From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In this well-written and thoroughly researched story of the 1980 Olympic gold-medal winning hockey team, New York Daily News sportswriter Coffey does much more than simply evoke memories. Expertly using coach Herb Brooks (who died last year in an auto accident) as his focal point, Coffey shows how Brooks, a devoted student of the game, used both psychological tactics and a groundbreaking system predicated on speed and constant motion to defeat the Soviets, a team of highly trained, older and bigger professionals who had dominated the international competition for decades. Over the years, this story of the Americans' victory has become larger than life, replete with drama and drenched in patriotic themes. Coffey's greatest achievement is that his narrative never sinks into melodrama. He captures the rigorous training and the thrill of the games, yet digs deeper, soberly rendering the tenor of the American spirit amid the Iranian hostage crisis and the Cold War, and humanizing and illuminating (rather than caricaturing) the Russian side. For example, although the Russians were a world superpower, they scrounged for Band-Aids and didn't use slap shots because a shortage of quality sticks meant they couldn't risk breaking them—details suggesting the underlying faults of the Soviet regime. Coffey portrays the American side, a diverse collection of amateurs, warts and all, and gives special attention to Brooks, an enigmatic figure who turned a bunch of regional rivals into a tight-knit family whose bond still exists today. Filled with primary interviews and exceptional insight, Coffey's effort should delight more than just hockey fans. Photos.
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–A masterfully told narrative of the team's gold medal victory at Lake Placid, NY. The author's skilled depiction of personalities, breathtaking rendering of action on the ice, talent for capturing colorful regional hotbeds of hockey, and seamless segues between past and present are handled without loss of forward momentum in the story line. The saga of how coach Herb Brooks motivated a roster of 20 amateur, mostly college-age young men to orchestrate victory over an established Soviet team of seasoned, professionally trained skaters offers suspense, heroism, and a dizzying sense of the "full competitive combustion" that is a hallmark of this sport. A portrait of Brooks emerges as an irascible, obstinate, aloof, but savvy coaching genius who elicited singular creativity, grit, and a passionate teamwork ethic from his players. The 1980 setting for the XIII Winter Olympics, well before the age of blockbuster budgets and corporate sponsorship, is described in retrospect as having an "endearing, small-scale quality," where the potential for miraculous athletic performance resided in "a team full of dreamers" rather than a Dream Team. Vignettes of the Americans' hometown roots, as well as selective quotes and insights from members of the Soviet team's skating dynasty, nicely round out the coverage. Bottom line: the sports action is superb, the players' character enhancement and values are deftly related to coaching lessons learned, and the decade perspective is sketched with a fine hand.–Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
