Image is almost everything.

I hate to start off with a cliché, but heck, I’m “going there.” They (I’m sure you know who “they” are) say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Whether this is true or not is irrelevant. The point is, they say it. For Andre Kirk Agassi however, the image of his face that adorns his autobiography Open is worth many times that; the book spans nearly four hundred pages, probably equating to approximately seventy-five thousand words. So, for reasons that should be apparent, I will henceforth be interpolating and extrapolating books that I find inspiring under the subheading of “Critical Acclaim.”

The idea of redemption in contemporary society is a favorite. We, as the collective whole, seem to like nothing more than a person of stature fall off their pedestal, only to rise again (after the proper steps have been taken to ensure forgiveness) as a more complete person. What was most surprising in the chronicling of Mr. Agassi’s fall from grace was my previous understanding of his downward spiral as a purely athletic phenomenon, with no hint of the inner turmoil that raged just beneath the surface. The retelling of his professional career (complete with physical and mental injury, parental exploitation, recreational drug use, and a horrific marriage) is filled with the insecurity and self-doubt that everyday people contend with on a daily basis. While I generally shy away from making broad generalizations, I think we as people forget that our heroes are people, too. And ironically, when discovering this fact, the close examination of “celebrity” seems at once fascinating and ordinary.

Beyond the trials and tribulations of Mr. Agassi’s life, the most engaging aspect of his autobiography is his formative years spent with his father. Emmanuel “Mike” Agassi, in no uncertain terms, was a tyrant guilty of mental abuse. In his misguided quest to turn his youngest son into a champion, he wound up breaking his three older children. The question remains, though; would Andre have been a champion if his father had not made him hit countless balls in his youth? Obviously, we will never know. But, there seems to be a recurring theme with children that overachieve, and that is, the overbearing shadow of a parent trying to experience vicariously what was somehow denied to them in their own lives.

In sum, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who loves the sport of tennis and/or needs an inspirational story to identify with in one’s personal quest for greatness. For all of his faults on and off the court, Mr. Agassi’s life story pulls no punches, making him supremely accessible and undeniably human.

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