Review: Open

Open by Andre Agassi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: The few ups and a lot of downs of his career through his eyes - a relatively honest and realistic take that doesn't try to airbrush himself into perfection.

If Andre Agassi's life was an iceberg, his successes were just the tip of the iceberg and failures didn't meet the eye. That realistic take was a refreshing read as he jumped from frying pan to frying pan , he called them the same and tried to persevere through them. The fact that he hates tennis and was living everyone else's dream makes for a hard hitting insight and how that plays out through his life. It also helps explain the rebel streak he was known for early on in his career and how he was not media's darling. He opens up on all his relationships - dad, brother, best friend, ex-wife and so on keeping everyone in positive light. It's interesting how he adds colour to all the brand names we know in tennis and sharing his interactions with them on and off the court especially in the locker room before a game and right after.

The writing style takes you to the moment sitting in the court at each of the grand slams seeing Agassi lose out more often than not, often driven by his mental thought process than any skill or technical prowess shown by the opposition. He clearly didn't make the most of his talent we know but this book opens up to his background and thought process and explains a lot about why he never really claimed his full potential except for the last streak which is often considered as the final hoorah a flame goes through before getting extinguished. A lot he does is driven by the importance he lays to family and friends like family.

A refreshing take on a celebrity's life with an honest acknowledgement of the failures with the fleeting highs of successes and a peak into the facade that the rich and famous tend to put out because they are expected to. His ghostwriter has done a wonderful job and this is one of the best sports biographies I have read.

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