Volume 53, Number 1 · January 12, 2006
The Great Black Hope
By Ian Buruma
Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink
by David Margolick
Knopf, 423 pp., $26.95
Sometimes a game is more than a game. In 1969, for example, when Czechoslovakia beat the Soviet Union in the ice hockey finals in Stockholm, less than one year after Soviet tanks crushed the Prague Spring. The exhausted Czech players were in tears as the Swedes cheered 'Dubcek! Dubcek!' and thousands of Czechs, defying the authorities, danced in the streets. On a night like that, when a humiliated people enjoy a moment of pride, revenge can taste sweet.
Review, 4095 words
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