cover image Grant Fuhr: The Story of a Hockey Legend

Grant Fuhr: The Story of a Hockey Legend

Grant Fuhr with Bruce Dowbiggin. Random House Canada, $29.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-307-36281-0

Known as "the best money goalie in hockey" where the "bigger the game, the better Grant got," the highs of Fuhr's career%E2%80%94five Stanley Cups, Canada Cup triumphs, Hall of Fame induction%E2%80%94are recapped in detail in his autobiography, but don't look for many personal revelations or soul-searching here. Early on, the reader is warned that Fuhr, the first black star in hockey, is not the most forthcoming. Dowbiggin manages to get him to open up a little in the subsequent pages, so it isn't a complete shutout. An adopted child of mixed race raised in Spruce Grove, Alberta by white parents, Fuhr's story is compelling from the get-go, but he goes out of the way to avoid saying anything remotely controversial, whether it is in regard to race relations or the players, or coaches and management from his 19-year career. Even when his cocaine use and suspension is brought up, Fuhr gives little more than a shrug: "We definitely partied too much." In net, he was calm and rarely rattled; in print, that translates into offering a straightforward recap of his career and a little about his new love of golf, while, perhaps reflexively, protecting the territory of his private life and family. Agent: Jake Elwell, Harold Ober Assoc. (Oct.)