The Tennis Partner

Author:   Abraham Verghese

One-sentence summary: Two men find friendship in each other at crucial times in their lives, but one’s addiction proves too strong for even that friendship to overcome.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating:  7

Our favorite thing about it:  The writing and imagery.

Our least favorite thing about it:  The story was hard to get into for some and hit a “monotone” note.

Main Topics of Discussion: Addiction, Friendship, Relationships, Honesty, Emotional Pain

Our favorite quote: “We were imposing order on a world that was fickle and capricious. Each ball that we put into play, for as long as it went back and forth between us, felt like a charm to be added to a necklace full of spells, talismans, and fetishes, which would one day add up to an Aaron’s rod, and Aladdin’s lamp, a magic carpet. Each time we played, this feeling of restoring order, of mastery, was awakened.” (p.279)

Notes:  This novel immediately evokes Verghese’s writing style and voice that was very familiar to us from a previous read…Cutting for Stone. He likes to use medical metaphors and descriptions for things, which are really quite beautiful. His writing style is one of the best things about the book. It is lyrical, yet practical and approachable.

This tale of friendship between two adult men was new territory for us as women. Hearing the honesty with which Abraham describes his feelings and friendship with David was enlightening and interesting. Our group was split in two over whether this friendship was healthy or not. The discussion on this point was really good as we all drew from our own reading experience as well as our life experiences to form our opinions.

The insight into AIDS medicine and drug addictions, especially for doctors, was also very interesting. Verghese has a way of speaking about medicine that is very technical, and yet very easy to read. The intricate descriptions about tennis, however, were a little too technical for us. Even those of us who know about tennis and have played it were bored by it.

Overall, we enjoyed this book very much, but were not as impressed with the story line as with the amazing story in Cutting for Stone. The writing was beautiful and easy, but the tennis stuff was over our heads. The exploration in to friendship in these circumstances was the central theme of the book and it was executed quite well.

 

Memorable Meeting Moments:  This was our first meeting at Christina's house! Amberly received her birthday cards and books. Lindsay let us know that getting a dog is easier than having a baby or getting a pony, and other things…

What We Ate:  A delicious Mexican casserole with salad and chips. And four kinds of ice cream for dessert!