The Black Bonspiel of Willie MacCrimmon [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

W.O. Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 1993

At last, a book about curling, the noble sport that every winter turns otherwise sane Canadian men and women into broom-waving fanatics. Given the chance, any one of them would actively consider selling their soul to the devil for a chance to win the national championship known as “the Brier.”

That’s the offer made to Willie MacCrimmon in this hilarious story by W.O. Mitchell. The time is the not-too-distant past, and the place is Shelby, Alberta, a small town in the foothills. Willie, a widower, is the town’s shoe-maker, but like a good Scot he lives to curl; curling in fact is “his only active religion.” He and his rink are so expert that he attracts the attention of the Devil himself, who comes to Shelby and makes him an offer hard to resist. The Devil (a keen curler–and how they keep good ice in hell is fully explained) promises Willie that he’ll win the Brier–if on his death Willie will undertake to come and curl in hell for him in the Celestial Brier.

Willie makes the Faustian deal – but with the proviso that he will save his soul if he and his Shelby rink can beat the Devil’s rink in a challenge match. And so Willie and his friends – with the help of the Reverend Pringle – take on the Devil’s crew of Judas, Macbeth and Guy Fawkes in the most crucial curling match of all time, a matter of after-life and death.

It's a fine, old-fashioned funny story, as you’d expect from W.O. Mitchell. You might even call it a sweeping saga.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In what may be the ultimate wry commentary on men's addiction to sports, Canadian writer Mitchell spins a whimsical yarn about curling, a popular game in which players sweep a stone disk across ice toward a target circle. Willie MacCrimmon, cobbler and bereaved widower, strikes a Faustian pact with the Devil: Willie's team will win the Canadian curling championship, but in return Willie must curl for the Devil in Hell (on artificial ice, of course)-unless the dour shoemaker and his Alberta team outcurl the Devil's men in a challenge match. The Satanic lineup features Judas, Guy Fawkes (the English agitator who conspired to blow up Parliament in 1605) and Macbeth-who soliloquizes, "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Curls on this petty pace from end to end." The raucous life-or-death contest climaxes with a mock magazine article reporting on the slippery triumph of good over evil. Illustrated with charmingly detailed black-and-white engravings, this odd tale, adapted from Mitchell's play (which began life as a magazine story), bristles with puckish humor.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

At last, a book about curling, the noble sport that every winter turns otherwise sane Canadian men and women into broom-waving fanatics. Given the chance, any one of them would actively consider selling their soul to the devil for a chance to win the national championship known as ?the Brier.?

That?s the offer made to Willie MacCrimmon in this hilarious story by W.O. Mitchell. The time is the not-too-distant past, and the place is Shelby, Alberta, a small town in the foothills. Willie, a widower, is the town?s shoe-maker, but like a good Scot he lives to curl; curling in fact is ?his only active religion.? He and his rink are so expert that he attracts the attention of the Devil himself, who comes to Shelby and makes him an offer hard to resist. The Devil (a keen curler?and how they keep good ice in hell is fully explained) promises Willie that he?ll win the Brier?if on his death Willie will undertake to come and curl in hell for him in the Celestial Brier.

Willie makes the Faustian deal ? but with the proviso that he will save his soul if he and his Shelby rink can beat the Devil?s rink in a challenge match. And so Willie and his friends ? with the help of the Reverend Pringle ? take on the Devil?s crew of Judas, Macbeth and Guy Fawkes in the most crucial curling match of all time, a matter of after-life and death.

It's a fine, old-fashioned funny story, as you?d expect from W.O. Mitchell. You might even call it a sweeping saga.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart; Gift edition (October 23, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0771060815
• ISBN-13: 978-0771060816
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,881,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Good people having clever fun on the Devil's expense account, December 26, 2009

By 

Theodore A. Rushton (PHOENIX, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Black Bonspiel of Willie MacCrimmon (Hardcover)

Orillia's curling rink in the 1950s was more closed, aloof and elite than the golf club, truly a gathering place of the anonymous mysterious elite of town; in contrast, Mitchell's fellow curlers in Shelby, Alberta, are a most delightful democratic bunch.

An avid curler himself, Mitchell brings curling to life with wit and humour in his 'Great White North' version of the old Faust legend. Americans adapted Faust into the Broadway musical 'Damn Yankees' with the matchless Gwen Verdon and superb Ray Walston; Mitchell adapted Faust into a short story, then a radio play which grew into a popular stage play and finally this book.

It's as charming as 'Shoeless Joe' by fellow Canadian W. P. Kinsella, which Hollywood turned into the enormously popular 'Field of Dreams.' Canadians, it seems, are masters of printed words; Americans favour moving images held by chemicals on celluloid or electrical pulses trapped in chips.

Someday, if the government sponsored Canadian Film Industry ever decides to film Canadian fantasies, dreams, hopes and humour, this should be one of the firsts. Until then, the genius of Canadian creativity is limited to ink on ground-up trees rather than digital bytes in R-O-M chips. (For the benefit of Trawna folks, R-O-M is "Read Only Memory," not "Royal Ontario Museum.")

Like much Canadian humour, it's an easy evening read without a moral burden. Americans love stories with a moral; they can't appreciate beauty for its own sake -- look at the reaction to Tiger Woods, who should be valued for his matchless golf skills instead of being judged on his morals.

Canadians have more of a tendency to appreciate life for what it is, rather than what it might be with proper moral guidance. It's what makes this book a slice of pure Canadiana; good people having clever fun without hurting others or frightening the all-important American tourists. Canadians find subtle humour in the midst of all seriousness; Americans want their humour to have a serious moral.

Mitchell is a master Canadian storyteller. He deserves to be read for that reason alone, and this book is a fine introduction to his skills. Read it and you'll feel morally uplifted. Oooops! Is that an Americanism slipping in? Perhaps it's what's needed to recommend this book to Americans who are looking for at least one delightful story.