Blind Squirrel by Dave Mishkin
This novel tells an interesting story. The main character, Noah Nicholson is a minor league hockey player. He has excellent hand-eye coordination, which makes up for his slower skating. The story is told mainly in the present, but also jumps back to Noah's childhood.
Noah has been on the team in Hershey, Pennsylvania for years, and is the captain of the team. He is also the guy that sets the tone, and guides new players through the team dynamic and what is expected of them. As the book begins, we see him go through this with two younger players. One is a young married player whose wife has recently had a baby, and the sleep deprivation has been causing him to be late often, and not play up to expectations. Despite not having a family of his own, we see how he reminds the young man of the expectations on him, and guides him to resources. The other player is a young Russian player who played in the Canadian minor league the year before, and went briefly to the NHL team affiliated with the Hershey team, but is spending the rest of the season in the minors. Noah guides him to better choices in nutrition than the fast food he's been living on, and gets him into a routine that will serve him to hone his skills and help him mature as a player.
Noah, despite being admired and liked, has a secret that he has been dealing with for years, since the death of his parents in an accident when he was only twelve. It has him shying away from serious relationships, and living a lonely life.
In his childhood, raised by two loving parents, both teachers, one of whom was headed towards pro sports before an injury, he had a great life. His parents were supportive, but also instilled a strong ethical core in him. They were active, running and biking. They read a lot, with his mother in particular sharing a love of books with him through a habit of bedtime reading that lasted long past when most kids stop. They didn't just read, they also talked about the books, about the ideas represented and what they meant. He also started young with a passion for baseball with his hand-eye coordination leading to not only playing on teams young, but also practicing regularly with his parents as support. He was an excellent hitter .and catcher, with his best friend as an excellent pitcher. They lived in California, but had a strong community that they were involved in.
After his parents' death, he moved back east to live with his paternal grandmother and they had a good relationship. It was based on similar expectations to the ones his father had grown up with: a strong work ethic, good academics, and involvement in a sport. Noah couldn't face baseball without his parents, but he took advantage of the great private school his parents had planned for him in this eventuality and access to an ice rink, and taught himself how to skate so he could join the school hockey team.
We see how he came to be where he is, and when he unexpectedly is injured in a game, ending his career, we see his depression and the actions that led him out of it. Once again, he becomes connected to his community, makes new friends, and might even have a chance of a romance and a new career. But only if he deals with his past trauma.
I found the main character to have a lot of depth, and his story is told with empathy and sensitivity. We gradually learn the details of his trauma and how he has coped. I genuinely cared about him.
The author brings his sports experience to this book. He began sports broadcasting in college, and now works for the Tampa Bay Lightning NHL team. He does mainly radio broadcasting but launched into television this year. Because of his experience telling fans about the sports he watches, he makes both baseball and hockey come alive for the reader, which means that the sports details here are never boring. This is his first book, and I definitely would be interested in reading more by him.
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