To Hell and Back

I haven't done a book review in a while, and since I finished reading one yesterday (in just a hair over a week, which is a record for me), the time has come for one. The book in question is what you see to the left, and is an autobiography about a former hockey player that was practically on top of the world, yet never felt happy. Playing With Fire is the life story of Theoren Fleury (who co-wrote the book with Kirstie McLellan Day), the former Calgary Flame who also played with Colorado, New York Rangers, and Chicago during his career. However, the hockey career is only a small aspect of the book, as he talks about his vices during that time, as well as the sexual abuse that he endured as a child by one of his coaches and the near ending of a life that was out of control.

The first chapters of Playing With Fire detail Fleury's childhood and a father who was an alcoholic and a mother who had been hopped up on medication. It was through hockey that he found his calling, but also within that was another chapter in the nightmare, as he also talks about his relationship with coach Graham James and the sexual abuse that followed. Once he reached the NHL, it was there that the drinking started in earnest because as he notes, he had been drinking before then to forget the Graham James saga. As all things seem to do, one thing leads to another, and with the drinking comes the promiscuity, as he had been married twice before the marriage to his current wife, and seeing other women while this was going on, sometimes at strip joints. Later in his career, he found out about cocaine, and when alcohol wasn't available, he turned to that. All of this would eventually catch up with him when he went to the New York Rangers in 1999, and as money and the bright lights of the city often do, they change a small town kid dramatically. Fleury ran into trouble with the NHLPA drug testing system, and when the drugs and alcohol were unavailable, he turned to gambling, often under an alias. Things would get worse for him when he signed with Chicago prior to the 2002-2003 season, when he was actually suspended for the first 25 games of that season for violating the drug policy. It was during that season that he was involved in an altercation with a bouncer at a strip joint, and at some point during the season, he just walked out on the sport altogether. A couple of years later, Fleury's life hit the lowest point possible when he bought a gun and a bullet from a pawn shop in New Mexico and nearly took his own life. It was from that point that things slowly, but surely, turned around for him.

The autobiography is an honest and personal assessment from Fleury himself and holds nothing back. From the first page of the book to the very end, I found this to be one of the best reads that doesn't sugarcoat the issues that he went through. From a rough childhood to the adult years, he covers everything and even offers some words for those who went through some of the same things that he experienced. Playing With Fire is a must read for Theo Fleury fans, people who are looking for encouragement in trying to meet their demons head on, and for hockey fans in general.