Customer Reviews

Double Fault

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The book is undoubtely well-crafted an written by a real "pro". The dialogue in particular was superb--almost too clever. However, while the NYT talks about what a "less ambitious" author might have done with the ending, I must be in the category of the "less ambitious reader" because the uplifting ending is exactly what I was hoping for. There was so much sadness and heartache in the book, that I was hoping for some relief from the unrelenting tension by book's end. Granted, perhaps the author is to be credited for her unstinting devotion to realism as opposed to a trite Hollywood ending, but it sure made for depressing reading.

After reading the powerful "We need to talk about Kevin" all other books seemed somehow inadequate and I was not able to finish a novel for months. However, I was thrilled to stumble across "Double Fault" written by the same extraordinary author. What a disappointment! Even for a complete tennis tragic this plot was boring and based on needless conflict. It was so appalling in every way that it's hard to believe that it was written by the same person.

Admittedly, I checked this book out of the library b/c I really like to play tennis and I was curious about the book's use of the sport as metphor to explore (as the bkcover says)"marriage the ultimate sport." Only apparently, I wasn't fully prepared for the never-ending, morose, despiseable jealousies contained herein. I think Lionel Shriver is a talented writer, but that this book is abymally bitter, relentlessly bitter at every turn - to the point where I was ready to pitch the characters' marriage (&almost this book) long before the characters do. The main character, Willy Novinsky, is very unlikeable throughout (though I kept waiting in vain to find some redeeming quality), and I'm not sure she ultimately serves the rhetorical purpose of exploring the book's two-career marriage theme. Like being hammered over the head, the message here is suffocatingly clear. And though I might not agree with the author that modern marriage is inherently corrupt, I do believe no one in their right mind would want to spend another moment with these two. Like them, I found myself surely "beaten" by the end of this game's match.

Ms. Shriver has again written a psychological drama and social commentary disguised as fiction. This book details the emotional life of two people both in fast-track careers of pro-tennis. Willy and Eric both exhibit the destructive and self-destructive behaviors of people who have made "Being the best" their top priority and the author uses this as the vehicle to expose the myth of "winners" and "losers" as well as exploring the tangled emotions that make up a close relationship between two people. She makes the connection that "winner" is sometimes only slightly separated from "loser" with a twist of self-confidence and luck. The bevy of characters are all very human and recognizable, twisting in their emotional quagmires, going through life the best they know how, as the rest of us do.

This is not an "easy" book to get through and it certainly is not fluffy reading but it is very well written and the insights are true gems telling of the human condition. This is not a book I could get through in one sitting, it took several months to slowly take in, one piece at a time. As with Ms. Shriver's other books the plot is almost incidental and relatively transparent, again describing "real life". It is more the way that she exposes and describes the very human interactions and emotions of the characters that take center stage. A well written book definitely worth reading.

I actually enjoyed this novel. But like other reviewers I found Willy to be unbearable and it was hard to see what her husband could love in her.

After reading "We Need to Talk About Kevin", I have become used to Shriver's obsession with detail, which I had found unnerving in the beginning. There's something about her style that is truly riveting.

I'm also interested in her penchant for male names (Willy, Lionel) for females, and her use of "the eye". To anyone who has read "Kevin", the eye reference here will be obvious. To see the "eye" theme again in "Double Fault" was disconcerting. Willy's therapist had a lazy wandering eye, that appears to emphasize his speech by its out of alignment movements. And then Willy has a run in with one of her husband's eyes ...

I have another Shriver novel on hand to read. If there is any reference to people with only one operable eye in IT, I'll be REALLY spooked!

Shriver had the courage to explore a situation where everything is not OK, which gives the book a realistic feel in places, and she deserves respect for resisting the Hollywood ending.

But I found the protagonist (Willy) so purely self-defeating, not to mention unlucky, it was unconvincing at the opposite extreme; or at the very least predictable. Of *course* she injures her knee at a critical moment. Of course the cheers Willy mistakenly thinks are for her are actually for her husband playing on an adjacent court. I kept searching for a redeeming quality in Willy's character but found none. Over the final 5/6ths of the book, she purposefully and unrelentingly sabotoges herself and everyone around her. How could anyone remain in love with this person? Why would Eric have stayed with her as long as he did?

There were some insights into professional tennis, but I couldn't trust them as many seemed implausible. In the history of the sport, has anyone started at age 18 and made it to the top 100? Would a male player in the 800's ever lose to a female player in the 300's?

The book is also depressing, which would be bearable if all the other elements were there. In this case it's just...depressing.

I haven't read other works by Shriver, and am not tempted to after suffering through this one.

A fan of Shriver's other works I kept reading Double Fault with the hope it would improve. It didn't. The main character, Willy Nijinsky, has spent her entire life trying to make it as professional tennis player. She has some limited success but is approaching retirement age without achieving her goal. She has no idea what do with her life if she isn't playing tennis. She has no other interests and no friends. Tennis isn't a game to her. Outside of tennis, Willy doesn't exist.

Oh, Willy has a husband, Eric, but his usefulness in her life ends when his tennis game becomes better than hers. Is Willy torn between the love of the game and the love of her husband? No. Her "love" for lack of a better word is tennis. Eric, the long-suffering husband, must be a masochistic to stay in this marriage.

The characters are unlikable but that is OK. I don't have to like the characters to enjoy a book. A realist story is fine too. Everything in life doesn't turn out perfectly. What really makes this a bad book is that we read the same thing page after page. It isn't necessarily to articulate Willy's dilemma over and over again. We got the first time, the second time, the third time......

This book has a lot of edge. It starts like an idyllic romance and ends like film noir. The transition occurs gracefully -- through powerful writing, a well-crafted plot, and characters who act as ugly (i.e., as human) as real people do. The guileless myth of the trouble-free two-career marriage takes a beating, but it's about time. Shriver's choice of pro tennis as the arena for the couple's professional rivalry leavens the story considerably, but also makes the pain Shriver articulates more vivid by contrast. While the author's outlook may be grim, the story is constructive because it offers a clear lesson. On the page, the tennis action is exciting and deftly conveyed, so the book reads easily. All in all, a very successful union of literary novel and psychodrama. I highly recommend this book.

Lionel Shriver has confronted the demons from her own divorce several years before and written about her life with a power and a brave intimacy that is all too rare in modern fiction these days. I am not aware of the details of her divorce, but suspect that her husband was more interested in a help mate than an equal partner, and that when it became clear that she was not about to give fulfilling his needs priority over her career the relationship imploded. This was devastating to Ms. Shriver, who has finally taken the vital step of facing and vanquishing her demons in Double Fault. She changed many outward facts but it seems clear that the psychological structure she develops, crystallizes and shatters in Double Fault must bear close resemblance to her own experience, as the final fifty pages deliver a tone and depth of language that must be genuine. We shall see more honest, stalwart, hard hitting fiction from Ms. Shriver in the future as she continues to grow and gain confidence in her considerable literary talent.

This book would be much better if it had fewer clumsy, overwrought metaphors. Still, it tells an engaging story with realistic pauses and climaxes. Shriver has a good ear for dialogue; her characters are well-developed. I own this book and have reread it several times, skipping the extraneous parts that distract from the narrative. Strong novel all in all, definitely worth reading.