The Tennis Partner

Worth reading. Good look into dynamics of addiction and impact on those around the user. Verghese is an engaging author and captures the attention of the reader quickly. While not light, the issues he tackles are real.

Verghese's fiction is totally enjoyable and this non-fiction offering was just as great. He writes from his soul...I feel like I'm living the events with him. As an author, he gives the reader so much. As soon as I'd finished the book, I had to share it with friends.

Whether or not you have a background in medicine, this book will draw you in and keep you interested. The only parts that may seem a bit tedious to run through are some of the tennis sequences. This may seem odd coming from a tennis player, but reading about tennis is like watching grass grow. However, the sequences do bring other parts of the book together, and they are tolerable.

My only other issue is Verghese's constant romanticizing of El Paso, neighboring Juarez, and their inhabitants. Having lived here for almost three years (*and* having worked as a physician in the hospital he mentions in his novel), I can promise you that the innocence, the bluster, and the graciousness of his side characters is almost completely fictional.

I don't think it would have detracted from the book to portray the city and the people more realistically.

The Tennis Partner is, in some ways, more revealing of the author than even My Own Country, which I liked a bit better. But for the reader who has found Cutting for Stone an addictive read, this is also worth the time.

Verghese can turn phrases adroitly and sprinkles some deep insights through the book - especially having to do with addictive personalities. But the book is unfocused. It has no central theme that integrates the field of concerns: addiction, infatuation, the culture of the medical profession, the city and community of El Paso, domestic dysfunction, tennis... The book reads as though the author attempted to dump his diary entries into a single story which may or may not be autobiographical and then shake it up and let the pieces fall where they may. And to this reader none of the characters is likable. In fact they are either unlikable (especially David, the object of Verghese's infatuation) or are potentially likable but brushed off with rapid and disingenuous descriptive passages (i.e., the two sons, the ex-wife, even one of the two lovers - Emily). So David dies. Who cares?

I was really disappointed by this book. I continued to read it, thinking it would improve. I was so impressed by cutting for stone that I was expecting the same level of writing. However, the story dragged on and was almost predictable.

This book arrived to me without a cover, and lacking any sort of invoice therein. Aside from that, the book appears to be in good shape, and I am very much looking forward to reading the story! Dr Verghese is a wonderful writer, a terrific read. I have read his 2 other books (My Own Country ; Cutting for Stone), and have thoroughly enjoyed the way he depicts his stories, and developes his characters.

This was a complete disappointment. The first two books, by this author, were really well-written and good stories. This one, however, was BORING. I skipped through the whole thing, read the last chapter, then threw the book away. The doctor's obsession with this young man was unrealistic, boring, and repetitive as were the myriad of tennis games they played. Maybe someone who is a tennis buff would find this interesting but who really cares. I did not and am so sorry that I spent money purchasing "boredom". I would think that the doctor would have so much to write about with his experience and background. Not a thing about this book was engaging. I'll think twice before purchasing another book written by this author. I feel "duped".

I purchased this book because of editorial reviews. I found it so boring I couldn't even get half way through it. I guess if you are a tennis fan it would be interesting. Otherwise, it plods thru at such a boringly slow pace that I just had to put it down, something I never do. The backround stories about the narrator's life growing up were just as tedious as imagining the sound of a tennis ball bouncing back and forth, over and over and over... Sorry I bought it. I've donated it to a charity, so maybe someone else will find it interesting.

The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese

Abraham Verghese Is a fabulous writer.

Wimbeldon is played in July, and all TVs in the house have the low phat, phat of the tennis balls echoing out over our family 4th of July celebrations. I do my best to ignore it all.

I don’t understand tennis. I’ve never had the desire to learn about it.

I thought I’d be skipping over the tennis parts in this book, but Verghese’s writing is so well done I read every word. In his book, tennis is more than tennis. It’s a metaphor for a relationship. A difficult, rewarding, maddening and disappointing relationship with his friend and tennis partner, Dr. David Smith.

The two men met a crisis point in both their lives. They developed a bromance that at times seemed like a dysfunctional marriage. Verghese was Smith’s mentor and teacher in the hospital, and Smith was Verghese’s mentor and teacher on the tennis court.

Smith was a recovering cocaine addict, twice married and divorced, and still unable to see himself as a worthy human being. Verghese was in the process of divorce and soon was fully enveloped in codependent relationship with Smith.

Verghese is at his finest as a writer when he describes his style of patient care. As he examines a patient you feel as though you, too, are at the bedside, palpating pulses and listening to pleural rubs. He’s excellent as well when he describes the confusing emotions of falling into the vortex of David’s tumultuous life.
If you know an addict, you will find that Verghese fully describes the puzzling characteristics of a user: the crazy lack of reasoning, the blaming, the
promises, the deflecting, the running away from relationships. And you feel the pain in both David and Abraham.
The scene of Abraham at the morgue will break your heart.

The book grips you all the way through to the tragic end. All good books linger in your psyche. This one will haunt you. Like Verghese, I find myself thinking of David at odd moments. And like him, I wonder: Why?

This is a wonderful story about how human connection - call it love, call it friendship - can save us from our darkest selves - but not always.

Abraham Verghese's earlier memoir, "My Own Country", about being "the AIDS doctor" in a Tennessee community, was a great read, just a bit too heavy on the medical side, perhaps. "The Tennis Partner" finds Verghese making a new start in El Paso, TX, with new issues: his marriage, already weakening in Tennessee, is now definitely on the rocks, and the friend who helps him battle out his demons on the tennis court is revealed as a recovering cocaine addict with a history of relapsing under pressure.

Verghese balances this book perfectly between his life in hospital as a medical resident, his struggles to create a new life as a single while maintaining his role as father, and his love of tennis. The games with his friend and student, David Smith, together with vignettes and quotes of historic tennis greats, provide a thematic counterpoint to Verghese's personal and professional challenges.

Neither of these men is perfect. Verghese is honest about his own weaknesses as a husband and as a professional, and his picture of David Smith is fully real - David is charismatic, gifted, but fatally flawed. The discipline of the tennis court alternates with the requirements of the hospital as a frame for the growth of their friendship - David is the better tennis player, while Verghese is the senior resident in the hospital. Gradually, through the repeated encounters on and off the tennis court, a friendship emerges between Verghese and Smith - not a bromance, as both protagonists are firmly heterosexual - but a friendship based on mutual need, mutual interest, and mutual benefit.

Books by American authors about male friendship tend to be awkward, poisoned by a deep-seated fear of appearing to be in any way homo-sexual. Perhaps it is Verghese's Indo-Ethiopian heritage that allows him to escape this limitation. I'm holding back from giving you too many details, because I don't want to steal your pleasure in discovering them as you read this book . And I do want you to read this book.

Abraham Verghese is a doctor who specializes in internal medicine and pulmonary infectious diseases. He is doing well professionally, but his marriage is falling apart. He decides to make a change by moving to El Paso, where he becomes a staff member at the Texas Tech School of Medicine.

David Smith is a medical student recovering from a drug addiction. He comes to Texas on a tennis scholarship and played on the pro tour before enrolling in Medical School. David has had several relapses and one in particular. While doing rounds, he is having a difficult time fulfilling his duties. He heads for a doctor's office to explain his present situation, but the doctor doesn't need to have an explanation, he instantly knows David's problem. David is then taken to the Lab for testing and the doctor, himself, takes David, still in scrubs to the airport. He gives him two tickets and makes sure he boards the plane. He is heading for the Talbott-Marsh Clinic in Atlanta, a facility that specializes in drug and alcohol addiction and is designed for physicians. He is met by two men who bring David directly to the clinic. David attends a meeting with other doctors of various specialties, who suffer from addiction as well. He is told at his first meeting that he has a disease, like Diabetes, and every day for the rest of his life needs to be monitored and be treated. The Doctor goes on to say "that society does not understand that you have a disease. Instead, you see yourself as morally flawed. Now that you've been caught, you feel shame."

When he returns to El Paso, David meets up with Abraham. Both are alone
and struggling in their personal lives, but they both share a love for Tennis and thus, a friendship is formed. Tennis becomes a ritual and they play twice a week. Between rounds of tennis and after chats at a cafe, David opens up to Abraham. Along the way there are clues that Abraham can see, which point to the beginning of trouble. Dr. Verghese is searching for answers re his friend's addiction. He has done considerable research on addiction and comes up empty. For Abraham, this is frustrating and he can't understand how in some minds treatment can help, while in others, treatment does not help.

The book is open, honest and detailed. It is written eloquently.
It's a story of a deep Love and Friendship of two men, made even stronger by their mutual interest in Medicine and a love of Tennis.

Dr. Verghese is a gifted writer whose Memoir is Memorable.

Dr. Abraham Verghese is going through a difficult time when he meets fourth-year medical student David Smith at his El Paso teaching hospital. Verghese has moved his wife and two young sons to El Paso hoping for a fresh start, but his marriage is already in trouble and he will soon find himself living apart from his wife and boys. Australian David Smith is a Texas Tech student at the El Paso hospital to complete his final year before moving on to the next stage of his medical studies. Smith is going through a difficult time of his own, one that constantly threatens to ruin his life, if not end it entirely.

The two seem destined to hit it off - and, soon, they will be more than teacher and student, they will be close friends. They share two passions in life: medicine and tennis. Smith is good enough to have played the game professionally for a while, and Verghese loves tennis so much that he has been keeping journals about his progress in the sport since he was a boy. Both Verghese and Smith need something to distract them from the stress of their daily lives and the local tennis club becomes their common refuge.

It is only later that Dr. Verghese learns that Smith is in El Paso to repeat his fourth-year studies - and why - and that Smith is very fortunate to have been given a second chance at the process. David Smith is addicted to cocaine and it is destroying him. Despite being subject to random drug testing, regular AA-style meetings, and the monitoring of a sponsor if he is to keep his place in the school, Smith has to struggle mightily every day not to give in to his craving for the drug. That his professional future depends on him remaining sober will not be enough to make it happen.

"The Tennis Partner" is the story of a unique friendship between two men at a time in their lives when each man is in desperate need of the kind of support that only a close male friend can offer. At the hospital, Dr. Verghese is the teacher and mentor that Smith so badly needs; on the tennis court, Smith is the teacher, Verghese the student. When Dr. Verghese realizes that Smith is relapsing into his addiction, he finds it difficult to decide what his obligations are. Does he respond as Smith's friend or as his teacher? Do his obligations to the hospital override those he feels toward David as the only friend David Smith seems to have in the world?

Those readers who discovered Abraham Verghese through his wonderful 2009 novel, "Cutting for Stone," will already know what a powerful fiction writer the man is. They will be happy to find that he displays the same skill level in 1998's "The Tennis Partner," his second memoir. The tragedy of David Smith's life provides the focal point of the book but, along the way, Verghese explores topics as varied as fatherhood, marriage, the health care system along the southern U.S. border, friendship, addiction, and loyalty.

Quoting W.P. Kinsella's review of this non-fiction book, ' Abraham Verghese is a wonderful storyteller.The language is irresistible,clear as spring water, sharp as the ring of fine crystal.' Also, for me, his writing is magical and quite the "page turner." After reading Cutting for Stone and The Tennis partner, it made me want to meet this man who is not only a fine physician but a good teacher and friend to his students.I really enjoyed reading the parts of the story where he is interacting with his two young sons. What a good father and a good example for all fathers. so In the Acknowledgments, I was pleased to read that Abraham had remarried and is blessed with a new son, Tristan.

"The Tennis Partner" is Abraham Verghese's story of his friendship with a young physician, David Smith, beset with cocaine addiction. Both their common love of tennis and the painful trials each experiences serve as a backdrop for the deeper issues that Verghese explores. Ultimately, this book is about secrets--that we call carry them. Some of us escape them, some of us don't, Verghese seems to say.
Verghese's book asks to be treated as literature. Far be it from him to simply dwell on "the hellish depths of deception" and the "heights of intimacy" as the jacket cover reads. Verghese is an introspective writer, searching for illumination and subtle understandings, while acknowledging that the truths he reveals existed long before he discovered them--hidden in his sons' questions, the track marks of needle sticks along a forearm, a mother watching her son die of AIDS. As Verghese writes at the end: the stars unfolded before him in "a private showing," yet "they had been there all along." I find that Verghese's voice lingers with me. It is calm and focused, yet disconcerting--ironic, spare, and edgy. He is careful with his wit, dispensing it with sleight of hand that leaves me smiling broadly at his ability. Clearly Verghese is a writer of some talent.
In this book, tennis is more than simple metaphor. It becomes the place where the psyche may escape, where one can transcend failings and secrets, the goal being to "get the ball back over the net just one more time." I find fascinating this subtext of tennis as escape, mirroring cocaine. Tennis as ritual, the pounding rhythm of shared volleys seemingly becomes Verghese's refuge from a failing marriage. Tennis greats such as Pancho Segura and Bill Tilden acquire almost godlike status as Verghese aspires to them. David's withdrawal into cocaine, however, transforms him into "a creature I knew but did not recognize." Despite his ability, tennis could never save David.
For all the richness of their relationship, Verghese discovers that David in the end "still walks alone." The theme of intimacy juxtaposed against isolation is woven throughout the book. What Verghese never openly says is that he too walks alone. It is almost as if he never could really understand David or even his wife, whom he describes as unexpectedly blossoming after his departure. Verghese writes of "the paradox of the humane, empathetic physician, like David, who shows little humanity to himself." The parallel paradox is that of Verghese, the richness of his expression and feeling contrasted with the distance between himself and the people he loves. This tension is intriguing.
I wish Verghese had included some thoughts on why he chose to write this book. The acknowledgement of such a process in "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom was vital to its honesty, I believe. A short account in an epilogue would have sufficed.
All things considered, "The Tennis Partner" is a book that richly rewards, and I highly recommend it. Verghese is immensely talented, yet one gets the feeling that he is yet to reach the full extent of his ability. I look forward to his future work.

"The Tennis Partner" focuses on the author's friendship with a fellow doctor who had once been a tennis pro and also a cocaine addict. But the book also weaves together other aspects of the author's life during a five-year period: his profession (internal medicine), his passion for tennis, the breakup of his marriage, and his efforts to create a home for himself as a newly single man. I liked the way in which these themes were dealt with in short chapters, some of which were single-topic (such as a tennis lesson with Pancho Segura), and others of which brought together several threads of the author's life. The shifts from medicine, to tennis, to marriage, and so forth, were smoothly accomplished and kept me engaged and interested. I also liked that the book was informative, especially about drug addiction, diagnosis of diseases, and the subtleties of tennis.
The author may strike some readers as a bit of a showoff where his medical skills and tennis are concerned, but I see his descriptions of these skills as realistic self-assessments: he's good at what he does. My only complaint is that Verghese (the author) seems humorless and not especially likable. But I guess I should cut him some slack here, considering that the book covers a dark period of his life. In reading his "New Yorker" pieces, Verghese has not struck me this way. I recommend this book.

Abraham Verghese's second book, "The Tennis Partner," is far different from his first, "My Own Country," in which he chronicles his work in a rural area in Tennessee as the physician in a "one doctor town." An inordinate number of AIDS cases begin to come his way and he tells the story of his learning quickly how to deal with this challenging disease in an area with extremely limited resources. (An outstanding read available through the store.)"The Tennis Partner" begins with Verghese's arrival in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and two sons where has taken a new position as a Professor of Medicine in a teaching hospital, a prestigious advance in his medical career. Soon into the story, we learn that Verghese finds himself fairly humanly bankrupt as he finally realizes the reality that his marriage is in ruins and now ending due to his own neglect of his wife in the amount of attention he has given to his career. He learns that he is extremely rootless: a foreign born physician, in a new town, with no friendships or personal support systems. Verghese, after assisting his wife establish a new home and a create a sense of stability for his sons, begins to look for an apartment near his wife's home so that he can be near his sons and complete the actual separation from his wife that they have been essentially living for quite some time by this point. Verghese begins a friendship with David, an intern in his final year (actually, we later learn, that David is repeating his internship, due to drug addition having interrupted his earlier, nearly completed internship.) There is a similarity to Verghese's rootless and David's own. The intern, a bit older than the typical medical school following a fairly successful run on the professional tennis circuit. The heart of the story is the newly developing friendship between the two men, the mutually rewarding relationship they ultimately establish in co-mentoring each other; Verghese mentoring his intern in medicine and David mentoring Abraham in improving his tennis game. While sounding simplistic, as one reader, I enjoyed observing the somewhat complex relationship that is rife with the the awkwardness and clumsiness of two heterosexual men essentially creating a non-sexual love and friendship that is a fundamental need that all men have. Verghese's book very accurately mirrors the reality of men needing other men in their lives for significant friendships and characterizes well, the complexity of "male bonding."The story doesn't have a particularly happy ending, yet, it is a true story. It is an excellent documentation of the need for, the high degrees of complexity, the platonic love men often develop for one another, the degrees of petty rivalry and subtle competition that often exist in men's friendships and the ultimate limitations of any friendship - male or female.The "tennis element" adds even more to the story for the person who is a tennis fan but the tennis games and the medical mentoring the two men exchange are, in many ways, metaphors of the manner in which male friendships develop and volley from one side to the other, each holding high expectations of the other, each contributing something to the other, yet careful not to overwhelm the other -- often with one winning more than the other as is the case in this story in both tennis and medicine. Verghese is clearly an excellent physician who takes great interest in his patients and uses his keen personal intuition as one of his best diagnostic tools. Yet, Verghese's sensitivity, attentiveness and keen intuition seems to start and stop at the hospital doors as he shows himself to be quite human in his personal inadequacy, stilted personal development and in his normal human incompleteness. David is equally complex, engaging at the same time he is able be maintain his clear boundaries and keep a certain distance. An excellent and gripping story. Highly recommended!

The first book I read by Verghese was Cutting for Stone. WOW. That was a page turner, enlightening, compelling, and sticks with you long after you finish reading. I so loved that book, that I was excited to see he had written two others. Sigh. Not so good. The Tennis Partner had a compelling story line, but not nearly as interesting or exciting as Cutting for Stone. But it is definitely much better than In My Own Country, which is a long slow read that I almost couldn't finish. I did finish it, but gave it only two stars.

I'd give The Tennis Partner 3.5 stars if there were half-stars to give, only because I enjoyed the tennis details. But if I wasn't a tennis lover, then the book would only rate a 2 or 3.

I highly recommend this real-life account of a physician hisvery moving story of a medical student caught in the black hole ofdrug addiction. I had erroneously picked up this book thinking it wasa fiction novel with some connection to tennis(which I am a big fanof). But when I began reading it I turned over the cover and did seethat is was a memoir. But much to my amazement, Verghese's book readslike a good novel .. and a well-paced, gripping page turner. Despitebeing a doctor, this is not a dry or unemotional work either. Readerswill be drawn into Verghese's life and find themselves experiencingthe same feelings (hope, denial, despair) when it comes to hisrelationship with former tennis pro and now med student"David."
A true testimonial for "The TennisPartner" is that I have passed it along to several other peopleand they have had the same strong (and positive) reaction to it. Theyhave since even recommended the book to others. While this memoirdoes have a good deal of content related to tennis (this is whatinitially brings Verghese and David together) that will enhance thereading experience for fans of the sport, my non-tennis orientedfriends were not turned off by it. Being a fairly avid reader, thishas been one of the best books I have read in the past severalyears. An unforgettable read.

I enjoyed this book as it dealt with three categories of interest to me: tennis, medicine and addiction. This is the first book of Dr. Verghese that I have read. I finished The Tennis Partner last night and am already knee-deep in My Own Country. For me, I enjoyed The Tennis Partner, as tennis is my favorite sport, medicine has long interested me and addiction is just mindbogglingly in its insanity. I appreciate a non-addict describing what it was like to deal with an addict, and thought he provided a fair, unbiased view of his friend David. I cannot say how this book would go over with a non-tennis reader, but for me, I understood the passion for tennis and the metaphors Dr. Verghese employed. I like Dr. Verghese's writing style; he makes one feel as if he were talking to a friend. I also enjoy his use of language, his love for his work and his self-revelations about wanting to develop a friendship with another man - rare for men to speak so poignantly about his feelings.

I can understand that reading this after reading his other books might seem like a letdown if you are expecting a book to appeal to the general population - which is why I preface my review that having an interest in one, two or three of the themes is advantageous.

A. Verghese has once again come up with a compassionate book with a style of writing that seems to flow with great ease. He is very honest with his feelings but his characters do not develop as much as one would want them to. I seemed to read the book more from a wife's perspective and empathized more with Ragini than with Verghese. I hope she has had as cathartic an experiece as he has seemed to have had with writing his two books. This book may get doctors to be more in touch with their feelings and could perhaps lead to the formation of support groups to help them deal with the issues they have to face everyday at the hospitals. Looking forward to his next book which I guess he is probably working on already.

I bought this book because I play tennis and thought it would be a fun book about tennis partners. Obviously I didn't look that closely at the book. It sat on a shelf for a few years until I had read nearly every other tennis book around. Now I wonder why I waited so long. I loved this book. Found myself caring so much about everyone in the book and hated when the book was done. So well written I can't wait to read another book by Abraham Verghese. I could relate so much to the tennis and felt almost like I was on the courts with them - I also remembered several of the pro matches that he wrote about. That definitely made the book more fun reading for me, but this is a great book even if you don't play tennis. But there is so much more about relationships, addictions and more in this book. You will laugh and cry and you won't be disappointed in choosing this book.

Abraham Verghese is a physician, a deeply inquisitive student of human nature, and a dark, poetic writer. This book reminds me of another of my favorites, Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It," with tennis instead of fishing.
In the years that have elapsed since "My Own Country," Verghese's marriage has collapsed, and he has moved to a teaching hospital in Texas. One of his students is a young man named David Smith, who had briefly played pro tennis before beginning medical school. Verghese, an avid tennis player, hesitantly asks if they might play together.
Smith, like the younger brother in "A River Runs Through It," is charming, lovable, smart, and supremely gifted in his chosen sport; on the tennis court, he seems to be transformed into a different, and better, person. But his gifts aren't enough to save his life; he's an intravenous drug abuser, in and out of recovery and rehab. When the two men play tennis together, their support for each other, and their anger and frustrations, are all played out on the tennis court.
As in "My Own Country," Verghese reveals his fascination with people from all walks of life. His emotional inquisitiveness leads him to take risks, as when he accepts a junkie's offer of a tour of "his" world. Yet for all his curiosity and his desire to learn to see the world through the eyes of others, Verghese was unable to save his friend, and he was even unable to save his own marriage. Sadly, he wonders if his marriage might have survived if he had invested himself in it as deeply as he invested himself in the minutiae of tennis.

Having just finished this book for the second time, I feel compelled to write down my feelings. Verghese has that effect on you - a journal writer at heart, he brings out the writer in the reader. I see far too much of myself in David - for those in the know, the ease of relapse is both understandable and horrifying familiar. In the end, Verghese fails to understand the demons that haunt his best friend - but thankfully for him, this is due to a lack of walking in his shoes, rather than a deficit of compassion or intellect. I can't say that this book makes me feel good - but it does impart valuable knowledge on a variety of subjects. Recommended, but only to those who don't mind a little pain with their pleasure.