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A review by jonscott9
Open by Andre Agassi
5.0
A few facts about the enigmatic Andre Agassi, virtuoso magician on the tennis court (no one else save Federer and Nadal has made the racquet a wand in the past 20 years) and husband and ex-husband and father and son and ex-meth head and educator and friend and enemy:
+ His father Mike (his assumed American name) was an Olympic boxer for Iran in the '50s
+ His father harbors a raging temper and coached him in his young years, groomed him to become a champion, using "the dragon," a hyper-rigged ball machine, hurling balls at his son at speeds significantly faster than what the machine originally allotted for
+ His first marriage to Brooke Shields fell apart, and ahead of their wedding, to inspire herself to get fit, Shields had put a picture of another woman ("the perfect female body, the perfect legs") on their fridge, even within a heart magnet -- that woman was Steffi Graf, another tennis star, and Agassi had adored her for years and would marry *her* years later
+ Agassi and Shields bonded over a movie they loved, Shadowlands, starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger about the life and love of C.S. Lewis; Agassi and Graf would later bond over their shared favorite film -- also Shadowlands
+ Agassi and Graf, at the time of this writing, are the only two tennis players in history to win all 4 major tournaments (the Grand Slam) and Olympic gold medals in singles play
Good grief, some people are just meant to be. Together. Such is the long and winding story of how Andre and Stefanie (her now-preferred name) came to be a pair. Yea, a power couple. This book essentially arrives at that finish. Life is now complete or this man has been made whole by the fact that he is happily married to the woman he long coveted. (As Agassi's older brother Phil puts it, "You were born with a horseshoe up your ass.")
I'm inspired by Agassi in ways, and I find him maddening in others. In the end, I'm a fan. His ego is huge, and yet he's humble. He's a pigeon-toed-walking, fuzzy-ball-thwacking batch of paradoxes. (I feel that.)
This autobiography's ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer, author of the memoir The Tender Bar, which Agassi loved and whose author he pursued when considering his own history. I'd like to read Tender Bar now.
No one is spared in this personal history, oh no. Brooke Shields, her Hollywood friends, the cast of "Friends" (where Shields did a guest stint), contemporaries such as Sampras (boring) and Chang (pious) and Courier (an a-hole) and the brutish Boris Becker of Germany, who infuriated Agassi when he blew kisses during a match to Shields up in the stands. Jimmy Connors. All get lacerated at different points. Same goes for Agassi's dad, who's said he'll never read this book, that he already knows it all. Which is just what Agassi says about his father -- he knew everything, and what he didn't know, he thought he knew. The tanned-to-leather tennis whisperer Nick Bollettieri also gets his. About the only people emerging unscathed are Agassi's older brother Philly, his sister and his mother, and Graf and Gil Reyes, his longtime trainer and confidant. Oh, and Barbra Streisand (hahaha).
It's okay, though. Agassi hardly got off easy when a friend of Shields, the comedienne Kathy Griffin, recently penned a memoir-ish book of her own (titled Official Book Club Selection, hilariously).
This book is literate, sometimes refreshingly so (for an athlete memoir, for sure, shew) and sometimes a bit distracting and high-falutin' in the way it reads. But those times are few. It's well worth the read, whether you like or love tennis or not. Agassi's got a testament to a life both ill lived and lived well.
It's a cautionary tale and a captivating read. I slam-read this book like none I've read since The Book Thief. By all means, have at it.
an excerpt (and hardly the best one):
"My father says that when he boxed, he always wanted to take a guy's best punch. He tells me one day on the tennis court: When you know that you just took the other guy's best punch, and you're still standing, and the other guy knows it, you will rip the heart right out of him. In tennis, he says, same rule. Attack the other man's strength. if the man is a server, take away his serve. If he's a power player, overpower him. If he has a big forehand, takes pride in his forehand, go after his forehand until he hates his forehand.
"My father has a special name for this contrarian strategy. He calls it putting a blister on the other guy's brain. With this strategy, this brutal philosophy, he stamps me for life. He turns me into a boxer with a tennis racket. More, since most tennis players pride themselves on their serve, my father turns me into a counterpuncher -- a returner."
For another intriguing (shorter) take on the man, check out this Q&A -- and the sidebar that details some of the *uncanny* coincidences in his life:
http://www.insidetennis.com/2010/02/andre-agassi-interview-part-ii/
+ His father Mike (his assumed American name) was an Olympic boxer for Iran in the '50s
+ His father harbors a raging temper and coached him in his young years, groomed him to become a champion, using "the dragon," a hyper-rigged ball machine, hurling balls at his son at speeds significantly faster than what the machine originally allotted for
+ His first marriage to Brooke Shields fell apart, and ahead of their wedding, to inspire herself to get fit, Shields had put a picture of another woman ("the perfect female body, the perfect legs") on their fridge, even within a heart magnet -- that woman was Steffi Graf, another tennis star, and Agassi had adored her for years and would marry *her* years later
+ Agassi and Shields bonded over a movie they loved, Shadowlands, starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger about the life and love of C.S. Lewis; Agassi and Graf would later bond over their shared favorite film -- also Shadowlands
+ Agassi and Graf, at the time of this writing, are the only two tennis players in history to win all 4 major tournaments (the Grand Slam) and Olympic gold medals in singles play
Good grief, some people are just meant to be. Together. Such is the long and winding story of how Andre and Stefanie (her now-preferred name) came to be a pair. Yea, a power couple. This book essentially arrives at that finish. Life is now complete or this man has been made whole by the fact that he is happily married to the woman he long coveted. (As Agassi's older brother Phil puts it, "You were born with a horseshoe up your ass.")
I'm inspired by Agassi in ways, and I find him maddening in others. In the end, I'm a fan. His ego is huge, and yet he's humble. He's a pigeon-toed-walking, fuzzy-ball-thwacking batch of paradoxes. (I feel that.)
This autobiography's ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer, author of the memoir The Tender Bar, which Agassi loved and whose author he pursued when considering his own history. I'd like to read Tender Bar now.
No one is spared in this personal history, oh no. Brooke Shields, her Hollywood friends, the cast of "Friends" (where Shields did a guest stint), contemporaries such as Sampras (boring) and Chang (pious) and Courier (an a-hole) and the brutish Boris Becker of Germany, who infuriated Agassi when he blew kisses during a match to Shields up in the stands. Jimmy Connors. All get lacerated at different points. Same goes for Agassi's dad, who's said he'll never read this book, that he already knows it all. Which is just what Agassi says about his father -- he knew everything, and what he didn't know, he thought he knew. The tanned-to-leather tennis whisperer Nick Bollettieri also gets his. About the only people emerging unscathed are Agassi's older brother Philly, his sister and his mother, and Graf and Gil Reyes, his longtime trainer and confidant. Oh, and Barbra Streisand (hahaha).
It's okay, though. Agassi hardly got off easy when a friend of Shields, the comedienne Kathy Griffin, recently penned a memoir-ish book of her own (titled Official Book Club Selection, hilariously).
This book is literate, sometimes refreshingly so (for an athlete memoir, for sure, shew) and sometimes a bit distracting and high-falutin' in the way it reads. But those times are few. It's well worth the read, whether you like or love tennis or not. Agassi's got a testament to a life both ill lived and lived well.
It's a cautionary tale and a captivating read. I slam-read this book like none I've read since The Book Thief. By all means, have at it.
an excerpt (and hardly the best one):
"My father says that when he boxed, he always wanted to take a guy's best punch. He tells me one day on the tennis court: When you know that you just took the other guy's best punch, and you're still standing, and the other guy knows it, you will rip the heart right out of him. In tennis, he says, same rule. Attack the other man's strength. if the man is a server, take away his serve. If he's a power player, overpower him. If he has a big forehand, takes pride in his forehand, go after his forehand until he hates his forehand.
"My father has a special name for this contrarian strategy. He calls it putting a blister on the other guy's brain. With this strategy, this brutal philosophy, he stamps me for life. He turns me into a boxer with a tennis racket. More, since most tennis players pride themselves on their serve, my father turns me into a counterpuncher -- a returner."
For another intriguing (shorter) take on the man, check out this Q&A -- and the sidebar that details some of the *uncanny* coincidences in his life:
http://www.insidetennis.com/2010/02/andre-agassi-interview-part-ii/