Rafa (#30)

This next book should come as absolutely no surprise as Rafael Nadal has been kind of W&C's mascot for the past several years.

There was little doubt that I would like Rafa, but having read a handful of tennis memoirs, I have yet to find a really good one and, to be honest, my expectations were low for this one, particularly since we're talking of one that is at mid-career and the ripe old age of 25. 

It started off rough, really rough.  While I was never under the illusion that Nadal “wrote” the book, it seemed to a long time for "co-author" John Carlin to capture Rafa’s “voice.”  It just didn't sound like Rafa, and that was disconcerting for a good chunk of the first half of the book.  Likewise, I got the impression that the book was written in Spanish and translated to English as there is some awkward language at times.  For example, a member of Nadal’s team is described as “placid” where “calm” would seem to be a word the average person or there was talk of Nadal’s preparation before the start of the “game” vs. “match.”  So just odd things stuck out here and there, particularly for the avid tennis fan (I believe the French Open was referred to as the first Grand Slam tournament of the year... sacre bleu!)

Likewise, if you follow tennis you will likely know many/most of the stories and the matches.  As I have said with pretty much every tennis memoir book post, there just isn't a good way to recount a match and this one hasn't figured it out either. 

So there is a not a lot new or unexpected here, though plenty of entertaining anecdotal stuff, mostly involving how timid/modest Nadal is in real life vs. his warrior-like on-court personae.  Though there are contradictions.  Given how private/shy/modest he (and his family is), a memoir seems a bit out of character... and likewise (though I am certainly not complaining!) is Rafa's current underwear/jeans modeling career.

Perhaps, the biggest shock may the addition of Uncle Toni (can you call him anything else?) entering the Nightmare Tennis Coach/Family member Hall of Fame. An alternate title for this book certainly could have been: Uncle Toni Is A Prick: But I Still Love Him (And It Obviously Worked).

In the end, it’s hard not to like and respect Rafa (even more).  In the world of sports, he is an anomaly - a good guy almost to a fault. It’s easy to love him. Ratings-wise this book was a bit tricky:  5 stars for Rafa, 3 stars for this pretty much standard, run-of-the mill sports memoir... overall, 3.5 stars, though gave it the round-down to 3 stars on GoodReads.

Comments

[Gail]

I appreciate the review because I think you might be a bigger Rafa fan than I am. It's great to hear your impressions and that Rafa probably is as sweet a guy as he comes across. I thought this would be a good read for my tennis fan family. I'm reading Open and starting to enjoy it, in spite of having not been an Agassi fan. Since I didn't watch tennis until Rafa came along, I think I'll check it out. Still, it's nice to get the perspective of someone who actually knows tennis.