“Playing With Fire” Book Review
Warning: This review contains spoilers that may affect your enjoyment when reading the book yourself.
It’s taken me a month, but I’ve finished reading Theo Fleury’s autobiography Playing With Fire. Trevor and I made a lunch-hour trip on release day to pick up the book from our local Chapters, and I promptly began reading it. What awaited were dark revelations about a player I had once idolized.
I’m going to be a little critical here, so I will start off by saying that I do recommend this book. It provided an enlightening glimpse into the struggles and personality of one of the Flames’ marquee players. You are unlikely, however, to be encouraged or inspired by this book. If you grew up admiring Theo Fleury, the portrait of a heroic hockey player that you may remember is likely to be tarnished.
A number of things in the book resonated with me in terms of my perception of Fleury and his character. Immediately, with the image of Fleury holding a loaded gun in his mouth, the book sets a sensational tone. At times, especially early in the book, such as when discussing his childhood arm injury, it seems as though he could be exaggerating things for dramatic flair. I’m not suggesting that Fleury’s account is not factual; however, the storytelling comes across as hyperbolic.
The story quickly reaches the point that I expected to enjoy the most: a long chapter chronicling Fleury’s NHL rookie season and the Flames’ 1989 Stanley Cup victory. Sadly, most of this chapter read as though Fleury was narrating the 1989 Flames video yearbook (A video that I enjoy a couple times a year). Most of the highlights he spent time discussing may have been taken straight out of the transcript of the video. From this point through the remainder of the years spanning Fleury’s time in Calgary, the pace slows as Theo laments the state of the Flames organization through much of the 90’s. At one point he even asserts that if it were not for him there would not be an NHL team in Calgary today. I would suggest it is at that point that the reader gets the full impression of the size of Fleury’s ego, a trait that is on full display throughout the book.
After Fleury’s departure from Calgary, we get to experience his rapid unravelling. From a purely voyeuristic standpoint, this is where entertainment value of the book picks up again. The excitement wears off as the destructive cycle becomes repetitive, with Fleury bouncing in and out of rehab and back into an assortment of addictions.
As the book winds down, we reach a familiar storyline of redemption where Fleury gets clean, gets involved with his kids again, and becomes a successful member of the Calgary business community. While still carrying the impression of Fleury being cocky and self-serving, I encountered one of the most memorable quotes of the book. When telling about his return to hockey after a stint in rehab Fleury recalls still being an agitator on the ice and states that he quit drinking, he didn’t get a personality transplant. Theo Fleury is who he is, and despite his sizeable ego, he has accomplished great things and overcome great adversity. That, I think, is the overarching theme of this book.
It may sound like I’m being harsh and looking to pick the book apart, but that’s not my goal here. I believe this was an important book for Theo to write for the sake of finding closure. In that regard, I don’t think this book is written for us as fans and readers, but more as a way for Fleury to tell his story. Further to that, I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for him to write this book. I respect the bravery to put his life out in the open like this.
Perhaps the most redeeming moment in the book was contained in the epilogue when Fleury recalls his first full reading of the entire book and realizing how selfish he’d been. Maybe there was a personality transplant somewhere along the way after all.
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:32 pm
This was an interesting book to say the least but I found that “Hitman” by Bret Hart dove deeper into the person and his industry than Theo’s did. Theo is a story of himself and I’m glad to see he had closure by trying out for the Flames this year and Kudos to Sutter for setting the bar high enough that if he did make it, he’d be contributing but Theo’s book didn’t offer much into the politics of hockey, nor the lives of others that were involved with him at the time. The writer that wrote alongside Brett Hart really did a great job of writing…
January 14th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
The entertainment value exists throughout the book but I can’t help but lose all the respect that I once had for this guy. It is just constant self exulting garbage playing the blame game regarding all the terrible decisions he’s made in his life. It makes sense that his comeback was made to sell copies of his book. Sales which he desperately needs to keep his head above water. He talks like he’s finally stable with a redemptive quality, but then remains bitter and hurtful toward others. Fun to read, hard to like.