Open, soon to be closed

I will confess that I was excited by the advance press for Andre Agassi's Open. I like the guy, his comeback-ness, his bald stylings, the way he strikes the ball on the rise. Not as interesting to watch as McEnroe, but considerably more so than all these tall server dudes.

So I put the book on my Amazon list and got it as an Xmas present (thanks, Rog), and open and read it. By now, I'm 2/3rds of the way through the thing and pretty much sick of it and his gee whiz gollie "I'm a victim, but a good guy, I've just been so misunderstood" stylings. OK, I can see how marrying Brooke Shields was a mistake and how he would have sensed it as the church bells were ringing but couldn't back out. OK. I get that both his dad and Nick Bolletieri are jerks. OK. I understand how he chooses alternate father figures. Great. He founds a school in Vegas for poor kids and really grooves on helping people. That I really believe and find infectious, even if the ghost writer is a little ham-handed.

But spare me the details of how he conquered Stephanie Graf by whipping off his shirt during an initial practice session while hardly on the rebound from Brooke Shields. Somewhere in there the guy just needs to dial it back and show a little circumspection.

By now I'm just finishing the book because it's so featherweight and it feels good to finish books. Probably a bad instinct. Better to move on to an actually good book.