Paul Quarrington (Cdn author - Logan In Overtime, Whale Music, King Leary) dies

[Flashpoint]

One of my favorite Canadian authors, and a very good hockey writer has passed away at the age of 56.



If you are a goalie and you haven't read "Logan in Overtime", then you are really missing something.

"I guess, to some extent, I'm trying to get a lot in. One year isn't less beautiful than 30 years," Quarrington told the CBC four months ago.

Toronto Star

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Wow. Only 56.

I loved Whale Music--but I read it about 100 years ago, when I was an undergrad. I'll have to check out Logan in Overtime.

[Puppet Guy]

I read "Hometown Heroes" (about travelling with the '88 Olympic team) years back. Good read, good writer. Sad to hear.

from his website (www.paulquarrington.org)

Hometown Heroes On The Road With Canada’s National Hockey Team (1988)
“Sports reporters are fine pieces of work, brains dulled by liquor, hearts mangles by floozies. They stumble through the world in a special kind of misery. They watch and record the field, the rink. When the game is a good one, they splay their palsied fingers on the keyboard, digging for the heart of something. Sometimes they produce poetry.
“Sportswriters drink whiskey neat, puff on dead-ends. Sportswriters eat the wrong food.
“I set out to become one.� - Paul Quarrington
Hometown Heroes is the true story of the all-Canadian dream — to represent Canada in international hockey. But, in the hands of novelist turned sports reporter Paul Quarrington, the dream turns into a rambunctious romp over two continents, with the most original cast of stick-handlers and puck-stoppers ever to lace up a skates - our national hockey team.
Mixing stories from such places as Gindelwald Switzerland and Sudbury, Ontario, where a green wolf’s head glowers over the hockey rink, Quarrington carves out a hockey beat that few would imagine ever existed. In the process, he takes a candid and off-beat look at the lives of young talents, such as Sean Burke and Bobby Joyce, and their enigmatic coach Dave King, as they thrash Russkies in Moscow, trash hotel rooms in Switzerland and bash everyone’s preconceptions about hockey permanently out of shape.
After Hometown Heroes, sports reporting will never be the same.

[Kybosh]

I read King Leary and enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommended.