Spectator Sports

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Christie Blatchford started out, journalistically speaking, at the top of the heap, with the prestigious Globe and Mail moved to the middlebrow Toronto Star, and is now happily ensconced at that no-prestige but immensely popular refuge, the Toronto Sun, the lowbrow’s delight. Her column is one of the brightest spots on its pages, and is nationally syndicated, appearing in the Edmonton Sun, the Calgary Sun, and the Winnipeg Sun. Some of her best writing is collected here, giving an overview of the Blatchford perspective of life, love, living in an age of television, answering machines, instant tellers and other threats to one’s peace of mind; being a WASP and not apologizing for same; being a woman at a time and in a place in which this has become a complicated and difficult business; and living with The Boy, who sounds like a pretty good sort. Blatchford first attracted attention as a very talented sportswriter and has never lost the enthusiasm fueled by a childhood spent as a Noranda rink rat. She’s a genuine original. Her colorful style (she favors blue) is no doubt startling to the super-refined, but she is almost always well worth reading; a sensible and down-to-earth writer swimming determinedly against the tidal bore of ‘80s foolishness. Cheerful, fresh and funny.