A Skating Life [Hardcover]

You don't have to be a skating fan to be totally enthralled with this story. I literally could not stop reading. It is written with such honesty and is so heartfelt that a few times I cried. I also laughed. The book is quite a ride. I want to read it again and make it a part of my book group so I can talk about it to others.

The book is written in Dorothy's voice. I so enjoyed hearing her speak on Larry King Live, so I bought the book. Dorothy tells her story with such beautiful honesty. I thank Dorothy for sharing her story so intimately. Thank you for opening up your life for us all the know and in turn see our own lives more clearly. Revealing her depression and complicated relationship with her Mother and men in her life, took a huge leap of faith. I so appreciate Dorothy telling the story behind that beautiful smile. I highly recommend this book to all people - young, old, sports enthusiasts, and on and on. GREAT BOOK!

Dorothy Hamill's A SKATING LIFE is one of the most interesting and gripping books I have read in a long time. As the cliche goes, I could hardly put it down! The book is definitely an emotional roller-coaster as it swings from triumph to despair over and over, and is very well-written so that the reader vividly shares her emotions at those times. There is quite a good balance between personal aspects of her life and descriptions of her ice skating career, although in later years the personal dominates. I did sometimes wish that she had described in more detail the technicalities of skating - double axels, the Hamill Camel, lutzes, and other such skating jargon.

But as famous as Dorothy Hamill is, why are there so few DVDs available of her performances?! The only ones I have found are Mannheim Steamroller - The Christmas Angel: A Story on Ice and an appoximately 6-minute segment of her at the 1976 U.S. Figure Skating Championship on the DVD "Skating Through Time, Volume 3" (which at the moment is not showing on Amazon). There are others available on VHS tape, such as Dorothy Hamill's Ice Capades Cinderella, Frozen in Time and Nutcracker: Fantasy on Ice (I have the latter one, and it's excellent.)

Dorothy candidly describes the numerous difficulties she has faced, including family depression, friction with her parents, two failed marriages, and financial difficulties. Yet at the opposite extreme she also recounts the many triumphs in her life. One such incident was at the 1980 winter Olympics, four years after she won the Olympic gold medal for skating. She and her future husband, Dean Paul Martin, were in the audience as the amateur, underdog hockey team from the United States defeated the professional and government-subsidized team from the U.S.S.R. Dorothy recounts, "As the crowd was hailing the American victory, Dean proudly turned to me (and said) 'You know, you did that once.' Not until this moment, and not until Dean said this, did I fully realize the magnitude of winning an Olympic gold medal and what....a great pinnacle of achievement it was in the eyes of the world, especially when an athlete was up against the extraordinary talent of the Eastern bloc countries."

This book is full of many such incidents that often brought tears to my eyes. I have seldom read a book as moving as this one. When I came to the end I felt as though I know Dorothy Hamill very well, and, as she was dubbed after her Olympic win, that she still is "America's Sweetheart." And mine too.

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