ON AND OFF THE ICE

by Dorothy with Elva Clairmont Hamill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 1983

Hamill's ten years of training and competing before winning the Olympic and World championships in 1976 will be too much skating (and too little of anything else) for anyone but an enthusiast; still, with Clairmont's help, the story is dexterously and becomingly told--with due regard to the costs, for Dorothy and her supportive/supporting family, and with mention of snide rink-mates, skating-politics, and other less attractive aspects of a competitive career. The reader will have no doubt that it was a career, for Dorothy and the Riverside, Ct., Hamills, from the time her talent was recognized at age ten. (Two years before, she'd gone out on her grandparents' pond, in borrowed skates.) There followed those years of driving, before dawn, to do her ""patch"" (school-figure practice) at a distant rink; of Lake Placid summers, qualifying tests, different coaches with different quirks. ""The focus of the family's attention was now centered around my skating""--with mixed effects on her older brother and sister. In ""the hardest year,"" 1967: ""Fatigue made us all irritable, and we squabbled constantly."" Dorothy was eleven. That spring, however, she won her first gold medal, ""and it made all the hard work seem worthwhile."" There are crucial injuries and shattering losses to come. Very late on, she discovers she's ""a slow learner."" There is no self-aggrandizement. Hamill's post-'76 career--in the Icecapades, on TV--and her marriage to Dean Martin, Jr. are only briefly summarized in the final chapter. The rest is perfectionist skating and inescapable commitment (as she's reminded when she balks). Kids will admire her, but very few will envy her.

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION