I am not a big fan of tennis, but I heard that this biography was worth reading even for people like me who know little about the game. I do remember (vaguely) the presence of Agassi in the media when I was growing up, and some of these stories rang bells for me.
This book was extremely well-written, and does a great job of describing Agassi’s tennis career, and how he got started, kept it going, and left it. It is mixed with episodes and anecdotes from his life at the time, and it was interesting to read what things he felt were important to relate.
It is easy to get caught up in the story of his tennis career, but I think that hardcore tennis fans might have actually seen the matches that he describes which would be way more interesting for them. Sometimes matches are described in great detail, others just a quick sentence or two, but it seems like he felt nearly every one should be included, which occasionally felt repetitive to me.
There is enough writing about what happened between the big tennis matches to keep the reader interested. It is also an interesting snapshot of the pre-internet world of celebrity tennis.
It was a long book but I got enough out of it to be glad that I read it. Next I am reading The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides.
