Tennis as both a sport and social institution provides an ideal avenue for exploring various human emotions and relationships, particularly around themes like love and ambition.
David Foster Wallace delivers five captivating essays that capture both his knowledge of tennis as a competitor and its appeal as a fan. In them, he analyzes Roger Federer’s grace and power; considers Michael Joyce’s artistry; and more.
Sudden Death by Francisco de Quevedo
Sudden Death by Enrigue is an entertaining, high-concept historical pageant replete with high concepts. Ostensibly, it depicts a tennis match between Caravaggio and Quevedo–using a tennis ball made from Anne Boleyn hair–but Enrigue’s sprawling novel also explores Hernan Cortes and La Malinche, Galileo and Renaissance popes as well as many other transformative historical figures.
The one-upmanship between these titanic cultural figures echoes their rivalry; but also acts as a metaphor for empires and ideas clashing against one another. Europe and America face-off over many themes ranging from cultural imperialism and power struggles to creative arts versus political dogma clashing within this text.
Quevedo produced both a picaresque novel, Vida del Buscon, and several satirical pamphlets he later disowned as juvenile pranks during his lifetime; but it was during this tumultuous court of Philip IV of Spain that Quevedo would write some of his finest poetry and prose works such as an essay on theology as well as Providencia de Dios that made an impactful statement about its time and place in history.
After falling from favor with the Count-Duke of Osuna, Quevedo was sent away to Torre de Juan Abad where he wrote some of his finest poetry while taking up philosophy as an outlet to offset his failed political efforts and eventually becoming one of Spain’s leading Neostoic philosophers.
Arturo Perez-Reverte immortalized the character of Quevedo through his Captain Alatriste books and 1635: The Cannon Law film adaptation. Quevedo became an internationally beloved figure thanks to his full, eccentric personality which helped make him one of Spain’s most widely read modern writers. A misanthrope with an irrepressibly dark sense of humor, Quevedo detested tailors, innkeepers, apothecaries, women Genovese Protestants alike– but loved those who loved him back. His eccentric diction and caustic humor inspired countless contemporary Latin American authors; Sudden Death pays homage to him by paying homage with its sprawling narrative style and epic scale novella format.
The Ball by Caravaggio
Caravaggio was an immensely controversial painter. Some experts claim his works were predominantly self-portraits; others view them more objectively as depicting real people and events rather than himself. One painting in particular, The Judith Beheading Holofernes has recently come into prominence again as a key work from Caravaggio’s brief but highly productive period in Rome; its dramatic story, chiaroscuro lighting and spiritual quality combine with spectacular surface detail for which Caravaggio was known.
Although Caravaggio’s own life isn’t completely represented in this painting, it remains an important work in his early career. Judith, a Roman noblewoman likely inspired by someone real, captures high emotions characteristic of Caravaggio while the violence and drama are typical for him as well as any number of incidents including fighting or brawling (his record includes being arrested multiple times for various offenses including slashing an adversary’s cloak, throwing artichokes at waiters during service, scarring his landlady with lewd songs scarring his landlady while scarring her with lewd songs; scarring his landlady with lewd songs scarring his landlady with lewd songs and assaulting police officers among many other offenses – just some examples).
Caravaggio first painted The Judith Beheading Holofernes when he joined Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte’s household and shortly thereafter as one of his patrons at that time. This painting depicts an innocent youth of privilege falling prey to streetwise opportunists – which would serve as a theme that Caravaggio would explore further later on in later works that featured this same subject matter.
Caravaggio was only 49 when he left us, yet his legacy remains truly extraordinary. His influence can be found in works by Rubens (who bought one of his paintings for the Gonzaga family), Vermeer, and Rembrandt among many other artists.
Love Game by Elizabeth Wilson
Wilson explores the history of what can only be described as an elegant game from its origins as Victorian entertainment to global TV spectacle. She includes champions and innovators, heroes and iconoclasts that shaped it over time, but she also tackles class wars, cultural clashes and snobbery within tennis’ amateur-professional division – while exposing how money corrupts both.
Wilson has created a book that is both fascinating and readable – even for non-tennis fans – which makes Wilson’s prose easy on the eye and insightful about a subject often obscured in controversy. Wilson defies easy generalisations by writing in a way that does not celebrate good and bad equally; rather, Wilson uses finesse of touch shot passing shot to illuminate its complexity while remaining honest in her analysis of its historical importance.
Love Game is an essential read for those interested in the history of tennis. Wilson’s lucid prose makes her an effective counterargument against those who would argue that modern athleticism and technology is hindering its progress, or idealise its past; at the same time she exposes present day triumphalism while simultaneously uncovering amateur-professional division and its discriminatory treatment of non-white players.
In her final chapter, she expresses hope that tennis will return to its true nature as “a mixture of chess and dance, intellectual geometry and aesthetic joy”. Although an admirable goal, one that may have been better met through simpler writing. Less wordy prose, less jargon and less allusions to psychology, history and sociology would have led more clearly toward its realization.
As tennis captivates our nation for two months every year and leaves an indelible mark the other eleven months, it may come as a surprise that there aren’t more books like Ronald Goldfarb’s about the history of this game. His book stands as the standard against which all future studies of its social impact must be judged. Ronald Goldfarb is a Washington DC attorney and columnist for Independent Review of Books; he regularly practices tennis at least three times each week.
The Killer Instinct by Jordan Myles
Martina Navratilova delivers another thrilling installment to her Jordan Myles series with this riveting conclusion to its Jordan Myles trilogy, this time featuring sports therapist Jordan Myles as its protagonist. Jordan Myles works at Desert Springs Sports Science Center as both player and sports therapist for all-star players at Desert Springs; her clients help her find “The Total Zone,” that ideal state where mind and body come together seamlessly. But when several prominent clients start experiencing sudden collapses that seem out of nowhere, Jordan quickly realizes that professional tennis competition pales when compared to potential murder!
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Professional tennis requires high pressure, risks and profile – these are its hallmarks. But when one of a promoter’s assistants tragically dies at a gala reception in Paris and women’s champ-turned-sports-therapist Jordan Myles experiences terrifying brushes with death herself, she realizes the deadly game extends well beyond the court and into everyday life.