The Awesome Game

One man’s search to answer the ultimate question in sports: Why is hockey so incredibly awesome?

Dave Hill--author, actor, rock musician and stand-up comedian--is a truly outstanding American. For one thing, he’s part Canadian (an advantage he explored in his previous book Parking the Moose). For another, and maybe this has something to do with his Canadian heritage, he’s a totally obsessive fan of hockey. That makes him a minority within a minority: apparently only five percent of the US population admit to liking hockey more than any other sport.

In his latest opus, Dave--who’s from Cleveland, which hasn’t had an NHL team since 1978--tackles this hockey conundrum with full force, drilling down into what makes hockey so damn important in so many parts of the world, despite the average American not recognizing the sport’s preeminent greatness. His search for the very soul of hockey has taken him across the globe, from Poland to LA to Kenya, and brought him into contact with many of the sport’s great and good. Humorous but heartfelt, Bill Bryson-like but hipper, this is arguably the greatest book ever written about hockey and definitely the one to be asking for at Christmas.

Dave Hill is a comedian, writer, and musician originally from Cleveland but now living in New York City. He has writ­ten for The New York Times, The Paris Review, Salon, GQ, McSweeney’s, theCleveland Plain Dealer, and Guitar World, among other publications. He is a regular contributor to public radio’s This American Life and hosts his own radio show, The Goddamn Dave Hill Show, on WFMU in Jersey City, New Jersey. Dave has starred in his own TV series, The King of Miami, on the MOJO Network, which was canceled even though Dave really liked it. He has also appeared on Comedy Central, BBC America, MTV, and Adult Swim, among others, and is a regular host on HBO and Cinemax. Dave performs live comedy in theaters and basements all over the world. He also plays guitar and sings in his own rock band, Valley Lodge, whose song ＂Go＂ is the theme song for HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Dave Hill Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is his sec­ond collection of nonfiction essays. Tasteful Nudes: . . . and Other Misguided Attempts at Personal Growth and Validation is his first.