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This book probes for answers to how one of hockey's greatest players could also lead one of the most tragic and mysterious personal lives. Chris Robinson juxtaposes these investigations with his own beginnings as a troubled youth who found relief in the cardboard identities put forth by hockey cards and by his own identity as a street-hockey hotshot. Another means of escape for both men became alcohol, a facet of hockey culture thoroughly examined by Robinson's sceptical eye. Informing everything is Robinson's scrappy-yet-meditative, harsh yet humorous thoughts on a game that so many love to hate, or hate to love.
This book probes for answers to how one of hockey's greatest players could also lead one of the most tragic and mysterious personal lives. Chris Robinson juxtaposes these investigations with his own beginnings as a troubled youth who found relief in the cardboard identities put forth by hockey cards and by his own identity as a street-hockey hotshot. Another means of escape for both men became alcohol, a facet of hockey culture thoroughly examined by Robinson's sceptical eye. Informing everything is Robinson's scrappy-yet-meditative, harsh yet humorous thoughts on a game that so many love to hate, or hate to love.
Chris Robinson is an author, freelance writer and the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. He writes the "gonzo" column "The Animation Pimp" for Animation World Magazine. His writing has also appeared in Salon.com, Take One, Cinemascope, Montage, Stop Smiling, the Ottawa Xpress and many international publications. His other books include Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy: A Story of Estonian Animation, Ottawa Senators: Great Stories from the NHL's First Dynasty, and Unsung Heroes of Animation. Robinson lives in Ottawa with his wife, Kelly, and son, Jarvis.
"Warning: This is not your average hockey book... The structure of
the book is great, in that it effortlessly slides back and forth
between Harvey and Robinson's life. The author's prose is punchy,
and often profane, but jarring in its honesty... a great read for
those interested in the nature of addiction, or who want to learn
more about the life and tortured legacy of one of the greatest
players to play the game."
-Jim Barber, Simcoe.com
"Puck lit (books about hockey) thrives in Canada, but a lot of
hockey books are fluffy and overly nostalgic. Few bite with much
honesty, and few are very critical of big-league hockey in
particular. Bill Gaston's Midnight Hockey and local lad Chris
Robinson's Stole This from a Hockey Card break from the tradition.
Both are rock-solid books... Stole This from a Hockey Cardis part
biography of Doug Harvey, part autobiography of Chris Robinson,
part hockey critique, part dissection of human weaknesses, and
partly an examination of how alcohol keeps us together while having
the potential to shatter us completely. Balancing it and merging it
all in one smart and snappy book is Robinson's coup."
-- Matthew Firth, Ottawa XPress
"If good research means doing a lot of work, putting the fruits of
research to work is an art. [In Stole This from a Hockey Card],
Robinson proves himself not only adept at digging up facts and
quotes, he's wonderful at selecting real zingers... Besides
revealing his own hang-ups with alcohol, Robinson lets us in on
just how much Harvey put away, fooling even his fellow players with
his capacity for booze... The parallel stories of death and
redemption unfold as smoothly as ice behind a Zamboni."
-- Heidi Greco, subTerrain
"Doug Harvey was one of a kind during his remarkable career, in
that his brilliance on the ice was constant despite his battles off
it. Chris Robinson captures both sides of this great defenceman
with the accuracy of a Harvey slapshot."
-- Red Fisher, Montreal Gazette
"Robinson draws parallels between his own troubled past and that of
epic defenceman Doug Harvey... The result is a biography cum memoir
that should find resonance with many Canadians... Robinson reaches
a high level of sports biography... creating an exquisite patchwork
of sports, personal narrative and manic alcoholism that is tragic
in its normalcy."
- Janine Armin, The Globe and Mail
"...[T]he philosophical part of the book is what makes this book
stand out. The narrator has lots to say about family and growing
up, how parents do their best, impart their personalities but the
kids eventually find their own way. This, in a hockey sense,
reminds me of Canadian rocker Neil Young`s biography: Shakey.
Jimmie McDonough has a good time picking away at ol Neil. And so
Robinson does with Harvey."
- John Stiles, How Ya Doon?
"Using hockey--its history, its lore, its on-the-ice actuality--as
a means of framing, structuring, 'getting a handle on' one's own
life is a brilliant caprice. But more than literary whim, in the
hands of Chris Robinson this approach begets page after riveting
page of hot-dang copy--and makes such perfect sense it feels
inevitable. A doozy of a book!"
-- Richard Meltzer, author of Autumn Rhythm and A Whore Just Like
the Rest
"A raw and unique approach to the sports biography."
-- Kim Mannix Vermette, Metro Ottawa
"Chris Robinson's story storms and struts, zigzags to and fro like
a sharp give-and-go. Stole This From a Hockey Card is a barbed and
brutal knockout."
-- Mark Anthony Jarman, author of Salvage King, Ya! and 19 Knives
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