Sunday, January 16, 2011

Book Review: Theo Fleury "Playing With Fire"


I got this book as a Christmas gift after putting it on my wish list. I heard that the book was great so I had to check it out for myself.

I almost gave up on the book after one page. The start is filled with swear words and foul language, which i don't enjoy. I decided to press on and I'm glad I did. The swears and foul language at times emphasis the struggles Fleury went through and the frustration he felt. The language is an important part of the book, you'd have to read it to understand!

I could not put this book down, it was very good. The book moves along at a great pace and does not stay on one stage of his life for too long. My favourite part of the book is when Fleury talks about certain players he played with. He rarely bashes anyone and if he does he tries to be nice as possible. When speaking of Alexandre Daigle he mentions that he was perhaps the fastest skater he played with and had an amazing set of skills. The only problem with him, Theo mentions is that he was not very intelligent.

The book also speaks of the dark side of his life and the struggles he has had with drugs and alcohol. Furthermore, Fleury also mentions his struggle with Graham James and the toll it took on him.  Fleury was very honest throughout the book, at the end he even mentioned that he did the book for money since he was broke. At book signings Fleury then realised that his book served as support to other's who had under gone sexual abuse and made them realise that they were not alone.

2 comments:

  1. Theoren Fleury is one of my favorite hockey players of all-time. This sounds like a great read. I'll have to pick this up.

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  2. If you are a fleury fan you HAVE to read this. Give's a lot of hockey insight too and the struggles he had with the Flames and Canadian Olympic hockey team. I don't think the struggles had been documented before! It talks about the reason he left the Flames, although he wanted to stay there with the team for the rest of his career.

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