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You Cannot Be Serious

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John McEnroe was a freshman at Stanford during my last year of graduate school. He joined the top ranked team in the nation and as a freshman became the star of the team and led them to a national championship and an undefeated season. He left to turn pro after his freshman year. Yet this could have been expected. Before arriving on the scene at Stanford he made a miraculous run as a junior reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon! All this and more is detailed in this book.

The book is basically a look at McEnroe's life, how he was involved in sports at an early age and actually liked team sports like basketball better than tennis. This and his natural patriotism explain why he played Davis Cup so much and encouraged others to do the same.

Most of the book deals with his childhood friendships and his ascension in the tennis ranks to his run as the number one player in tennis. He describes his great matches and you get an inside look at what led to his great victories and his agonizing defeats. He even replays as best he can his terrible fold to Lendl in the only French Open he really should have won.

Part of his purpose in writing this book is to give you a look at what was going on inside him when he had his infamous tirades on the tennis court. He reveals the New Yorker inside of him and his inability to control his temper. Contrary to what many think this was not something that he did for advantage. McEnroe felt that these outburst hurt his matches as much as it helped him. He also usually felt bad or guilty about it afterwards.

John McEnroe is an intelligent and complex person and that comes out if you read this book closely. Late in the book you get a glimpse at his personal life. His marriage to Tatum O'Neill and the problems that led to their stormy divorce. Unlike what most people think, he does not blame her for the problems and does accept some of the responsibility. But he definitely wants to dispell the notion that he tried to hold back her acting career in favor of his tennis career.

We also get a glimpse of his second marriage to Patty Smyth and how his attempts with his own rock band nearly caused problems in that marriage.

McEnroe seems to be a much more content soul these days. He has his tennis commentating and received the honor of Davis Cup captain and induction into the Tennis Hall of Fame that were oviously very satisfying achievements. Still it seems that he wants to change his public personna. The bad boy image is not something he is proud of and this book and his recently unsuccessful TV quiz show seem to be attempts to reconstruct his image. He also has a very good sense of humor which comes across in this book as well as in his TV commercials

McEnroe is an enigma. He was certainly one of the greatest tennis players of all time, a joy to watch in his prime for his extraordinary skill. His behavior was abominable sometimes, just plain out-of-line by most standards. Many people have written him off as worthy of no respect for that reason, yet he really was a great player, is now the best male commentator on TV (in my opinion), and a very altruistic person, (he is one of the top charity fund raisers in the tennis world.) If I remember correctly, he was honored as father of the year in his native New York recently.

In this book, he speaks for himself. He doesn't forgive his behavior or suggest it was appropriate, and he does apologize. Yet, it is easier to see his many sides. He talks about being so alone on the tennis court. He loved Davis Cup partly because it was a team sport. I've always thought he was such a strong person, able to take the unpopular stand on things, but reading his own words, he comes across as remarkably insecure and craving approval. The public adulation of being #1 was his motivation more than an innate love of playing tennis. I find that amazing.

I am a tennis player and fan, and I try hard to separate great achievers from their personal beliefs and private lives. This book helped me to understand the man, the person, the little boy, the young adult with extraordinary skills who found himself pulled into a fantastic world where he was supremely successful but lacked the character to achieve greatness in all areas. At least he is open about that. This is his point of view, and he deserves his say. The book is well written, I feel like I just had a nice long conversation with this remarkable person.

When McEnroe was a freshman at Stanford, I was in my last year of graduate school there. He joined the top ranked college tennis team and became the star as a freshman. He led Stanford to another national championship and an undefeated season. Then he turned pro after his freshman year. This was disappointing at Stanford but should have been expected. Before arriving on the scene at Stanford he made a miraculous run at Wimbledon reaching the semi-finals as a junior tennis player! All this and more is discussed in detail in this book.

This book basically takes a not too serious look at McEnroe's life, how he was involved in sports at an early age and actually liked team sports such as basketball better than tennis. His natural patriotism explains why he played Davis Cup so much and encouraged others to do the same.

Much of the book deals with his childhood friendships and his ascension in the tennis ranks all the way through his run as the number 1 player in the world. He describes many of his classic matches and you get a glimpse of what was going on in his mind during his great victories at Wimbledon and agonizing defeats (e.g. Lendl at the French Open).

Part of the reason for writing the book was to give the reader an inside look at what was going on during his infamous tirades on the tennis court. He reveals his New York upbringing and his inability to control his temper. Later on in the book we get to see some of the personal side. Inspite of the stormy divorce to Tatum O'Neal, John does not display animosity toward her in this book and he actually accepts part of the blame for the break-up. But he definitely wants to dispell the notion that he tried to hold her back in her acting career in favor of her supporting his tennis.

You also get a glimpse at his second and apparently very successful marriage to the rock star Patty Smyth. You also see how his attempts at leading his own rock group caused some turmoil in that marriage.

McEnroe is a very intelligent and complex person. His intelligence and tennis skills are often overlooked or played down by tennis fans because of his notorious cry baby attitude that he displayed so prominently on the court. His tantrums were accepted and tolerated by tennis officials because of his great success and the interest it brought to tennis. But he was a poor role model that others copied. He was not the first though. Remember Ille Nastase!

McEnroe seems to be much more content these days. He has been a successful tennis commentator and received the honor of being named the US team's Davis Cup captain and was elected into the Tennis Hall of Fame. These were obviously very satisfying achievements. Still it seems that he wrote this book to help change his public personna. He is not happy with his bad boy image and by writing this book and hosting a TV quiz show he hopes to show a different side of him as he reconstructs his image. He has a very good sense of humor that comes through in the book as well as in some of his recent TV commercials.

I also found it interesting to hear about his relaionship with Mary Carillo. They both are tennis commentators now. Also John's brother Patrick has made his mark on the tennis world, not through his mediocre fennis career but for his estute commentator, more insightful than his brother John and his success as a Davis Cup captain who brought the cup back to the USA this year.

If you're a tennis player and have been following McEnroe since he was a kid, you might enjoy this book. I am, I have, and I did. But for most people, the book may be slightly disappointing. It's pretty heavy on recounting the results of past matches, and doesn't have as many interesting insights as I would have expected, especially considering that I find McEnroe as a commentator to be uniquely insightful and compelling.

I got the sense that, while McEnroe did write about some personal stuff, like his marriage to Tatum O'Neill, he was less open than he could have been. I don't blame him for wanting to hold back -- I wouldn't want my life to be an open book. But if you're writing a book about yourself and your life, that's sort of the point.

So if you would share McEnroe's nostalgia about the Port Washington Tennis Academy and his various matches up and down the ranks of the tennis world, go ahead and get this book. But if you're not a serious McEnroe/tennis fan, you might be better off just listening to McEnroe on TV.

I became interested in tennis watching Jimmy Conners, Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe play tennis. My brother and I would go to the park on US Open and Wimbleton weekends and pretend we were the different pros while playing our mildly [bad] matches. I was a fan on McEnroe's but it was always kind of a love/hate relationship because I saw my childish self in him. I was a bit petulant myself when I played sports but, on the other hand, I was always embarrassed by my behavior and wished I could control it. I guess I projected some of these feelings onto McEnroe.

It was nice, therefore, to read his book. To be honest, I really didn't know much about him and it was interesting to get a look at how he became a tennis star. And interesting to see what he did with his fame. Let's face it, people like McEnroe get to do a lot more than those of us who work for a living and it's fun to live vicariously through them. This isn't a book filled with shocking revelations, if that's what you're looking for, but it is a real romp at times.

I tend to read autobiographies as opposed to biographies. I think it's usually more fun to read what a person has to say about themselves as opposed to what others have to say about them. A person writing about their own life has an agenda, of course, just like any biographer but this just tells you even more about them. In this book, despite the help from Mr. Kaplan, McEnroe sounds like McEnroe. And that's what I wanted to read. If you are a fan, you should definitely take a look.

I was very disappointed in this autobiography that read more like an unauthorized biography without ANY juicy details written by someone who was NOT given access to his subject.

If you didn't know who John McEnroe was or whom he married or how acrimoniously it ended, you would come away from this book with an unsympathetic portrait of a petulant, unpleasant, lonely man, a man who could have been ANY tennis player, not the number one player in the world. You would come away with many (MANY) descriptions of tennis plays (!!!) of twenty years past, meaningless descriptions of tennis action you could have read in the New York Post, and probably have. In the photo of his first win at Wimbledon, he is down on his knees. In the book he says, "and I had my first Wimbledon." Whoopie.

John McEnroe emerges as a person who was miserable when he was number one in the world, miserable when he was down, miserable when he was alone, and miserable when he was married. His tennis career, his first wedding, the anticipation and the birth of his children, his early fathering, his split with Tatum, all show him to be wretched and unhappy. He is a man who didn't seem to enjoy anything, not his God given talent, not his thousands of tennis matches, not his friends, not his materially comfortable life. If he did enjoy it, he doesn't show us, though he does TELL us many times how much he loves his kids--while being away from them more than half the year.

The book is dishonest because McEnroe keeps all the good scenes of his life to himself. His day to day life, what his relationship with Tatum was like before it soured, the workings of his failed marriage, his own drug use, his wife's drug use, what it was like to be a father yet travel thirty weeks of the year, and who took care of his kids (was it Tatum? Was it the nanny?) Why Tatum was not a good mother, how her motherhood and his fatherhood manifested itself, how her drug use manifested itself (did she use drugs? If you yawn, you'll miss the sentence where he says so) all these are hidden from the reader. Perhaps he doesn't feel it's his place to divulge such private details about himself and other people in his life. Then what in the world did he write an autobiography for? Those are best written when one is not afraid of showing the reader what one's life was really like, perhaps when one is much much older . As it is, McEnroe is so afraid he only alludes to his own drug use ("don't ask," he says) alludes to his promiscuity while single and his faithlessness while married. What he tells us about the details of his life is more superficial than an Enquirer article. Even in descriptions of his own verbal abuse antics on the court, he TELLS us he was abusive, but he shows little and remains so afraid of being indiscreet or offensive, he even uses asterisks in the few places where he attempts to show us what expletives he used in humiliating the umpires! In this book he concentrates on telling us tennis play by plays, teling us how abominably he acted on the court, calling himself an idiot, proceeding to act abominably, ad nauseam. There is very little here that is more than People magazine trite.

But there are some things here: His utter inability to rejoice in the athletic or personal successes of his friends and his brothers, his black jealousy when it comes to his best friend finding love or beating a hated tennis adversary, his stunted and stunning tantrums, and his lifelong inability, even while acknowledging these demons, to exorcise them. Those things are here. Frightening and unlikable, boring and shallow, and sad, that's McEnroe and his book.

To be honest, I was never a big fan of McEnroe. Sure, he was an amazing tennis player and it was a joy to watch him play. Until he opened his mouth! But in recent years, I had begun to admire his commentating style. He had insite into the game, and wonderful behind-the-scenes stories which made watching a match much more enjoyable.

I purchased this book hoping there would be something that would find me liking him for the player he was all those years ago. Unfortunately, what I found was what a lot of other reviewers found - an ego the size of Texas and an astonishing lack of remorse or repentance for his inexcusable behavior while on the court. I have never heard so many excuses in my life. For every emotional explosion or match he lost there was, to quote him, "reasons, not excuses." It takes a mature man to be able to say "I played a bad match" and leave it at that. He just doesn't seem capable of doing that. Unfortunately, this book is really nothing more than 300 pages of Mac trying to explain to us why we shouldn't hold him accountable for his actions and/or losses - that we should blame the conditions surrounding them instead as he so obviously does.

This is a very breezy and elliptical biography that doesn't scratch the top layer of whomever John McEnroe is. The kinds of insights here are what you'd expect strangers at a dinner party to gladly reveal of themselves without provocation (much less twenty bucks).

I mean, John McEnroe was arguably the most charismatic athlete of the 20th century. But I'm reading his book and feeling that he missed out on the entire train ride himself. I'd have loved for some real insight on what it was like to be such a competitor and to keep come out winning -- sometimes despite yourself. How did that work for him? At what cost? We're not told. He never reveals what was going on inside his head when he would melt down on court or what he was like preparing for matches. He'll tell you that he used to cry when he lost, but not what he was thinking. He authors the story as though all of his achievements and misdeeds just burst out of the blue. He sounds so passive. He doesn't attempt to account for who he is.

There's no life or excitement to this book. Perhaps this explains for the gratuitous insertions of exclamation points to tart-up the otherwise turgid prose. Like this!

I'm very disappointed in this book. If you're going to write an autobiography, then say something to the reader who is (presumably) already interested in your life that will enlighten his knowledge of you. I don't know where to strike the balance between this remote and reserved style of biography and a heart-on-the-sleeve tearjerking tell-all. But you know what? That's not my job. Game. Set. Match.

As a teen in the 80's and an avid tennis fan and player; "Mac" was my idol because he was an extraordinary athlete and he just said what was on his mind - "there's got to be the-someone-so-called 'Bad Boy' of tennis and it might as well be me." I could not put this book down and read the entire book within one day. The best parts of the book was when Mac discussed his ascent onto the professional circuit circa 1977 to his domination in 1984. I enjoyed how he broke down the key matches with Borg, Lendl, Becker, and Connors. Mac's attitude is reflected as to who he genuinely respects..Borg, Vilas, Sampras, Agassi, and Peter Fleming; Who he despises...Lendl, Becker, Connors, Bill Scanlon, Brad Gilbert, and the Williams Sisters; and who he feels sympathy for...Vitas, Frank Hammond, and his brother, Patrick (!).
I was hoping for more direct Mac-level commentary and more insight on his interpersonal conflicts on and after the tour. I've seen Mac much more candid when he was interviewed on Letterman several times and I just felt he didn't 100% say what was on his mind about the players, the current state of tennis, and what he viewed as essential for tennis to survive. I also thought the sections about his romance(s) could have been handled better - forget the romances; we want to hear the conflict and the thought processes of a still impressive athlete and entertaining and interesting individual!

John Patrick McEnroe, born in 1959, was the world's best player between 1980 and 1984. He has won 76 singles titles, of which 7 Grand Slam, and 76 doubles titles. Nowadays he is one of the best (perhaps even the best) tennis commentator.

In this book McEnroe discusses his childhood, his rise to tennis fame and success, his fantastic 1980 and 1981 Wimbledon-finals against Bjorn Borg, his marriage to actress Tatum O'Neal, becoming a father (eventually six times!), his slow slide down the rankings, his divorce from Tatum O'Neal, his rock 'n roll career, the start of his art gallery in New York, meeting his second wife Patty Smyth, and being a father of six children. He also discusses his current work as tennis commentator for both US and UK television.

Although I am/was a huge John McEnroe-fan I am slightly disappointed with this autobiography. Yes, it does shine some light on the magical tennis player, but it does not go very deep. There are not many details and he remains mostly at the surface. In all honesty, he comes across as selfish and childish (for example: his divorce from Tatum O'Neal was her fault, his slide down the tennis rankings was also not his own fault.) Just like some other readers I expected more as that is what autobiographies are about. However, for John McEnroe-fans like myself it is a MUST.