The Brier: The History of Canada's Most Celebrated Curling Championship

Raymond B. Blake is director of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount
Allison University and the author of Canadians at Last: Canada
Integrates Newfoundland as a Province.

At a time when many people have become disillusioned with professional
hockey, baseball, and other spectator sports, Bob Weeks tries to show us
in this popular history of the Brier that curling is different. There
are no professionals participating in the Brier, which he claims is the
most nationalistic sporting event in Canada. In the book, Weeks takes us
on a painstaking and rather tedious journey through practically all of
the Briers since 1927. Unfortunately, he provides little insight into
how the game has reflected the regional and provincial antagonisms
within Canada. At the end of the book, even Weeks acknowledges that
curlers have become professional athletes, some with agents and major
sponsors. Weeks laments the fact that the club curler no longer has a
chance to compete in the Brier. His book is a glorified history of a
tradition that is gradually dying out.