Walter Gretzky is best known as Canada’s ultimate hockey dad, whose love of the sport and unremitting support have guided three of his children to varying degrees of success on the ice. But Gretzky has also become one of Canada’s highest profile stroke survivors. The Brantford, Ontario, resident has spent the last decade recovering from the devastating stroke he suffered in October 1991, just five months into his retirement.

Gretzky’s memoir is written in a casual, conversational manner, with the home-spun humility for which he has become known. Incorporated into the text are lengthy interviews and testimonials with friends and family that underscore and, in some cases, subtly contradict Gretzky’s version of events.

The first half of the book will interest even a casual hockey fan. With his privileged access to NHL locker rooms and long experience of the minor leagues, Gretzky provides a rare insight into the day-to-day rigours of the sport for both players and their families. This section is hampered somewhat by Gretzky’s good-naturedness and seeming reluctance to ruffle feathers: there is little conflict here, and one senses that Gretzky isn’t telling all that he could.

This is not, however, just a hockey book. Of considerably more interest for the non-fan is the second half of the book, detailing Gretzky’s life after his stroke. Despite the casual tone, there are some harrowing passages. The stroke destroyed Gretzky’s short-term memory, and his efforts to rebuild his personality and reoccupy his life are dramatic and heartrending. At his father’s graveside, for example, Gretzky is confronted with his mother’s death (which he had forgotten) and plunges into mourning for her all over again. The scene is emotionally scalding, a vivid reminder of the power of strokes to alter lives in fundamental and often unacknowledged ways.

For the past two years, Gretzky has been a spokesman for the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation. His memoir will be a valuable resource for families dealing with the effects of a stroke, and will be a useful addition to any hockey fans’ library.