Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard
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Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard Hardcover – October 1, 2014
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Devastating… Heartbreaking because it shows us, in tender detail, a life consumed by our unholy appetites… Boy on Ice is a startling indictment of the groupthink that prevails within America’s vast athletic industrial complex.” (Steve Almond - New York Times Book Review)
“A haunting tale.” (Ed Sherman - Chicago Tribune)
“A thorough, compassionate, if ultimately devastating profile of Derek Boogaard.” (Kurtis Scaletta - Minneapolis Star Tribune)
“Meticulously reported and beautifully written.” (Bryan Cronan - Christian Science Monitor)
“Anything written by John Branch is a compelling must-read. Boy on Ice is transcendent and riveting and his best work yet.” (Al Michaels, Sportscaster)
“Punch by punch, pill by pill, the dread mounts in John Branch's brilliantly reported account of Derek Boogaard, a modern-day gladiator who gave everything for a career in hockey, not least of all his hauntingly short and quietly kind life.” (Will Blythe, best-selling author of To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever)
“Fascinating and chilling. In meticulous detail, John Branch creates a blood-drenched parable for the hidden human toll of sports violence staged for our entertainment. The rise and fall of Derek Boogaard—quintessential NHL goon—is unlike any sports biography you will ever read.” (Steve Fainaru, best-selling coauthor of League of Denial)
“Boy on Ice is a beautifully written and haunting journey into the jagged psychology of the modern athlete. It compels fans to examine their own roles in the spectacle and reminds us in often brutal terms that for our sports heroes, the real struggles take place far beyond the ice or the field of play.” (Warren St. John, best-selling author of Outcasts United)
“As tense and exciting as a hockey game… captur[ing] the sorrow and anguish of a young athlete’s career… and ask[ing] piercing questions about violence in sports.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
“A heartbreaking examination of a young man's life destroyed by the sport he loved. Highly recommended.” (Brian Renvall - Library Journal, starred review)
“A haunting tale.” (Ed Sherman - Chicago Tribune)
“A thorough, compassionate, if ultimately devastating profile of Derek Boogaard.” (Kurtis Scaletta - Minneapolis Star Tribune)
“Meticulously reported and beautifully written.” (Bryan Cronan - Christian Science Monitor)
“Anything written by John Branch is a compelling must-read. Boy on Ice is transcendent and riveting and his best work yet.” (Al Michaels, Sportscaster)
“Punch by punch, pill by pill, the dread mounts in John Branch's brilliantly reported account of Derek Boogaard, a modern-day gladiator who gave everything for a career in hockey, not least of all his hauntingly short and quietly kind life.” (Will Blythe, best-selling author of To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever)
“Fascinating and chilling. In meticulous detail, John Branch creates a blood-drenched parable for the hidden human toll of sports violence staged for our entertainment. The rise and fall of Derek Boogaard—quintessential NHL goon—is unlike any sports biography you will ever read.” (Steve Fainaru, best-selling coauthor of League of Denial)
“Boy on Ice is a beautifully written and haunting journey into the jagged psychology of the modern athlete. It compels fans to examine their own roles in the spectacle and reminds us in often brutal terms that for our sports heroes, the real struggles take place far beyond the ice or the field of play.” (Warren St. John, best-selling author of Outcasts United)
“As tense and exciting as a hockey game… captur[ing] the sorrow and anguish of a young athlete’s career… and ask[ing] piercing questions about violence in sports.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
“A heartbreaking examination of a young man's life destroyed by the sport he loved. Highly recommended.” (Brian Renvall - Library Journal, starred review)
About the Author
John Branch is a reporter for the New York Times. His 2012 piece “Snow Fall” won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. He lives near San Francisco.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By
Andrew P
on October 3, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
Verified Purchase
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First off, I can't believe I'm the first person to review this book.
Second, if you love fighting in hockey, please don't read this book. If you love fighting in hockey, please read this book. This book truly is a book of contradictions. I can guarantee that you'll never look at pugilists dropping the gloves and putting on the foil the same way again.
I feel the book does a very effective job illustrating the positives and negatives of life as an enforcer. In Derek's case, he dies at 28, but the years he lives involve him experiencing a life that he never would have experienced as someone who had limited academic attitude even before the repeated head trauma. (It's similar to a hypothetical question my friends and I have bantered about at the bar. Wikipedia has told us that two celebrities have come from the school our houses are districted to: Patrick Swayze and The Undertaker from WWE. Would you rather have the more years of the undertaker or the higher quality years of Swayze?)
As far as the book itself, it starts with a great premise, but it's a difficult read for two reasons.
1) The first is no fault of the author. The story that is being told is a real life Flowers for Algernon in that you become emotionally attached to the likeable character, and then watch the downward slide that you know won't be reversed. Each page comes with snowballing dread.
2) the part that was under the author's control is that this book is an extension of an excellent series of articles, and it reads like it too. I think Branch realized he didn't have the content for a full-length book, so he threw in a bunch of filler, like I used to do to stretch the word count for high school essays.Read more ›
Second, if you love fighting in hockey, please don't read this book. If you love fighting in hockey, please read this book. This book truly is a book of contradictions. I can guarantee that you'll never look at pugilists dropping the gloves and putting on the foil the same way again.
I feel the book does a very effective job illustrating the positives and negatives of life as an enforcer. In Derek's case, he dies at 28, but the years he lives involve him experiencing a life that he never would have experienced as someone who had limited academic attitude even before the repeated head trauma. (It's similar to a hypothetical question my friends and I have bantered about at the bar. Wikipedia has told us that two celebrities have come from the school our houses are districted to: Patrick Swayze and The Undertaker from WWE. Would you rather have the more years of the undertaker or the higher quality years of Swayze?)
As far as the book itself, it starts with a great premise, but it's a difficult read for two reasons.
1) The first is no fault of the author. The story that is being told is a real life Flowers for Algernon in that you become emotionally attached to the likeable character, and then watch the downward slide that you know won't be reversed. Each page comes with snowballing dread.
2) the part that was under the author's control is that this book is an extension of an excellent series of articles, and it reads like it too. I think Branch realized he didn't have the content for a full-length book, so he threw in a bunch of filler, like I used to do to stretch the word count for high school essays.Read more ›
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By
Gene Killian
on October 4, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
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This is a beautifully written book about Derek Boogaard, a hockey "enforcer" for the Minnesota Wild and, briefly, the New York Rangers. It's really about an innocent, immature and trusting big kid who fell apart, aided in his demise by irresponsible doctors. An excellent read about a painful story.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By
Mark
on October 4, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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Not bad, well-written, relatively entertaining, but adds very little to the article on which this book is based, which ran in the New York Times a couple years ago. It feels a bit inflated. Maybe save the money and read it on the Times website?
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