Book Review: On and Off the Ice

A Book You Can Buy From Me

Book Title: On & Off the Ice


Author: Dorothy Hamill (with Elva Clairmont)

Date: 1983

Publisher: Knopf

ISBN: 0-394-85610-4

Length: 181 pages

Quote: "I felt that in a sense I was no longer Dorothy Hamill--I was the United States."

Dorothy Hamill started skating when she was eight years old. At nine, she decided to make it a career. Practice and more practice, working through pain, solid legs, a quiet and disciplined personality, and a beautiful face, can do a lot for a person. In just ten short years, Hamill was the world's champion skater, with an Olympic gold medal and dozens of other prizes in her collection.

This book is about skating, and that's about all. In between 1976 and 1983 Hamill found time to get married, help her mother recover from surgery for cancer, raise money for the American Cancer Society, and bury her grandmother; in the book she also mentions plans to have children. Those parts of her story touch on other people's stories, so we're not told much about them. There's not much about Hamill's education in the book, although she went to school; not much about friends or family; no mention of religion or politics. This is intentional. Part of Hamill's charm was a quiet, reserved manner. She didn't tell people more than they were interested in knowing.

This quality makes On & Off the Ice a good, tasteful, family-friendly story that nine-year-old girls can share with their brothers without embarrassment. The personal memories Hamill shares are the ones that may be helpful to other young athletes: having to say no to other sports and concentrate on skating, having to "advance at a snail's pace" and perfect simple moves before doing fancy ones, being forbidden to chew gum while skating.

The vocabulary of this book is also accessible to nine-year-olds. Figure skating does have its own vocabulary, but if primary school readers want to learn about skating, they'll learn words like "axel," "camel," and "mohawk."

Many young women have been called "America's sweetheart." In an odd synchronicity, I read On & Off the Ice during the same week I read Melissa Gilbert's Prairie Tale. No doubt thousands of Americans will always love both of these teen stars, but let's just say that it's easier to love a teen star who tells us how to be a successful athlete than one who tells us more than we ever wanted to know about anybody.

However, for adults who wanted to know more about Hamill's family life, a personal memoir describing her parents' declining years has also been published.