On Being John McEnroe

Oct 5, 2024 3:35 AM

Author:Tim Adams

Read a fan's eye view of one of tennis's most notorious stars, and an exploration into the idea of sporting obsession.

The perfect nostalgic treat for any Wimbledon fan.

The greatest sports stars characterise their times. They also help to tell us who we are. John McEnroe, at his best and worst, encapsulated the story of the eighties. His improvised quest for tennis perfection, and his inability to find a way to grow up, dramatised the volatile self-absorption of a generation. His matches were open therapy sessions, and they allowed us all to be armchair shrinks.

Tim Adams sets out to explore what it might have meant to be John McEnroe during those times, and in his subsequent lives, and to define exactly what it is we want from our sporting heroes: how we require them to play out our own dramas; how the best of them provide an intensity that we can measure our own lives by. Talking to McEnroe, his friends and rivals, and drawing on a range of reference, he presents a book that is both a fan's-eye portrait of the most vivid player ever to pick up a racket, and an original study of the idea of sporting obsession.

Reviews

Terrific...On one level, it's about the author's fascination with a tennis player. But it's much more than this; it's a book about how the world has changed in our lifetime

—— William Leith , New Statesman

A beautiful little book

—— Daily Express

Tim Adams is one of the best of our new sportswriters

—— Observer

Inspiringly in touch with what McEnroe was and what he meant

—— Giles Smith , Daily Telegraph

A hauntingly beautiful biography... an elegy to the strange wonder of the stories he [Neutrino] had to tell

—— Guardian

Beautiful and true, this is a great book that brings you into the life of Poppa Neutrino, a character just as determined as the fishermen in Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea', just as self-inventing and free as the explorer in Bellow's Henderson the Rain King

—— Rich Cohen

Poppa Neutrino built a raft from stuff he found on the streets of New York and sailed it across the Atlantic: he is a joy to meet through the happy medium of Wilkinson's wonderful words as Poppa plans his next epic voyage

—— Saga magazine

Unflinchingly honest

—— Zoo

The journey to upstanding professional and all-round good guy is colourfully chronicled in Carra

—— Matt Dickinson , Times

Notable for its honesty. The Liverpool defender's published opinion that he is happier retired from international football prompted a media frenzy

—— Martin Pengelly , Guardian

One of the few current footballers worth an autobiography

—— Jonathan Ruppin , Bookseller

Amid the basketful of bland post-World Cup books, McGrath's life story stands out a mile... Fascinating reading.

—— Evening Standard

The Republic of Ireland's most popular sportsman, still adored by fans of Manchester United and Villa.

—— BBC Sport

An all-too honest account of a playing career that just got better and better, despite threatening to go off the rails.

—— Sunday Mercury

An extraordinary book.

—— Irish Independent

Harrowing and brutally honest...a gripping story.

—— Derby Evening Telegraph

Brutally honest.

—— The Irish Post

Less a football autobiography, more repentant confessional.

—— Kevin Hughes , FreeSport

stunning

—— FourFourTwo

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