Doubles
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Slow Smith is in a slump. He's a professional tennis player stuck in his hometown, serving to an empty court. His wife is in a coma and he's afraid he's to blame. Left behind are her Polaroids, obsessive daily records of their life together. Meanwhile Kaz, Slow's lifelong doubles partner, is traveling the world while playing with someone new.
Then one afternoon his old coach Manny appears in a dumpy Fiat convertible and persuades Slow to get in. When they return to Forest Hills — the site of a six–year winning streak — they reunite with old friends who call up long–buried desires and reveal a secret that threatens to destroy Slow's marriage as well as his friendship with Kaz.
Slow just can't win — and especially not back on the court. Turns out Kaz can't either. Theirs is a bond driven as much by odd habits as by shared life experiences — a marriage not unlike the one rendered comatose — and the only way to get their lives back on track is by playing together again.
At once hilarious and heartbreaking, Doubles serves up a tale of melancholy and redemption — both on the court and off.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brown (Floodmakers) returns with another excellent ensemble character study, this one focusing on a group of friends and lovers radiating out from former tennis doubles partners Slow and Kaz. Slow holds himself responsible for the car accident hat put his wife, Anne, in a coma, and has since hung up his racket. After months of stopgap clerical work and depression, he is rescued by his eccentric and charismatic coach, Manny, who is trying to force Slow into a reunion with his former tennis partner, Kaz. So begins an ill-fated trip to New York, where Slow contemplates returning to the game and learns heartbreaking truths about his wife, his friends, and himself. The story has far more to say about love than tennis, but it ponders a changing sport as it transitions from the world of the impeccably mannered Arthur Ashe to bad boy Andre Agassi with the same care that it examines the inner life of its characters. The result is that rare sports novel with big heart and wide appeal.
