David smith the tennis partner machine

Still, that was how it felt — magical, special. Their friendship is most fully expressed through their tennis matches. His love for tennis is the one element that enables Verghese to exert some control or at least to make sense of things. Ever since he was a child, Verghese played tennis to alleviate his loneliness. The sound of the tennis ball hit against the side of a shed was at first therapeutic.

Tennis, once an innocent diversion, becomes his drug of choice, a balm for his inner turmoil. Anecdotes about iconic players like Bjorn Borg and Bill Tilden are scattered throughout the memoir, as are reports and analyses of actual matches such as the Wimbledon final between Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors, and the French Open final between Jim Courier and Sergei Bruguera.

It is tennis that brings the two men together, and tennis that provides comfort at the darkest of times. How is it, he wonders, that some people like himself succeed in overcoming personal disaster, while others like David fail?

David smith the tennis partner machine

The book is an attempt to connect the dots, to try and understand a tragedy in its aftermath. And as always, tennis offers an insight, perhaps the only one possible. Oindrila Mukherjee tweets here. Newsletters Gift Membership. Become a member Subscribe Get app Sign in Take Scroll With You Download the app to read our award-winning journalism on the go and stay up-to-date with our notifications.

Smith and Verghese are drawn together by a love of tennis. Smith, an Australian, travelled on the pro circuit while Verghese has simply had a life long obsession with the sport. They find that they make good partners on the court and a friendship springs up. While Verghese navigates through a divorce from his wife, Smith gradually reveals his past addiction and how he has had to start over.

Verghese is extremely knowledgeable about the mechanics of addiction and drug use, as demonstrated by his work with his patients, and yet baffled by the mental struggle behind addiction. In fact, he comes across rather callously in one section, after Smith has returned from rehab. Overall though, the book is a moving and intimate portrayal of medical work and friendship.

After one relapse where he went immediately into rehab, he became convinced that his cocaine addiction was really just a feature of this sex addiction, that sex was the real problem. But that seemed to be the import of it. But you cheat on your girlfriends constantly, seek out sexual companionship from all kinds of women, take a drug that you know is deadly, all because of some problem with your parents?

Can that be true? I believe that ultimately, addiction is what we turn to because we cannot face the shining present moment. Life as it is is too much for us, and we run away. Verghese wrote this passage, though he was quoting another man. But then he lived exactly that way. Because of his own love for the game and as part of his effort to reach out to the troubled resident, Verghese begins to play singles tennis regularly during their free time outside the hospital.

What starts as a casual game between the two men eventually develops into a complex ritual that allows them to develop a deep friendship and understanding of the pressures they each face. In the hospital, Verghese is the teacher and Smith the student. On the court, however, Smith, the one-time professional player, becomes the teacher.

While cited as fiction, The Tennis Partner is heavily autobiographical. In , it was ranked by Slate as one of the 50 greatest nonfiction books of the past 25 years.