Book Review: Jimmy Connors Saved My Life

There are books about tennis that teach you how to hit a forehand. There are books about tennis that teach you how enhance your mental toughness. There are books about tennis that report the inside scoop of the pro tour. And there are biographies about tennis players. Then there is "Jimmy Connors Saved My Life," which is part biography, part history book, part memoir and part self-help book, but ALL good.

Full disclosure, I grew up loving Jimmy Connors. He's still my all time favorite. But I can honestly say that the author, Joel Drucker, did not sugar-coat this most fascinating character in the American tennis tapestry. Connors is not a saint, in fact, Peter Bodo called him "that American barbarian" just recently. Barbarian is a little overstated, and shows the bitter disdain Bodo feels for Connors after all these years, but we understand his point.

For the first few chapters, I was a little iffy on the tome - it seemed a little too forced how Drucker was weaving his life into Jimbo's career. And I still think it may be a hair too much at times. However, as it went on it made more and more sense and I liked the intermingling more and more. There is a lot about Jimmy's odd relationship with his mother and grandmother. While the oedipal analysis is interesting, its not what I enjoyed about the book per se.

Here is what you can expect, and why I loved this book:

1) By the time I was watching tennis in a meaningful way, Connors was past his bad boy days and well into the days when he was the happy warrior and crowd favorite. You get plenty of this era in the book, but you get even more of the earlier days, which was a great history lesson. From the days playing doubles with Ilie Nastase to dating Chris Evert, to the Prince Valiant haircut. You'll get it all in amazing Technicolor.

2) Related to #1, you get to see in clearer focus where Connors stood amongst the generations of tennis - starting with Rosewall, Laver, Ashe and Newcombe, going through Borg and Vilas, then McEnroe and finally Lendl. You don't realize Connors' range, not to mention, you get to relive some of the great matches in tennis history, like the 1991 US Open.

3) This book is as much about Drucker as Connors, which is to say this is a personal journey for Drucker. And from that journey, and from the lessons Drucker pulls into his personal life from how Connors lived his, so to can you the reader. One of the main themes of the book is how life is meant to be attacked and maximized. "The lines are meant to be hit," says Connors. Never quitting and going for it, no matter what you do - wise words. "Don't count me out. I come from a small town in Illinois. You people have no idea where I'm from. Now let me show you," he says.

4) Related to #3, Connors tells Drucker "In your own way, in your own time," when discussing Drucker's career. Again, wise words from one of the original bad boys of tennis. I think when people like Bodo call him "barbaric," they are merely lashing out in envy of a man who has unapologetically taken control of his own life.

5) Some great match descriptions. Want to live (or relive) the great matches between Connors & Ashe? Connors & Borg? Connors & McEnroe? Connors & Lendl? Connors & Krikstein? This is the place. Tennis, in my view, is hard to convey in print. This book does it well.

If you believe that tennis is a bloodsport, if you believe its boxing without the gloves, and if you believe that the best players (pro or otherwise) leave it all out on the court when they play, and if you believe that tennis is a microcosm of life...then this book is for you.

Jimmy Connors Saved My Life: A Personal Biography

May 5, 2008

Book Review: Jimmy Connors Saved My Life