… is a ridiculously late entry, actually. I thought Michael Lewis’s The Big Short, which is totally terrifying and quite amazing, would swing it- then last week I started Andre Agassi ‘s Open.
You know with some books, you are desperate for them not to finish, and when they do you’re furiously cross, and nothing else you have on your shelves will do? You find yourself grumping about, taking against perfectly nice books.
Well, this is one of those. I’ve read a lot of sports biogs in my Radio 5 days, but nothing comes close to this. Even if you don’t care a BIT about tennis, well, it’s not about tennis. It’s about family, and ambition, and success and failure and living- in his case writ very large and yet at the same time curiously stilted; it’s about dealing with forceably arrested development and growing yourself up.
And actually, it’s almost better if you don’t know how the matches came out, because the agony and the tension of each of the big events is evoked so very brilliantly. I laughed (“my mother came in one day and found my grandmother breastfeeding me, and I’m not sure their relationship ever recovered after that”); I cried (when he falls in love with Steffi Graf it’s every bit as touching as James Herriot and Helen); I clutched my hands to my face in terror (SAMPRAS!). I cannot even begin to tell you how much I adored this book. But I can tell you what happened whilst I was reading it: I was in London, and I got on the tube at Finchley Road to go to Farringdon. The train, I pieced together later, went to Baker Street, sat there for half an hour whilst everyone got off, turned round and went back to Finchley Road, where I ended up an hour after I’d left it. Because I was reading Open, and I humbly suggest that if you have the faintest interest in the human condition at all, you get your paws on it as soon as is humanly possible.
Have a wonderful Christmas, and a very happy new year,
Jenxxxxx
This is not really a comment on the blog, I just did not find any other way to tell you my opinion of “The Good, the Bad and the Dumped”. It is the only book of yours I have read so far, and I found it very entertaining. BUT is there any other expression in the English language than “to roll one´s eyes” to tell the reader that a person is exasperated at someone´s behaviour or talk? I don´t seem to remember Jane Austen´s or Charlotte Bronte´s characters rolling their eyes very much… But maybe London is a city where people go about endlessly rolling their eyes…scary..!?
just read your book “the good the bad and the dumped” i did enjoy it but just wanted to let my opinion as a shetlander say that i found how it was portraid quite offencive. i have lived here for 20 years and find it the most beautiful and welcoming place in the world. We do not live in the stone ages and i think most children that have grown up here will tell you they had an amazing free childhood where we could be out after dark and feel safe. We dont all dress in shapeless baggy clothes.
Also i just wanted to point out that this is one of the friendliest palces you can go. there is an amazing feeling of community spirit that i have not wittnest anywhere else but in orkney (inside the UK). I am now studying in Aberdeen and have been to London, Manchester, Liverpool, Peterborough, Edinburgh and Glasgow and have always been shocked at how crazy people think you are if you walk down the street and smile at someone!! We may not have big cinemas or bowling alleys but we do have welcoming local run shops by local friendly people and in my opinion that beats shopping in starbucks anyday! Plus i think most Shetlanders agree were better of without Mcdonalds and Burger kings anyway!
Just an honest opinion from am honest shetlander who is proud of her roots.