great read
This book demonstrates how reality is stranger then fiction.Wonderfully researched, this story illustrates the folly of deciet and selfishness.

How the wildest successes can end in tragedy because of weakness in character.

This true story chronicles the life of a tax lawyer, his wife, a successful software entrepreneur, and includes among other household names, the Arthur Hailey family.

This story unfolds like a classic Greek tragedy set in contemporary western times,I look forward to reading it again for all the important lessons it holds. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Canadian Mississauga biography
This is the story of the Reverend Peter Jones,(1802-1856) (Kahkewaquonaby), a Methodist missionary and a Chief of the Mississauga.

Doanld B Smith, a History Professor at the University of Calgary, writes an important story of the conflict between the First Peoples and the Europeans in the first years of settlement of south-Central Ontario. We see this interesting man in the context of the British settlement in Canada at a time when the new nation to the south (the USA)were forcibly moving the Cherokees and other eastern tribes to west of the Mississippi. That this did not happen in Upper Canada is to an important extent due to the leadership of this one man who could interpret the Europeans and Native Peoples to each other. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the story of a rebellious girl from BC who travelled the world in pursuit of her calling, only to find her true inspirtion in the Canadian landscape she'd left behind.Despite numerous setbacks, she persevered.Today, Emily Carr is a Canadian icon.Her story is a testament to individuality and an inspiration to all. ... Read more

Book Description

Pierre Trudeau was prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. This is his story, told in his own words.

Take a look through the book. When you do, you will find that this remarkable memoir has many qualities. It is:

PERSONAL
As if he were sitting across the table from you, Pierre Trudeau reminisces about his life in an informal, direct way. He starts with his memories of his family, especially his mother and father, to whom the book is dedicated. There are memorable events from childhood here, such as a visit to complain to the principal on his second day at school. Later there is a lunchroom encounter with a high school bully and then, at the age of fifteen, real tragedy.

“Aroused by the ringing of the telephone, I came out of my room to go downstairs and find out what was happening. But I froze on the landing when I heard the awful words: ‘Your father is dead, Pierre.’”

PHILOSOPHICAL
After an extensive education in Montreal, Boston, London, and Paris, Trudeau set off with a backpack to travel around the world. He tells how he went through one war zone after another, encountering armed bandits and being arrested in wartime Jordan as a Jewish spy. These adventures and further travels through India and war-torn China left with him a deep belief in the rights of the individual and the vital role of government in protecting these rights. He tells how his hatred of narrow nationalism reinforced his stand against requests for special treatment by successive Quebec governments.

POLITICAL
From the day he decided to go to Ottawa as a Liberal MP in 1965, Trudeau was clearly on a fast track. After becoming minister of justice in 1967 and tackling very controversial law reforms, he ran for the leadership and became prime minister in 1968 – the first Canadian leader born in the twentieth century. He talks about his use of “the Liberal machine” and all the electoral fights that followed over the year, providing interesting insights into his contests with national opponents such as Robert Stanfield, David Lewis, Joe Clark (a tougher opponent than the man who deposed him), Ed Broadbent, and Brian Mulroney, about whose virtues he is eloquently silent.

PERSONALITY-FILLED
As a leader whose time in office ran from the fall of Charles de Gaulle to the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev, Pierre Trudeau was able to exert his influence to break down the Cold War mentality. He enjoyed good personal rapport with such different leaders as Chou Enlai, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Helmut Schmidt, and François Mitterand. His relations with Richard Nixon and Margaret Thatcher were less warm, and he was less impressed by Ronald Reagan’s intellect than by the wisdom of the Queen.

PATRIOTIC
Whether they loved him or hated him, Canadians knew that in Pierre Trudeau’s time, the government stood up for Canada. He stood up to the domestic terrorism of the FLQ – and he makes no apologies here for his tough response to the October Crisis in 1970 – just as he stood up to the provincial premiers (including Réné Lévesque) who he believed were blocking the patriation of Canada’s constitution ten years later.

PERTINENT
The author’s preface ends with a word to you, the reader. “Whether you were a Liberal Cabinet colleague, a Canadian voter whose support we sought, or a young Canadian whose future we tried to improve, you are a part of this book.”
... Read more

Reviews (4)

"The dao that can be said is not the dao..."
This is as fine a memoir as one could expect from a man who kept his secret self so distant from others that one suspects he sometimes found the line difficult to cross himself. Trudeau was not only the most intelligent prime minister Canada ever had, but probably the most brilliant statesman any nation ever had. However, his mind went to places that were not always to do with the ebb & flow of politics. It is unfortunate that this memoire does not tell us more about the man's secret self. I don't mean just gossip column things, I refer to his thoughts on life, literature, & art: topics on which anyone who knew him recognized his mastery. The book is brilliant too, but I suggest that it requires some reading between the lines to catch at what Monsieur Trudeau only hints. It's his truth from the inside, after all, so he shouldn't be expected to see himself "objectively" & account for the way he was seen by others. This can be uncomfortable sometimes. For example, when he was nearly defeated in the first election after "Trudeaumania" in 1972 because he attempted to be straight, true, & honest with the Canadian public, he roared back playing the "promise'em the world" consumate politician in 1974 to a majority government. I would have wished for more third person objectivity here. Still Trudeau was a giant mind & giant will amongst mental idiots & usual politicoes during his tenure. I believe he has the right to do just what he did in this magnificent memoire: Speak from the heights & tell it as he alone saw it. Bravo! We'll not see his like again.

He was Canada.
Although always a controversial man, P.E.T. embodied what it means to be a Canadian. Over his 16 years as Prime Minister he was directly involved in many major events which have shaped Canadian history. I write this the day after his passing, so in consequence I am probably a little biased. I grew up with Trudeau. The first 11 years of my life he was P.M. I could go on and on with the memories, as some have suggested he did with his Memoirs. However, that was the beauty of Trudeau. He was a brilliant man and loved life.

In answer to the comment from the reader in Toronto that he glossed over many not so stellar performances on his part - have you ever read another auto-biography of a public figure which told the whole truth and nothing but? There are many sides to a story. I would challenge anyone to write about their lives and not smooth certain parts over abit!

All in all Trudeau takes us through his tenure as P.M. in one of the most exciting periods in recent human history - 1968-1984. Anyone who is interested in world or Canadian affairs should read this book. And it's a must for every Canadian household.

Comic Book Tripe
Easily the most disappointing memoir ever produced by a Canadian Prime Minister. Trudeau glosses over year after year of his life and administration, retelling old stories with no new perspective on them. This book is just a collection of newspaper clippings with pictures of Trudeau's shape-shifting sideburns interspersed. An appalling work from a supposed "intellectual".

Trudeau: As Arrogant as Ever
It has been said of Pierre Trudeau that he was Canada's most influential Prime Minister. After reading his Memoirs, it is fair to say that he certainly thinks so. This book was little more than Trudeau deciding to tell his readers how great he was and continues to be. Mr. Trudeau did not add any significant information to his already credible biographies that had been written, such as Trudeau and His Times Volume One and Two. It is also striking that Mr. Trudeau avoided discussion of his years of marriage with Margaret Trudeau in any great detail. When one writes memoirs, it seems reasonable to expect that more than just a review of public life would be put on display. Pierre Trudeau certainly was an interesting character in a country that has had too few interesting characters in its history. Overall, however, Memoirs failed to provide any material of substance, except perhaps those readers who wanted glossy photographs of Pierre Trudeau ... Read more

Book Description

His skates were too small. Or they didn't match. Or they were that ultimate humiliation for a boy trying to play hockey--girls' white figure skates. Add to young Bruce McCall's shabby equipment his pencil-thin wrists, weak ankles, and, as he puts it, "a fruit bat's metabolism with a tree sloth's reflexes,"and you'll understand why he failed so dismally in the cold, rough world of neighborhood hockey in Toronto. Bruce's catastrophic career as a rink rat epitomizes the youth he recounts in this funny, moving, sometimes disturbing memoir. In fact, Thin Ice examines a boyhood so filled with failure and disappointment that the comedy and insight its author/survivor wrests from it--like his subsequent career as one of America's most admired humorists and illustrators--seem like miracles.

Bruce McCall's father, T.C., was an inaccessible tyrant. Bruce's mother, Peg, drank to blunt the effect of her husband's rages and to dodge the duties of taking care of six children. Still, Bruce did know some moments of pleasure as a child, especially in the small town of Simcoe, before T.C. moved his family to the dreary outskirts of Toronto: The Second World War offered its awesome matériel and its heroic men, milk bottles grew top hats of cream, and grapes hung free for the stealing in Mrs. Klein's backyard. But his parents' demons took their toll on Bruce, and the move to Toronto set the stage for academic and social disasters: He flunked out of high school and took dead-end graphic-design jobs, all the while envying the full-color culture and high-octane energy of Canada's muscular neighbor to the south.

That envy, combined with Bruce's passion for reading and drawing--one of the few positive bequests from T.C. and Peg McCall--became his refuge and then his salvation. His precocious reverence for The New Yorker magazine led him to invent entire comic worlds of artistic and literary creation. Ultimately, he read, wrote, and drew himself out of pennilessness and despair. Bruce McCall may not have been destined to glide around Madison Square Garden holding the Stanley Cup aloft, but as Thin Ice demonstrates, perseverance and talent can turn crummy ice skates--and even dashed hopes--into dreams come true. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Sad, bitter, depressing
Wanting to know more about Canadian perspectives on the United States, and attracted by quotes indicating that P. J. O'Rourke and Peter Jennings found it very humorous, I bought this book. Unfortunately, I was once again reminded not to attribute too much credit to quotes from reviews printed on a book's cover. This is a far from humorous work; rather, it is a painful read.

McCall's memoir is a bitter reflection on his childhood in Canada. His depiction of the Canada in which he was raised seems to arise from inductive reasoning: since his was a poor, emotionally uncommunicative, and disfunctional family he attributes those same attributes to the entire nation. Since McCall's personal life only took an upturn upon his immigration to the United States in retrospect everything American in his youth was bright, colorful, luxurious and exciting; things from Canada on the other hand were grey, utilitarian, and boring. Americans were fun and vigorous; Canadians dour and laconic.

McCall's memoir constitutes an unrelenting denunciation of his parents' rearing of their children. His mother is depicted as a tragic, downtrodden, alcoholic who withdrew into alcohol as an escape from the burden of six children and a domineering, unsupportive husband. His description of his father is severe: mean, tyrannical, selfish, belittling. The denunciations are so excessive that about two thirds through the book the one wonders whether McCall doesn't regret missing the opportunity to drive a stake through his father's heart. He describes a stark childhood entirely devoid of love, happiness, or material comforts and attributes all his failures and personality quirks and those of his siblings to their upbringing.

This was a hard book to plow through, much less finish. It is a sad, depressing memoir which would have been better kept within the McCall family; the writer makes an apt observation in the beginning of the book when he expresses concern about how his siblings will receive this recollection of their childhood.

I really regret buying this book and the time I invested in reading it. Under no circumstances would I recommend it to others.

I hope there's a sequel soon!
It helps to appreciate this memoir if you have an idea of who Bruce McCall is. The best way of doing that at one stroke is to read his cartoon collection, _Zany Afternoons_, which is out of print. _Thin Ice_ is a tale of a joyless family ruled by a loveless, inconsiderate father, seen from the viewpoint of the artistic child. By all rights, I should dislike this book, as I think giving one's parents the "Mommy Dearest" treatment is ungrateful, unless they were downright abusive. As the psychiatrist said to the centaur, "Stop blaming your parents." Yet he recreates his childhood homes and family climate so winningly that the story overcomes such resistance, and we are transported back with him. All those witty zingers about how dull Canada was are entertaining, too. The book ends just as he is on his way to revive his career in the States. Since that is where, by his own definition, the "good part" of the story lies, let's hope he produces the next installment soon.

A very funny, but painful trip back to my childhood
Thin Ice is one of the best books I have ever read. I also grew up in a large, dysfunctional family in southern Ontario in the fifties and sixties with a tyrannical, alcoholic father in a tense, cold emotion-starved environment. It wasn't until I was in therapy many years later for an anxiety disorder that I even realized that my childhood was far from normal, and all the feelings of inadequacy and inferiority I had carried all my life stemmed from my childhood.

Thin Ice was a very painful book for me to read, because it is a tearful, emotional trip back in time, but a journey that was necessary for me to understand what happened to me and to finally stop blaming myself. Thin Ice is also uproariously funny, and I am reading it a second time. I, too, yearned to leave Canada behind and move to the United States. I left Canada over a decade ago to raise our children here and have never looked back. After therapy and Bruce's book I can finally leave it emotionally behind, also.

Canadians get very upset when they are poked fun at, and Bruce does it like a pro. If you are a Pierre Burton nationalist, prepare yourself to be indignant. Bruce "tries to create a time when things were very different indeed - a time when a Canadian, certainly this Canadian, felt himself to be two thirds American, with the other third composed of a grayish ball of chaff: hockey/plaid/butter tarts/earmuffs/CBC/Mounties/toques/wheat/fish/lumber/God Save the King/Queen".

I bought Thin Ice to be entertained and I not only laughed until I cried, I also really cried and gained a priceless insight into my complex childhood and the key to my personality today.

I LOVED this book
As a Canadian coming of age in Canada, with all the small town yearnings of the U.S. in all it's glory, I could certainly relate to Bruce McCall's book, but I would have loved it anyway. I am buying copies for friends.

An amazing book
This book was one of the best i've read in years. Bruce McCall is so great at his craft. he pays attention to every word. Making it impossible to read this book fast. it would not be doing it justice. You need to sit back and savor every single word. ... Read more

Book Description

Imagine a hockey legend having a son whose skill and intensity match his own, a deadly accuracy and toughness passed on from one generation to the next.Well, imagine no longer.Brett Hull, NHL sensation and offspring of the legendary Bobby Hull, has filled his father's skates and then some, leading the NHL in goals over the last ten seasons, winning the prestigious Lady Byng trophy and the Hart trophy, and powering his way into the upper echelon of hockey stars.

Now a key member of the successful Dallas Stars, Brett tells his own story and shares his troubles and triumphs.Through all the pressure and controversy that comes with being an NHL great, he strives to stay on top of his game and to maintain an easygoing attitude."My only game plan," he writes, "is to keep smilin' and shootin'.It's just the way I am." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This is a great book...
This is a great book, all of you brett hull fans or not, should go and get this book, it is definetily the best book i've ever read in a long time ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, published by Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Assn. on August 1, 1999. The length of the article is 6761 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: This article takes up C. Wright Mills' formulations of the "sociological promise" and the "sociological imagination," and considers his commitment, and sociology's commitment, to popular narratives. It is recalled that for Mills sociological thought is a matter of biographic and historiographic story-telling, practices he claims are often best exemplified in non-academic prose. By considering one popular autobiography - that of Canadian politician and social activist Rosemary Brown - it is argued that an exemplary and creative sociological imagination is located in her discursive constructions of speech, memory, and subjectivity. Finally, it is recommended that sociologists study popular narratives to point to and encourage the sociological insights that they often implicitly embody.

Citation Details
Title: Making the sociological promise: a case study of Rosemary Brown's autobiography.
Author: Patricia Cormack
Publication: The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 1999
Publisher: Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Assn.
Volume: 36Issue: 3Page: 355(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more