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by: Lionel Shriver
Amazon.com's Price: $12.21 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks
Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9781852424909
ISBN: 1852424907
Label: Serpent's Tail
Manufacturer: Serpent's Tail
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: May 03, 2007
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
Sales Rank: 1061515
Studio: Serpent's Tail
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
'Love me, love my game' says twenty-three year-old Willy Novinsky. Ever since she picked up a racquet at the age of four, tennis has been Willy's one love, until the day she meets Eric Oberdorf. She's a middle-ranked professional tennis player and he's a Princeton graduate who took up playing tennis at the age of eighteen. Low-ranked but untested, Eric, too, aims to make his mark on the international tennis circuit. Willy beholds compatibility spiced with friendly rivalry, and discovers her first passion outside a tennis court. They marry. Married life starts well but soon gives way to full-tilt competition over who can rise to the top first. Driven and gifted, Willy maintains the lead until she severs her knee ligaments in a fall. As Willy recuperates, her ranking plummets whilst her husband's climbs, until he is eventually playing in the US Open. Anguished at falling short of her lifelong dream and resentful of her husband's success, Willy slides irresistibly toward the first quiet tragedy of her young life.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - An eye on the ball
I actually enjoyed this novel. But like other reviewers I found Willy to be unbearable and it was hard to see what her husband could love in her.
After reading "We Need to Talk About Kevin", I have become used to Shriver's obsession with detail, which I had found unnerving in the beginning. There's something about her style that is truly riveting.
I'm also interested in her penchant for male names (Willy, Lionel) for females, and her use of "the eye". To anyone who has ... Read More
Rating:  - Lionel does it again
If you like tennis you'll love this book. I know nothing about tennis so the first couple of chapters were hard for me to get through - it was setting up the story which involves a lot of tennis. The story itself was good, I had a hard time putting it down.
Rating:  - Ambitious but misses the mark
Shriver had the courage to explore a situation where everything is not OK, which gives the book a realistic feel in places, and she deserves respect for resisting the Hollywood ending.
But I found the protagonist (Willy) so purely self-defeating, not to mention unlucky, it was unconvincing at the opposite extreme; or at the very least predictable. Of *course* she injures her knee at a critical moment. Of course the cheers Willy mistakenly thinks are for her are actually for her husband ... Read More
Rating:  - Do I have to give this 1 star? Is there an option to rate it zero stars?
A fan of Shriver's other works I kept reading Double Fault with the hope it would improve. It didn't. The main character, Willy Nijinsky, has spent her entire life trying to make it as professional tennis player. She has some limited success but is approaching retirement age without achieving her goal. She has no idea what do with her life if she isn't playing tennis. She has no other interests and no friends. Tennis isn't a game to her. Outside of tennis, Willy doesn't exist.
Oh, ... Read More
Rating: - Not the author's best work.
After reading the powerful "We need to talk about Kevin" all other books seemed somehow inadequate and I was not able to finish a novel for months. However, I was thrilled to stumble across "Double Fault" written by the same extraordinary author. What a disappointment! Even for a complete tennis tragic this plot was boring and based on needless conflict. It was so appalling in every way that it's hard to believe that it was written by the same person.
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