Word: feinstein
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HARD COURTS by John Feinstein; Villard; 457 pages...
That's the sort of question a certified tennis nut asks himself halfway through Hard Courts, John Feinstein's long and relentless examination of the men's and women's pro-tennis tours. If the game's mood is as brackish and the players are as egomaniacal as this guy says, what am I doing here? It's a grouchy, spoilsport question, whose answer probably is that tennis watching is for those of us who always wanted to throw our oatmeal on the floor when we were little but were afraid the referee would default...
...tennis pros of both sexes are petulant, greedy children. Yes, their agents, management execs, tournament directors and manufacturers' reps have the fresh, openhearted appeal of plant lice. No doubt Andre Agassi's extensive entourage is as pompous and absurd as Feinstein says, and somehow it is not startling to hear that the parents of young French Open winner Michael Chang are widely unloved. But there's more to world-class tennis than posturers and connivers, and Feinstein, who covered tennis for the recently defunct sports daily, the National, misses the the joy of the game almost completely...
...when character rules the game's flow and the flow ruthlessly illuminates character. Bud Collins gave us such narration in his wonderfully lighthearted 1989 memoir, My Life with the Pros, and John McPhee wrote the classic tennis portraits (of Clark Graebner and Arthur Ashe) in Levels of the Game. Feinstein had the opportunity to write a book that would stand with these, but he is flat where he should be funny, and unevocative where he should sketch scenes...
...fifth the 270 needed to capture the White House. Despite a lack of charisma so glaring that the Los Angeles Times recently dubbed him Robopol, Wilson, 57, knows how to carry California. He has won three tough statewide elections, including a 49%-46% defeat of feisty Democrat Dianne Feinstein in last year's Governor's race...