Tennis and the Meaning of Life: A Literary Anthology of the Game
In his introduction to this enjoyable pastiche of stories, novel segments and poems about tennis, Jennings admits that the title is "exaggerated and ironic," but then goes on to express his hope that the book will explain the relationship of tennis to the meaning of existence, after all. It doesn't, but wide-ranging selections do reveal the meaning of tennis to its many fans, demonstrating how the game resonates with the undercurrents of life. Roger Angell's "Tennis," for instance, is a vision of a suburban father-son struggle for dominance on the courts that comes to a sharp and beautifully simple revelation, while Irwin Shaw's "Mixed Doubles" explores a marriage through the perceptive eyes of a disenchanted wife. In a lighter vein, humorous pieces, like Ring Lardner's dialect-mangling "Tennis by Cable," are numerous and most welcome. A lengthy passage from Lolita suffers from being unmoored from its context, however, as do other novel excerpts. Few of the 24 poems match the quality of the 22 prose selections. One exception is Galway Kinnell's On the Tennis Court at Night ("We step out on the green rectangle/ in moonlight; the titles glow,/ which for many have been the only lines of justice..."). While this collection won't convert nonbelievers, it's a good bet for the faithful.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.