Night Work

Introduction by: Angie Abdou

A new edition of a hockey saga, wrapping the game’s story in the “intense, moody, contradictory” character of Terry Sawchuk, one of its greatest goalies.

Denied the leap and dash up the ice,
what goalies know is side to side, an inwardness of monk
and cell. They scrape. They sweep. Their eyes are elsewhere
as they contemplate their narrow place. Like saints, they pray for nothing,
which brings grace. Off-days, what they want is space. They sit apart
in bars. They know the length of streets in twenty cities.
But it’s their saving sense of irony that further
isolates them as it saves.
– from “One of You”

In compact, conversational poems, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems follows the tragic trajectory of the life and work of Terry Sawchuk, dark driven genius of a goalie who survived twenty tough seasons in an era of inadequate upper-body equipment and no player representation. But no summary touches the searching intensity of Maggs’s poems. They range from meditations on ancient/modern heroism to dramatic capsules of actual games, in which the mystery of character meets the mystery of transcendent physical performance. Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems is illustrated with photographs mirroring the text, depicting key moments in the career of Terry Sawchuk, his exploits and his agony.

This 10th anniversary edition of the book marks both the 50th anniversary of the last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup and the 100th anniversary of the Leafs as a team. With rich reflections on the book by novelist Angie Abdou and Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean, as well as excerpts from scores of reviews by the likes of Gord Downie and Dave Bidini, this new edition of Night Work is a must-have for lovers of hockey and poetry alike.

AUTHOR

Angie Abdou

AUTHOR

Randall Maggs

Randall Maggs is the author of Timely Departures (poetry, 1994), and co-editor of two anthologies pairing Newfoundland and Canadian poems with those of Ireland. He is one of the organizers and former artistic director of Newfoundland’s March Hare, the largest literary festival in Atlantic Canada. He is a former professor of literature at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems is his second poetry collection (Brick Books, 2008).

Reviews

“Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems seems poised to become a Canadian classic.” –Dave Bidini, The Globe and Mail

“Gary Bettman need look no further if the NHL is in the market for its own poet laureate . . . .” –Barbara Carey, Toronto Star

” . . . as stirring as it is unique in hockey literature . . . .” –Dave Stubbs, Montreal Gazette

” . . . a unique and marvellous literary work . . . .” –Neil Stevens, CP

“. . .one of the best hockey books of all time . . .the best hockey book of the year . . .” –Joe Pelletier, “Joe Pelletier’s Hockey Book Reviews” (on-line), Terrace, BC

“At times straightforward, at times teasing, sensual, mysterious, or sad, it is an experience as much as a book . . . brilliant . . . .” — Heather Galindo, Ms. Conduct (on-line), Houston, Texas

“In the past week I was reminded twice why I love reading. First there was Randall Maggs’ brilliant Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems and now it’s Ian McEwan’s Saturday. –John Mutford, The Book Mine Set: Online book discussion forum, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

“To get at [Sawchuk’s]aloneness . . . Maggs assumes a number of voices, and one of the most captivating things about this collection is the grace of its polyphony . . . .” –Laurie Graham, The Malahat Review

“. . .Night Work offers many brilliant clues but no simple answers to the mystery of Terry Sawchuk . . . . a profound meditation on the questions raised by such a successful and tormented player . . . . –Jamie Dopp, The Fiddlehead

“This is one of the most human collections I’ve ever read, eerily funereal but celebratory of a life lost, a man remembered. . . . a detailed, complex Sawchukian masterpiece.” –Nathaniel G. Moore, Broken Pencil Magazine

. . . Night Work is already a phenomenon in CanLit. –Gregory Betts, Open Book Toronto

“A stirring work . . . . this one demands reading and re-reading. . . . The chord was struck.” –Stu Hackel, NY Times

“Night Work does well to set a new standard for sports writing. An absolute must-read.”–Stephen Clare, [Halifax] Chronicle Herald

“To learn what, why, and how deeply poetry can mean, put Archibald MacLeish aside for now and read this book.”–Neil Besner, Journal of Canadian Poetry