Reviews

Double Fault by Lionel Shriver

milly_in_the_library's review against another edition

4.0

i really enjoy Shriver's writing, she is very clever. i found the tennis lexicon very stodgy, but this is not really a surprise as i don't
know the game at all!!

mrsfligs's review against another edition

3.0

I read this book because I immensely enjoyed two of Lionel Shriver's other books -- The Post-Birthday World and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Usually when I find a book that I like, I immediately try to find other books by the author and read them. Although I enjoyed this book, I didn't find it as intriguing or involving as her others. (And, yes, the author is a woman -- I just assumed it was a man when I began The Post-Birthday World and kept thinking "This guy can really write from a woman's point of view" but then later found out it was a woman!) Anyway, I'm not saying this is a bad book by any means...just that I didn't love it as much as the two others I have read.

This book is about a marriage and tennis. The protagonist is a semi-professional tennis player named Willy Novinsky. Willy has lived and breathed tennis since she was a young girl and has centered her whole life on being a successful professional tennis player. When she meets Eric Oberdorf during an impromptu tennis game at Riverside Park, she is intrigued by his natural talent and his good looks. He is intrigued by her. Because she's never made room in her life for romance, it seems like a match made in heaven to find a man who admires her tennis game and shares her interest in tennis. Eric begins pursuing tennis as a profession as his natural talent begins to blossom. They fall in love and marry. And things are good...until Eric's career begins to eclipse Willy's career...

At its heart, the book is about Willy's struggle to come to terms with her life ... as a wife, as a tennis player, and as a woman. I loved that she wasn't a "typical" woman that you often find in books. She is a competitive woman who wants to win. Who values tennis more than anything in the world -- possibly even her husband. Her struggle to come to terms with these issues is very interesting but painful to watch. As someone who has never been very passionate about a career, I struggled to watch Willy deal with her loss of identity as her tennis career begins to falter. Willy isn't a completely sympathetic character, and I often found myself struggling to like her. But at the end, I found myself wanting to know what the future held for her.

Although this wasn't my favorite book of Lionel Shriver's, it was a good read. If you are particularly fond of tennis, you might find even more to love about this book. All in all, I give the book a C ranking.

cansail's review against another edition

3.0

All this book was lacking was a good edit. The story is great, the writing is fantastic; but it reads like a first draft. Too much telling of stuff we already know from more subtle sources, too much expository, too much story creation on the page.

It's too bad this book didn't get the same heavy editorial hand that Shriver's excellent "The Post Birthday World" must have, because I really wanted this sports-driven book to be just as excellent.

peppercoco's review against another edition

1.0

Not a fan. Her books are very well written and the chracter portrayal is detailed and engaging. But oh my god so depressing theres nothing in this book to make you feel good at all. Depressing self absorbed people i didn't really want to read about.

kategolledge's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

sandramifsud's review against another edition

4.0

Love Tennis?
Love Reading?
Love Lionel Shriver?
You'll love this book.
OK...You'll love it, regardless.

marryallthepeople's review against another edition

1.0

I could be being unfair to this book as if I had picked it up unknowing as to whom the author is, I might have given it a better chance. Interesting that this was the book immediately before Kevin which is one of my "favourite" books of all times. Sadly, this one didn't grab me and neither did the tennis subplot.

mrbadger63's review against another edition

2.0

If the main character wasn't such a deplorable, egotistical, waste of writing this book might have been enjoyable as at least it was well written and impeccably researched. I just had absolutely no reason to care and was usually bored to tears by the same argument being reenacted between two people repeatedly to no avail

kins315's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

nocto's review against another edition

5.0

I picked this up at the library in preference to the "Kevin" book which falls into the category of books I think I might enjoy but have heard too much about from too many sources to bother with I'm talking slightly tongue in cheek but I've been disappointed by books with clouds of hype emanating from them before and so, well, I don't exactly steer clear of them or refuse to read them, but I tread carefully.

This proved to be an excellent read though. Well written on the whole. The odd sentence stopped me in my tracks with either a typo, a missing word, or some odd stressed word meaning that I couldn't make head nor tail of it.

It's the story of the relationship between two tennis players, both hoping to make it as professionals. Willy has been dreaming of playing at Wimbledon since she was five; Eric was an Ivy League mathematics major before he picked up a tennis racquet. From the title you can deduce that love's course, as ever, doesn't run smoothly.

Shriver does a great job of keeping the tension up and the plot tight. You want to keep reading because the story is so good. I was worrying about the end of the book because I was thinking back to other books which have carried me along on a wave of words and then beached me with an ending that doesn't really matter. That didn't happen here; the close of the book is as good as the rest of it, pitched at the right level.

Definitely an author to read more of.