*!Monica
By Jackie, TW Social Director*
I'm auto-posting this Deuce Club post as I'm on my way out of town to attend a friend's wedding. I'm excited (especially since I haven't seen this friend since the summer of 2006!) and will hopefully return with some fun stories and not-terribly-sore feet.
I'd like to take a minute to thank y'all for your contributions to last week's DC; we learned so much about each other, didn't we? I think it's fair to say that the TWibe is a decidedly fascinating and exceptional group of people, and I'm proud to be among such great company.
Speaking of fascinating and exceptional TWibers, that seems an apt description of today's guest host! Since I couldn't be around to man the post (literally) this week, I decided to find a proxy so as not to leave you guys hanging. Who did I snatch up? Our very own whitelinefever, a.k.a. WLF! Though he only just recently introduced himself to us - de-lurking for the first time a few months ago, right, WLF? - he's already established himself as one of our most witty and well-mannered posters.
After learning that WLF had been rampaging through Monica Seles's new autobiography, Getting a Grip on My Body, My Mind, My Self, I asked him if he'd be willing to write a little book review for us. I was certain it'd be a popular topic! Lucky for us, he so generously obliged.
If you've read the book yourself, please share your thoughts on it in the comments; if you haven't, I'm hoping you'll still chime in with some reflections on Monica. (But wait, I'm stepping on WLF's toes as he's posed some questions at the end of his piece. Stay tuned ... )
With that said, time to turn it over to our special guest. Take it away, WLF, and thanks for the pinch-hit!
Hi everyone! I just want to start by saying how excited I am to share this time and these words with you all. Huge thanks go out to Jackie for thinking of me for this - I promise I'll try not to ruin theDeuce Club* while you're away. (Now can someone show me where the bar is in here? Let's get wasted!)*
Ahem. Well, before I begin my review proper (or is it already too late to do that?), I think I should issue a confession/disclaimer first: in the interest of full disclosure, you need to know that I have loved Monica Seles for as long as I've known of her. From her start as a ball-pummeling pipsqueak pro at age 14 to her latest turn as an awkward Belle-at-the-Ball-pirouetting adult onDancing With The Stars, I have been a full-fledged Monica maven.
So if you're looking for unbiased Lit Crit, please look elsewhere. I'm writing this as an unabashed fan who's just happy to finally see this great player's amazing story written in her own words. (At least I think they're her own words - I don't see any other writing credits cited, and I know in interviews she has said it was an eight-month labor of love to write it). And with all that out of the way, I'm happy to report that her own words do not disappoint; Monica turns out to be quite the engaging writer and storyteller, with interesting twists of phrase and compelling turns of brave self-analysis and candor scattered throughout the 280-page tome.
*For those who are not aware of her story, here are the basics (note - for those who are afraid of spoilers, these facts will be about as spoilery as letting you know the boat sinks at the end of Titanic, but you can skip to the end of this paragraph if you’d like): The Yugoslavian-born teen sensation (now an American citizen) rocketed to number one in the world at age seventeen and became the holder of every conceivable "youngest to..." record as she rose through the ranks. At age 19, with 8 Grand Slams to her name, she was stabbed by a crazed Steffi Graf fan courtside during a match in Hamburg (I still remember exactly where I was when I saw that had happened), an act that not only went largely unpunished (2 years probation for the assailant) but derailed what may have ended up as the greatest tennis career of all time. The book goes into great detail about the incident and its aftermath and psychological repercussions.
Monica has battled her way through PTSD and eating disorders ever since and has finally emerged on the other side of her struggles as a strong, self-actualized woman eager to share her hard-earned lessons with the world. Though the memoir has a friendly, highly readable and conversational tone throughout (you can almost hear Monica’s giggle-tinged voice sing-songing the words in the audiobook of your brain), at times it becomes a bit of a tough slog, quite understandably, as the more difficult of her travails (including the loss of her beloved father) are described in detail. “My heart was so broken,” she writes, “I didn’t know which piece to triage first.”*
*And though plenty of tasty tennis tidbits and celeb-mingling tales are interspersed amidst the narrative, the primary thrust of the entire work revolves around her fight with food and her weight problems. I have to admit I had no idea the extent, duration and devastation of her particular problem with this until I heard about and then read Monica’s own recounting of her trauma in this autobiography.
It is both heartbreaking and revelatory to take this journey with her. At least it was for me, as I personally know that - even though I have railed against rail-thin covergirls in the past and am intellectually aware of the body-issues that such "models" bring about in our culture - I still have been guilty of making the occasional snide comment about a woman player's weight and thinking it's funny. Believe me: this book has cured me of that delusion, and I am now fully aware that it is no laughing matter.*
*Other very interesting themes are explored (ones that might also be good to discuss here), such as: the glamorization of the tour, the surprising impact of the media on a player’s psyche, the role of family in providing stability (or the lack thereof) for an aspiring player, the premature maturation of the child phenom, and gender equality issues both on and off the court.
Part confessional autobiography, and part empowering self-help book, Getting a Grip provides a gripping (sorry) account of both an acclaimed player as well as an embattled and empowered woman, and each have so much to share.
So, TWibe – I have many questions to ask you: First, have you read the book? If so, what did you like or dislike about it? Also, do you read lots of other tennis books? If so, which are your favorites and least favorites? And are you more or less likely to read a book or see a movie if tennis is a featured component (or does it not matter at all)?*