Mario

Raymond B. Blake is an assistant professor of history at Mount Allison
University in New Brunswick.

This is a splendid biography of Mario Lemieux, the most talented player
in the NHL today. It is no ordinary hockey book, for Martin goes beyond
trumpeting his subject’s accomplishments to provide thoughtful
analysis. Over the course of his career, Lemieux has alienated many
groups: the Quebec junior hockey officials by not participating
regularly in international competition; the NHL by not wearing a
Pittsburgh sweater after he was selected first in the League’s entry
draft; Canadians by passing on the 1991 Canada Cup; and the Pittsburgh
media by not giving enough of himself to the community.

Inevitably, he is compared to Gretzky and deemed equal, perhaps
superior, in terms of skills. Unlike Gretzky, he believes that his
commitment to hockey ends once the game is over. He would rather golf
than participate in charity functions, attend NHLPA meetings, or make
commercials. Many thought that his cancer scare in 1993 would change
him, but Martin concludes that Lemieux’s “intensely private nature
was not something that could be changed.”

This first-rate biography shows Mario Lemieux at his best and worst,
and should be the standard by which all future hockey biographies are
measured.