Splinter: A Novel About Hockey, a Boy and a Bench

“Once upon an ice rink
At a time forever more far away,
In a ramshackle heaven we skate
Day after day after day”

Set in small town New England it’s the wild world of 1970s hockey, with haunting echoes from a deeper past. That’s when 14-year-old Jerry at last makes his first top team. Only, Jerry swiftly finds that making it, doesn’t mean you’ve got it made.

It’s a journey through hurt and hope not made complete until after a reluctant coach, a would-be goon, and a not so friendly girlfriend combine, with an uncle, to bring out his best.

With coach Herman Harman’s “not now” frozen to the present, like the ice Jerry thinks he may only ever see from the bench, it takes his uncle’s unlikely pep talk, and his unlikelier girlfriend’s clarion call, to break him free.

“Burn bright!” says undercover mailman Uncle Bob.

“You’ve got to take it,” says pretend girlfriend, star dancer Nell.

Does he? Can, he?

Jerry finds his answer during a bumpy 1971-72 season skating his last year of youth hockey with the Riverview Voyageurs Bantam A.

About the Author

Steven Buono is sports editor at a community newspaper in southern New England, USA.