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Tennis Books With A Strong Serve
A former tennis prodigy tries to save the family house in a novel and an editor takes up the game in a memoir
No book can match the thrill of watching live-action tennis on Centre Court with royal family members on hand and spectators enjoying strawberries and clotted cream. But two books, one fiction and one nonfiction, may take the edge off Wimbledon withdrawal syndrome as the tournament winds down.
‘The Carriage House’ by Louisa Hall
An old joke says: “Why do tennis players make bad spouses? Because love means nothing to them.”
That quip at first seems to describe William Adair, a former club tennis champion on the Philadelphia Main Line, in a novel of suburban manners inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
Will at first entrusts the care of his wife with early-onset Alzheimer’s to a devious Australian aide. But he begins to change after he has a stroke. Then his three adult daughters carry on his fight to save from demolition a decaying family carriage house that neighbors see as a rodent-infested eyesore.
Can William hold on to a cherished symbol of his once-grand clan? If not, what can replace it in his affections?
