How John McEnroe became a tempest of his own making. Adams, the
literary editor of Britain's Observer and obviously a keen tennis
appreciator, was initially drawn to McEnroe by the beauty of his
game and by his canny ability to push, place, angle, and guide the
ball by using its own pace. The author was equally intrigued by
McEnroe's real-time emotions and moral outrage, all very publicly
on display at Wimbledon in the land of deference, in the most
deferential of games. McEnroe was the Tom Paine of tennis,
recognizing no one as his social superior and positioning himself
for the same status on the court. Though Adams shows a natural
descriptive talent for reporting with winning unpretentiousness on
various great matches, what he has most fun with here is
speculating on the motivations behind McEnroe's behavioral antics.
These admittedly conjectural explanations hit the nail on the head
more often than not, sometimes only glancingly, more often dead on.
Adams sees both social and psychological angles at play. On the
social level, he draws parallels between McEnroe and Margaret
Thatcher, in their distain for tradition, their scorched-earth
style, and their winner-take-all spirit. He also characterizes
McEnroe as the embodiment of Christopher Lasch's Psychological Man,
plagued by anxiety, vague discontents, and a sense of inner
emptiness, with a touch of Robert Bly's perpetual adolescent thrown
in. These opinions are all buttressed by the comments of McEnroe
himself, one of the rare sports figures who spoke candidly and
offered original thoughts at press interviews. Adams also considers
issues of money, marriage, and celebrity. But what finally sticks
with the reader is McEnroe's own words: "I was like a compulsive
gambler, or an alcoholic. Anger became a powerful habit." A sharp
little piece of sports journalism-and a fine journey through a
spectacular, volcanic tennis career. (Kirkus Reviews)
Read a fan's eye view of one of tennis's most notorious stars, and
an exploration into the idea of sporting obsession. The perfect
nostalgic treat for any Wimbledon fan. The greatest sports stars
characterise their times. They also help to tell us who we are.
John McEnroe, at his best and worst, encapsulated the story of the
eighties. His improvised quest for tennis perfection, and his
inability to find a way to grow up, dramatised the volatile
self-absorption of a generation. His matches were open therapy
sessions, and they allowed us all to be armchair shrinks. Tim Adams
sets out to explore what it might have meant to be John McEnroe
during those times, and in his subsequent lives, and to define
exactly what it is we want from our sporting heroes: how we require
them to play out our own dramas; how the best of them provide an
intensity that we can measure our own lives by. Talking to McEnroe,
his friends and rivals, and drawing on a range of reference, he
presents a book that is both a fan's-eye portrait of the most vivid
player ever to pick up a racket, and an original study of the idea
of sporting obsession.
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