Hockey fans will enjoy Jerry Hack’s 230-page self-published book, Memoir of a Hockey Nobody, especially for the protagonist’s depreciative sense of humour and candour.
Jerry Hack was told he’d never make the NHL, so the author decided to prove his detractors wrong, even if they were correct.
Memoir of a Hockey Nobody portrayed the story of a run-of-the-mill Canadian kid who grew up playing street hockey, where the game is played outdoors on foot or with incline and roller skates racing along the pavement.
Although Hack, who hails Langley British Columbia, never learnt how to skate until his late teens, he decided to enter the world of professional hockey anyways. He depicted his account about struggling upwards into the world of professional hockey as a slapdash tale driven by an unattainable dream.
This book detailed Hack’s voyage from the West Coast to all over Western Canada, California, the Yukon and Alaska, as he resolved to become a major bubble-gum-card-hero on the ice.
Hack faced several obstacles, from the managers who believed a player who originated from an unprivileged start wouldn’t have any talent, to the coaches who’d rather see established names with exciting backgrounds and standings dominate their arenas.
Memoir of a Hockey Nobody is illustrated as a multi-textual narrative with elements of calamity, achievement and willpower forcing the story’s arc.
So far, reviewers have been enthusiastic about Hack’s autobiographic work.
One reviewer said: “The fact that Teabag (Hack’s nickname) went out and accomplished what he did, with his ‘uh-huh’ resume was an underdog story that you can only root for, especially when contrasted to the current day where hockey camps, power skating, skill clinics, expensive gear and organization politics play bigger influences in how far a player makes it.”
