The Last Season

by Roy MacGregor

Felix Batterinski grew up tough in Northern Ontario where hockey was the only way out of a life of grinding poverty. He got out and enjoyed fame as a hockey "enforcer" for the Philadelphia Flyers. But fame is fleeting.Now in his thirties and at the end of his playing career, Felix tries to make a go of it as a player-coach for a Finnish club. As the lone Canadian on the team, he is an outsider with a reputation that takes on a life of its own. When a controversial play brings his comeback bid to a screeching halt, Felix is faced with his own obsolescence and begins a tragic descent into disillusion and despair.

Genres: Hockey, Sports, Fiction

359 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Roy MacGregor is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction.

Reviews

[Danny Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books. Third time reading it. A powerful take on an aspiring hockey player's path from poverty in rural Northern Ontario, to success in the NHL, to his eventual decline. This book, being written in the eighties, was ahead of its time in terms of outlining the glory and fall of an enforcer type of hockey player.

Contains excellent depictions of Polish history (protagonist is of Polish descent), mental disability, aspects of rural lifestyle in the sixties/seventies, and the path taken by a player desperate to both make it big and keep from returning to their troubled homelife.

A complex protagonist who is misunderstood throughout, I found I both loved and shunned him for his actions. However you cannot help but feel bad after the surprise ending. The format used gives the impression you know the true secret of what exactly went down.

[Mylie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read and enjoyed a lot of hockey books by Mr MacGregor, starting with his Screech Owls books as a young hockey player growing up, and getting into his nonfiction as an adolescent. As an adult, I read about The Last Season, his "magnum opus" fiction, Canadian novel... Well reviewed by critics, not widely released. I finally tracked down a copy and sat down to read it.

And wow, did it take a long time. What the hell was that? I wanted to quit this one so many times. I wondered a lot whether the critics read a different book than me. It's a jumble of different ideas, jumping forward and backward in the life of its protagonist, Felix Batterinski, starting with his life in rural Ontario, continuing to his time with the Broad Street Bullies in the 70s, and moving forward to his post NHL career in Finland. That sounds coherent as I write it but it's neither engaging nor interesting. The characters are forgettable and I had a really tough time finishing it.

Is it the "The Canadian Hockey Classic" described on the cover? God, no. It's trying too hard to be "Canadian literature" and suffers badly for it.

[Kirsten S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for an English class and was not happy to read sports literature. Well let me tell you, this book is not about hokey. A young mans idea of society, especially regarding women, are challenged when he is moved to Europe to play hockey. You see him transition from an egotistical jock getting everything he wants to meeting women who refuse to fit into the mould of his idealized woman. When his girlfriend is faced with a tough decision he finally realizes that women are not his to control, rather independent people able to choose, it eventually sends him into a downward spiral. Would recommend if you are looking for something more than just a book about sports.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful. Disturbing. Beautifully written. It's a dark dramatic masterpiece wrapped tightly around a typical Canadian coming of age story. The ending was so abrupt, so unexpected, but at the same time made so much sense than I felt dumb for not expecting it. I have no idea how I came to possess this novel but I'm glad I did. Incredible.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book a long time ago. I had forgotten the title and the author, but not the story. It was a pretty stark book, and I felt bad for the protagonist. I remember the story pretty well, which I can't say for a lot of the books I read. I thought it was a very good book, fairly realistic, that didn't try to make its characters any better than they were.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at the life of a fictional itinerant hockey bruiser in the 60's 70's and 80's; The Last Season is a sports novel blended with a tale of Generational strife right out of Tolstoy. Unlike anything I've ever read before.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought it fitting to read a hockey book at the start of hockey season, I wasn't quite expecting this deep and dark storyline though, be ready for the ending, I wasn't expecting it to go quite like that. Based on a fictional character but I can see how it might reflect the lives of the tough guys.

[Marta Bedard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quintessential Canadian hockey novel. Written 30 years ago, but still as relevant and compelling today as ever. Easy to sink into. You won't want it to end.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was terrible, a seriously unlikeable main character who just continued to do more and more unlikeable things until I gave up 3/4s of the way though.

[Catherine Rodriguez · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Last Season told the story of a man who believed he was incredibly unlucky and gave up believing that his life could be changed, which led him to making some rather poor decisions. Perhaps, in all fairness, Felix Batterinski was not given the best odds in life; however, in his attempt to make life play by his rules, Felix brought upon his own destruction. Maybe this would have made for a better read if I could have been more sympathetic towards Felix. The only chance of redemption this book has comes with the clever plot twist at the very end.