This book was exquisite. I devoured every last second of all 18 hours of it on audio. It is not read by the author, because quite frankly I think it was published before that was the trend. (Thankfully so, because not every writer is an orator imho.) At first I wanted to hear this read by Agassi himself, but before long it didn’t matter, because the narrator was excellent. His voice became easily Agassi’s voice in my mind as I listened. I found myself anticipating the train rides not because I’d be heading home from work for the day, but because I’d be listening to this story unfold.

The descriptions of the tennis matches are so detailed, it’s as if you are right there watching. There is such a great span of opponents described throughout the years, and each name brings you directly to that place and time in the history of the sport. This was the most in depth I’ve ever seen into the psyche of a pro tennis player (with some rudimentary knowledge having been a player in high school myself), but it’s incredible to hear it described from Agassi’s perspective. The relationships with his team- his brother, coaches and trainers, allowed them to become characters in the story rather than just names you might remember from the Agassi era. The story is raw, delivered with brutal honesty, and yet does not come off at all woeful. (“Woe is me” is not a flavor I find captivating in a memoir.) The non-tennis memories unravel in the subplot, and rightfully so. They hold their place there naturally and serve their purpose giving context to each phase of Agassi’s life and career. I found myself tearing up a few times, not the least of which was when Andre describes Steffi Graf and the love they share.

Before I decided to read this book, I wasn’t sure how I would feel. When I was growing up and avidly following tennis, it was in the era of one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the sport - Sampras/Agassi. As a young teenager I was smitten with Pete and his lanky figure, his dark hair and eyes and his big bushy eyebrows, and the way he’d wipe the sweat from them with the back of his thumb in between each point of his service games. I also greatly admired his game, his seemingly flawless attack of serve and volley. Nothing I could dream to emulate (I lacked any sort of net game) but still I sided with Sampras. Maybe it was because I was only a baby when Agassi was in his long hair bad boy phase. When I saw Agassi as a teen, I saw a gruff, bald scrambler. So what if he could get to every ball if the best thing about his game was his return? Defense? Bor-ing. Chalk it up to typical teenage naivety, though it may be true he probably would have been a better idol, whose style I could at least aim to emulate.

“What would be said of this rivalry in this book?”, I thought to myself as I toyed with the idea of using my audible credit. “If I was on Pete’s side, shouldn’t I do some research to see if he has an autobiography, and just read that instead? Will I really even care about what Agassi has to say? Will I want to hear his point of view? Will he badmouth Pete?”

All these swirling thoughts, and I can tell you now, I am 100% certain it was a good decision to read this book. I’m a bit older and wiser, my love for Pete hasn’t lessened (I’ll let you decide for yourself how you feel about Agassi’s portrayal of Sampras and the rivalry...) but my respect for Agassi has risen to a level of enormous heights.

I highly recommend this book to any fan of tennis, even just the casual observers. If you know nothing about tennis, I still recommend this book and I promise you will leave it seeing the sport in a new light.

I can hardly think of what I’ll read next that could possibly measure up to this, so I might need to linger a moment with this book hangover.