Review: Open

I feel like every other post I write anymore goes something like this: "Wow, it's been a really long time since my last post. My life is so sad and lonely, I don't feel like writing anymore because I'm simply never able to get excited about anything."

Ladies and gentleman, that ship has sailed. I've never been one for non fiction of any sort, let alone autobiographies, but Andre Agassi's book Open is one of the best things I've read in a long time. I started reading it over the Easter weekend, and it brought me comfort in the few little windows of time I had to dedicate to it during an extremely frustrating week. Even when I wasn't reading Open, I was thinking about it, plotting how I could squeeze a precious 20 minutes of reading time into my incredibly stressful days. Do you realize how long it's been since I've felt that way about a book??!!

If you follow Magic Lantern regularly, you know that I'm kind of obsessed with tennis. I love the neat, Russian nesting doll-structure of the game, the amazing psychological strength one has to possess to be good at it, and most of all the way the athletes' personalities shine through so strongly on the court. It seems pretty safe to say that few tennis players have ever showed as much personality on the court as Andre Agassi. When I first started REALLY following tennis, Agassi was one of the oldest, and most respected players out there; he was on the final run of his career, and I was consistently moved by the amount of heart he exhibited on the court. More than anyone else, he appeared to possess a deep love for the game - why else would one continue to plug away that (relatively) late in life?

As a result, I was kind of surprised to read that Andre claims to hate the game. Despite the fact that it's incredibly understandable he should feel that way considering what his father put him through as a kid, and despite the fact that this point is constantly reinforced throughout book, I never truly bought it. And I'm really not sure if you're supposed to, anyway. No matter how fascinating it is to hear Agassi's true feelings about people like Brooke Shields, Pete Sampras, and Jimmy Conners, the best parts of Open are when he dissects the matches that defined his career (in particular a nail-biting five setter against Blake I still to this day feel privileged to have watched.) It's intriguing to have that sort of insight into what that players themselves go through.

I was kind of disappointed to find out that Agassi himself did not actually write Open, yet I suppose that shouldn't come as a great surprise given he dropped out of school after grade nine. What is incredibly endearing, however, (I refuse to use the word redemptive), is the passion with which he wishes to save other children from this fate. His academy in Las Vegas allows underprivileged youth the chance to receive a top notch education and have a real opportunity to go to college. Fitting, since it is contradictions that ultimately drive this book - and arguably Andre's career itself.