Levels of the Game is John McPhee's astonishing account of a tennis match played by Arthur Ashe against Clark Graebner at Forest Hills in 1968.
It begins with the ball rising into the air for the initial serve and ends with the final point. McPhee provides a brilliant, stroke-by-stroke description while examining the backgrounds and attitudes which have molded the players' games.
"This may be the high point of American sports journalism"- Robert Lipsyte, The New York Times
Retired NPR Science correspondent. Audio storytelling in the service of nature. Two books, two kids. Former New Scientist mag. Scicomm trainer with COMPASS.
Better. ‘A Sense of Where You Are’ (basketball) and ‘Levels of the Game’ (tennis) by the incomparable master, John McPhee. And if fly fishing is sport, of course, ‘A River Runs Through It.’ Norman Maclean. https://t.co/sh1RSQsRUb
Works @osfdigital, ex @salesforce | Author of the book "I Can't Imagine" | Dad to Emilia and Luca | Core Values: Balance, Endure, Learn, Challenge, and Play
Book 303 - A Year of Magical Learning Book – Levels of the Game by John McPhee Reflection Title: Tennis is a Fight of Character! Question: What character traits do you want revealed to the world through your actions? https://t.co/QDYjoIpB5c https://t.co/Mwz6EwJ7Gd
Quarterly literary magazine founded in 1953.
“Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s ‘The Circuit,’ his account of the year 2017 in tennis … [is] a rival to John McPhee’s ‘Levels of the Game’ for the best book out there on the sport.” What the contributors and staff of The Paris Review recommend this week: https://t.co/uSpoM2CBJf
"This may be the high point of American sports journalism." --Robert Lipsyte, The New York Times
"McPhee has produced what is probably the best tennis book ever written. On the surface it is a joint profile of . . . Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, but underneath it is considerably more--namely, a highly original way of looking at human behavoir . . . He proves his point with consummate skill and journalistic artistry. You are the way you play, he is saying. The court is life." --Donald Jackson, Life
"John McPhee's Levels of the Game . . . alternates between action on the court and interwoven profiles of the contestants. It is a remarkable performance--written with style, verve, insight and wit." --James W. Singer, Chicago Sun-Times