Mario Lemieux: Best There Ever Was

Ian A. Andrews is editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus and co-author of Becoming a Teacher.

Mario Lemieux was undoubtedly one of the better hockey players to
perform in the National Hockey League. The title of this souvenir
biography is the first indication of the book’s hagiographical bent.
It consists in large part of reprints of daily features penned by
sportswriters from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They come across as
awestruck worshippers of the player around whom the Pittsburgh Penguins
franchise revolved. While there is no attempt at objective
reporting—Lemieux is Pittsburgh’s hero and can do no wrong—there
is an attempt to provide a chronology of Lemieux’s upbringing, his
days in junior hockey, the acquisition of individual and team honors,
and his battle through injuries and Hodgkin’s disease. On the plus
side, the book features a comprehensive selection of photographs that is
colorful and a layout that is glossy and impressive. Diehard Penguin
fans will no doubt be overjoyed by this exercise in public relations.