The Tennis Partner: Amazon.de: Abraham Verghese: Englische Bücher

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Abraham Verghese's first book My Own Country was about his experiences of dealing with AIDS sufferers; this, his second, is more personal. It is the story of his friendship with David, an intern at the hospital where Verghese is a Professor of Medicine. They meet at a time when both are in need of companionship and their friendship blossoms, imperceptibly developing dependencies until their lives are enmeshed professionally and personally. However, what Verghese does not realise is that David is wrestling with an addiction to cocaine, the profession's personal demon, which engulfed him once before and is hovering again. The harrowing descent into relapse that unfolds is as painful to read as it must have been to witness, until finally death swoops with tragic inevitability, leaving a debris of spent souls trying to piece together something that defies clinical definition.

The Tennis Partner is primarily about relationships; Verghese's with David, both with their families and partners, but most of all David's with cocaine, a telling hierarchy in itself. While Verghese's tennis improves, his opponent's shaky mastery of his own destiny deteriorates as he fails to put to rest the feelings of inadequacy and shame that are his true companions, a player who can control the ball to perfection but cannot get a grip on himself. As a doctor Verghese comes across as one of the rare breed who have not been de-sensitised, pointedly seeing a person rather than an ailment. He works in internal medicine, and prides himself on piecing together a diagnosis like a detective (David revealingly lusts after the buzz of emergency medicine). As a writer he displays similar qualities, but not without a searching candour that gives his account its expressive vitality. The truth is, though, that for all his humane lyricism he can only diagnose, there seeming to be an aspect that cannot be quantified to the addictive personality that refuses release. The very least to have come from the subordinated life of a doomed young man is this brilliant and sober book, which refrains from being a morality tale, and only gains in magnificence for it. --David Vincent -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

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What is it about sports that makes some men wax as mystical as a Castanedan Yaqui? In the hands of writers such as David James Duncan and Norman Maclean, the simple, repetitive motions of baseball, fly-fishing, and golf have acquired almost numinous significance. In The Tennis Partner, Dr. Abraham Verghese takes on his own fascination with tennis and comes up with as good an explanation as any: "In the way we controlled the movement of a yellow ball in space, 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 one day add up to an Aaron's rod, an Aladdin's lamp, a magic carpet. Each time we played, this feeling of restoring order, of mastery, was awakened."

For both Verghese and his tennis partner, a fourth-year medical student named David Smith, the game is a much-needed island of order in the midst of personal chaos. Both men are struggling to rebuild their lives, Verghese undergoing a painful divorce, Smith struggling with an intravenous cocaine addiction. For a brief, idyllic period, their friendship flourishes; Verghese mentors Smith in the examining room, while Smith, an Australian who competed briefly on the pro circuit, ends up Verghese's teacher on the court. But there are dark corners to David's personality, and under the mounting pressures of medical school and his increasingly complicated love life, these come to the fore. Even as he learns how to inhabit his new life, Verghese watches with horror as his friend relapses, dries out, then relapses again. The author of the powerful My Own Country, a chronicle of caring for AIDS patients in rural Tennessee, Verghese once again proves that the skills of a good doctor are strikingly similar to those of a good writer. Careful observation, compassion, restraint: these are the instruments Verghese uses to stunning effect in The Tennis Partner. A paean to the healing powers of tennis, this book is also a moving meditation on friendship, fatherhood, love, addiction, and the particular loneliness of physicians. --Mary Park -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Tennis, Medicine and personal relationships 27. Mai 2000

Von R. Spell

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

This was an interesting emotional read about a man evolving emotionally through his relationships. Unfortunately, the first part of the book is very slow until the tennis partner, David, discloses his personal weakness. As a tennis player with no interest in medical study, I learned quite a lot. The payoff of the emotional ending is worth the read. This book is not entertaining but thought provoking and guaranteed to make you evaluate your personal relationships and interaction with loved ones. I recommend this book for those interested in evaluating their emotional capacity.

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More literary that first book 22. Mai 2000

Von Jenny B. Davis

Format:Taschenbuch

I am a huge Verghese fan; I have both books and try to keep up with his freelance work. This book is better crafted than his first, giving more insight into his emotional journey and that of his tennis partner. But I have to admit, I skimmed the parts where waxes on about tennis. If you check the credits at the back, you'll find many of these "mini-essays" began as magazine articles before he folded them into his story. But his indulgences don't ruin the read--there was more than enough to enjoy.

Thoughtful and insightful 29. Januar 2000

Von Jill S. Jones

As a fan of Dr. Verghese's "My Own Country", I was intrigued by this topic, obviously a departure and a deeply personal memoir, when I first decided to buy "The Tennis Partner". I think enjoyment of this book requires the ability to realize that he is searching for answers regarding the addiction of his friend, a situation which boggles the mind of someone who has not struggled with the same problem. I admire his research into the world of drug addiction and the beauty of his attempts to explain his insights into David's world, actually into David's mind. There didn't seem to be a resolution for his search to understand David, but it seems this book was Dr. Verghese's method of paying tribute to his friend and probably therapeutic way to deal with his loss. The tennis descriptions were an interesting way to tell this story. I like the way he showed the tennis partnership interwoven with getting to know and understand David. To me, Dr. Verghese seemed at a loss to come to grips with what could be happening inside David to cause such destruction in a life of promise. Dr. Verghese even seemed to be unfamiliar with the whole addiction and recovery process, as he was sucked into the life of a dependent so far as to be an enabler of sorts. I admire him for putting his thoughts and experiences together, and exploring his own attitude toward drug abuse.