Customer Reviews

Martina: The Lives and Times of Martina Navratilova

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Here both the glorious victories and the struggles of Martina Navratilova are told sparing no detail. Author Adrianne Blue rightly praises her subject for all the tough challenges she has had to overcome and lets us see for ourselves how remarkable this true champion is. I have always admired Navratilova as a player and used to try to imitate her style in the return of serve (but I lacked the sheer power to make it work). I once met her and she was every bit as gracious as a teenager could ever want someone she admired to be. With all that in mind, it's easy to see why I was drawn to this book and why I found the stories of the oncourt victories and offcourt challenges met and overcome to be so inspirational. Martina, when weighed strictly in light of her career on the courts should be an A-list athletic celebrity, but as this book tells, she has had to fight against a number of prejudices just to merit a modicum of popular acclaim. Even Martina's very prowess at times seem to work against her and crowds sometimes booed her victories over bubbly Chris Evert, then the most popular female athlete in the US. I found this book to be both a criticism of the unlevel playing field that still exists in America today and also a celebration of tennis' all-time greatest champion, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to find out more about Martina Navratilova, professional sports, or the undercurrents of exclusion that make it clear winning is not all there is to pop culture acceptance.

The book had interesting tid-bits about Martina's emotional struggle to win in tennis and some details about her personal life. The reader is taken chronologically through her life from her defection to the US, to her rise on the circuit, and then her slow decline into history. The book was average, a little dry and boring at times. The author did a poor job at capturing and projecting Martina's greatness as a woman first and foremost and also as a tennis player.

This is a must read. It is a real interesting story. Well written and amazing. I really enjoyed it.