Benoit Melancon. The Rocket: A Cultural History of Maurice Richard. Translated by Fred A. Reed. Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2009. 304 pp. $26.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-55365-336-3.
Reviewed by Jason Blake
Published on H-Canada (August, 2009)
Commissioned by Stephanie Bangarth (King's University College, UWO)
During a conference cofee break in Graz, stylistic gems, both are readable even to those un‐ Austria, last year, three professors from three dif‐ familiar with the sport or culture concerned, and ferent countries recommended Benoît Melançon's both show us how trivial pursuits can be crucial 2006 Les Yeux de Maurice Richard: Une histoire to a sense of community and to cultural history. culturelle to me (I was about to deliver a paper on Fred A. Reed's translation of Melançon's book, ice hockey in Canadian culture). These three Que‐ The Rocket, flls a hole in critical studies of hock‐ bec scholars were not in cahoots. Their enthusi‐ ey, and to my mind this book is more valuable in asm refected two things: the widespread and pos‐ English than in French because it fashes images itive reception that Melançon's French original re‐ of Richard, "the Rocket," to a new audience. Obvi‐ ceived in both academic and popular circles, and ously, Anglophone hockey fans will be familiar the equally widespread assumption that an Anglo‐ with Richard, and vaguely or even intensely phone reader might not be aware of the book. In aware of his stature as a hero of the Quebec peo‐ Quebec this was a hard book to miss; the rest of ple. In spite of this, the average Anglophone read‐ Canada managed to miss it almost entirely, de‐ er will surely learn even more than the average spite the collective craving for anything to do with French-Canadian reader. This diference in per‐ hockey. ceptions and assumptions about Richard's role in Though no one would ever mistake me for a hockey is crucial to The Rocket, because, although Quebec expert, the only review published in Eng‐ hockey is supposedly a binding Canadian narra‐ lish was my own in the British Journal of Canadi‐ tive, Melançon makes it clear that there are at an Studies. There, I favorably compared least two stories being told: "The Rocket of the Melançon's book to Beyond a Boundary, C. L. R. Quebeckers and that of the Canadians are not the James's 1963 discussion of cricket's importance to same" (p. 230). Though he comes to the conclusion cultural identity in the West Indies. Both are that Richard was not a myth in Anglophone Cana‐ H-Net Reviews da, Melançon does not privilege either the story ditionally academic. The third--which includes the or the myth. There is thus a laudable duality subsection "The Rocket among the English"--is throughout The Rocket. More than any other likely the freshest for Anglophone readers. hockey study in English or French, Melançon's Melançon dispenses with the requisite list of book examines a hockey icon in a pan-Canadian Richard's on-ice accomplishments almost immedi‐ context. ately. Such listing is as necessary as it is superfu‐ Melançon's book difers from the rest of the ous (this is, after all, a hockey book): trivia bufs pack in other ways too. This is not just another will already know that Richard scored 626 goals Canadian hockey biography bursting with glossy over 18 seasons, and that he led the Montreal pictures; yet neither is it a dry academic efort to Canadiens to 5 consecutive Stanley Cups between de-mythologize a sporting icon. The glossy pic‐ 1955 and 1959, and everyone in Quebec will be tures are there, but only three are of Richard on aware that he piled up impressive statistics. But the ice; the rest are representations of the Rocket when it comes to myth, Melançon's main concern, in oil, wax, concrete, and bronze and in maga‐ what are mere numbers? Why is it that one can‐ zines and newspapers. A German academic re‐ not live in Quebec and not be aware of Richard? cently wrote that there are no public monuments The cultural history begins in earnest as to athletes. Not so in the New World, and especial‐ Melançon unpacks the name "le Rocket," consider‐ ly not so in Quebec, where there are at least three ing it as a label that "anchored the Canadian con‐ Richard statues. "Whichever way we turn," writes cept of the harmonious coexistence of the two Melançon, "we'll fnd a Maurice Richard. Over (soon to become) ofcial languages"--somewhat time, the hockey player has become a myth. How ironically, given Richard's role as an idol of the and why did the transformation take place?" (p. Quebec people (p. 39). There follows, in the sub‐ 9). The tone of the book is personal, but because section "Buying the Rocket" a far more revealing Melançon is much too young to have seen Richard and entertaining epic list of the many products to play, it is not reverential in the style of Roch Carri‐ which Richard lent his name. There were Maurice er's 2000 biography Le Rocket (translated by Richard skates and jackets, but there were also Sheila Fischman as Our Life with the Rocket: The Rocket ashtrays, Rocket transistor radios, and Maurice Richard Story). This results in a critical Rocket Richard Condensed Tomato Soup. More‐ distance; at times, Melançon has an aloofness that over, these products changed throughout history. is rare in critical hockey studies, such as when he "The principal impact of the trade in Richard ... writes with supreme understatement that "it was has been the transformation of Maurice Richard necessary to overlook some of [Richard's] charac‐ into a product, then into a label, and ultimately ter traits and to rewrite several episodes of his ca‐ into a myth" (p. 58). A few years after he retired, reer" in order to make him into a mythical fgure the Rocket was in danger of being forgotten, re‐ (p. 104). placed by younger Montreal Canadiens stars. The Rocket is divided into three main sec‐ Section 2 examines the 1955 St. Patrick's Day tions: "The Icon," "The Riot," and "A Myth." The riot over some seventy pages. If this seems long, it frst part is the most fun, as Melançon examines is appropriate for a "cultural history" because the Richard's rise to athletic greatness and marketing riot has become the key event in turning Richard label. The second, dealing with the 1955 suspen‐ from a mere hockey player to a symbol of political sion of Richard by the National Hockey League resistance (even if Richard himself was publicly president, Clarence Campbell, and the ensuing apolitical and, according to this book, defnitely outrage in Montreal, is the most focused and tra‐ not for an independent Quebec). After Richard at‐
2 H-Net Reviews tacked an opposing player and a referee in a late- we learn, "For French speakers he could embody season game, Campbell, who was widely and ac‐ French-Canadian, then Québec nationalism and curately regarded as being anti-Quebec and anti- Canadian federalism; in the Rest of Canada, the Richard, banned the Rocket for the rest of the sea‐ Rocket had no such luck" (p. 253). son. When Campbell showed up at the Montreal Melançon's original was readable and accessi‐ Forum to watch a Canadiens game, fans peppered ble even for those not on top of Quebec culture or him with insults and various vegetables. The history (while reading the French version, I won‐ game was stopped, the arena emptied, and the St. dered if Melançon also had a French or Belgian Patrick's Day riot begun. According to this popular audience in mind). Reed's few additions will be narrative, for the frst time the people of Quebec welcome for those of us who do not know Dollard stood up for themselves; especially English Cana‐ des Ormeaux Day--"the Quebec holiday that coin‐ da delights in anachronistically announcing that cides with Victoria Day in English Canada" (p. 8). this was the beginning of the 1960s Quiet Revolu‐ In any event, Melançon is descriptive in explain‐ tion. "Had there been no Riot," afrms Melançon, ing characters as well known as former premier "it is doubtful there would ever have been a Mau‐ Maurice Duplessis and strongman Louis Cyr, or rice Richard myth" (p. 115). the governor general of Canada: "he or she who The title of the fnal main section--"A Myth"-- occupies the position that symbolizes British roy‐ could apply to the book as a whole. Here we are alty in a country that long was, but is no longer, a reminded of the element of chance in creating the British colony" (p. 180). Richard myth: what if Richard had chosen anoth‐ Sometimes, these explanations border on the er sport, one with less cultural resonance in Que‐ comical, such as when one reads that "frog" is "the bec? What if he had been born a few years earli‐ deprecatory epithet used to designate French er? What if he had been "preceded, like several Canadians" (p. 17). This puzzled me when I read modern hockey players ... by an advertising cam‐ the original because I assume most Francophones paign that transformed him into a savior before know this. Reading the English translation, I was the fact"? (p. 196). These are not barren questions, reminded that "when Richard played in the Na‐ even if they cannot be answered defnitively. tional Hockey League, it consisted of six teams, Rather, they show that hockey and Richard are four American (Boston, Chicago, Detroit and New not inevitable--something that is too often forgot‐ York) and two Canadian (Montreal and Toronto)" ten in Canada. (p. 239). Any Anglophone who picks up this book Perhaps the best example of the malleability will be familiar with the halcyon days of the Origi‐ of myth appears in "The Rocket among the Eng‐ nal Six. This seemingly pedantic explanation is, in lish," which is a mise en abîme of sorts for the An‐ fact, a reminder that Anglophone hockey fans glophone reader (or at least like hearing gossip have our own myths. As The Rocket shows, Hugh about oneself). There, Melançon writes laconical‐ MacLennan's "Two Solitudes" of an English and a ly, "Few would criticize Montreal-born novelist French Canada persist even in the communal na‐ and essayist Mordecai Richler for excessive sym‐ tional pastime. The sport is well worth examining pathy for Quebec nationalism.... But that did not in a cross-cultural manner. stop him from being a fervent Maurice Richard fan" (p. 240). The Rocket appears in much of Rich‐ : A Cultural History of Maurice Richard ler's fction and nonfction, but never as a symbol of resistance against perceived Anglophone op‐ does pression. Very near the conclusion of The Rocket le
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and Maurice (p. 104) I) II) III) of these , and t - eighteen fve c Maurice (p. 39) - II Maurice NHL league president Clarence So e - Translator Fred A. : - , on page 239, W […].
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Citation: Jason Blake. Review of Melancon, Benoit. The Rocket: A Cultural History of Maurice Richard. H- Canada, H-Net Reviews. August, 2009.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24872
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