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Double Fault |  | Author: Lionel Shriver
Creator: Renee Raudman
Publisher: Brilliance Corporation
Category: Book
List Price: £28.84
Buy New: £16.16
as of 10/9/2010 07:33 MDT details
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New (12) Used (5) from £16.15
Seller: gb_books_uk
Rating:  28 reviews
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 10
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 5.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 1423397010
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781423397014
ASIN: 1423397010
Publication Date: May 2009
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
 A practice novel January 30, 2010
Mr. SD Halliday (Siena, Italy; Cape Town, South Africa; London, England)
Where We Need to Talk About Kevin was intriguing and occasionally terrifying, Double Fault was pettier and less grave, though the main characters were equally flawed. It felt like a practice novel to me, a lead-up for an author who would eventually write We Need to Talk About Kevin. To a large extent some of the dynamics are similar - a love story realized, yet which begins to unwind from the internal and external pressures that press in on it. Whereas Kevin is a tale of horror eventually realised, Double Fault seems more like a jerky sliding, combined with the occasional sticky place of potential renewal. If anything, I would recommend the book as part of a method study to understand the path that an author takes to writing. Every novel is a learning experience, and the writing of this novel must have lent some sense of the research and some sense of the damaging aspects of love and self-love that also populate Kevin. Consequently, I would only recommend the novel to two groups of people: 1) those passionate about novels with tennis as a backdrop, 2) those interested in what Lionel Shriver was doing before she wrote Kevin. Otherwise, I don't think I'd bother.
 Tennis and Marriage January 26, 2010
LindyLouMac (Italy)
Although this novel was first published in the USA in 1997, it was only published in the UK in 2006 after the success of `We Need To Talk About Kevin'. It has similarities in style but I do not think it should be unfavorably compared as it was written much earlier in the authors career before her writing style had fully developed.
Tennis is the dominate theme in this novel based on a relationship between two ambitious tennis players.
The female protagonist is Wilhelmina Novinsky a professional tennis player whose life has been devoted to the game for as long as she can remember. Tennis has also been the only love in her life until she meets Eric Oberdorf a gifted player come late to the game but determined to make a success on the international tennis circuit. They marry and at first seem deeply in love but ambition and determination soon begin to affect the relationship as the competition between them causes tensions between them. Loyalty is well tested in this battle of the sexes on and off court.
What could have been a great relationship is ruined by the demands of both Willy and Eric who at times were both in my mind rather unpleasant characters.
Using tennis as the vehicle to write a relationship novel was for me a very interesting one, but somehow I doubt I would have enjoyed it quite so much if I was not a fan of tennis myself.
The woman can't write a bad sentence, at least September 10, 2009
Eileen Shaw (Leeds, England)
Lionel Shriver seems to make a feature of difficult to like heroines. In this book, Willy (short for Wilhelmina) is an American tennis professional. She has a good coach and is set to make the rankings as the novel begins. Then she falls in love with Eric, a lovely man of good family who has taken up tennis in earnest and needs a lot of help. They get married, but Willy's whole existence is bound up in tennis and soon there is a conflict as Eric improves and zips through the rankings to become a real contender. As Eric's game improves, a bad fall on court seems to put an end to Willy's career.
It's hard to like Willy as a character since she is outrageously competitive, especially when it comes to her husband. There are a lot of extraneous scenes in this novel which do no more than point to Willy's lack of grace and Eric's reasonableness and astonishing good will and patience. Allied to this Lionel Shriver goes in for much rather tedious analysis. This book was actually written before her Orange prize winner We Have To Talk About Kevin and it shows. In Kevin Shriver had a contentious subject and a real dilemma to offer the reader. In Double Fault we have a conundrum mainly about the disparity between women and men in sport, manifested in Willy's extreme behaviour and her monstrously resentful attitude towards a successful husband. The ending is a real downer too. This book is nowhere near as interesting or as well constructed as Kevin and suffers in the comparison.
 Avoid August 26, 2009
steve (London)
This is a early book by Lionel Shriver and it shows. There is none of that convincing and compelling voice that is in Kevin. I think it is just the publisher trying to cash in on Shriver's name that she had made the big time. But I thought the writing was weak and the story unbelivable.
Skilfully written, but depressing and too long January 26, 2009
Mrs Norris (London)
I am glad I didn't read the reviews on here before I read the book, or it would still be gathering dust on the shelf!
I enjoyed reading Double Fault, and found much in the writing to savour, but was left wondering if all Lionel Shriver's books are going to have these implausibly happy endings??
[Removes tongue from cheek]...
I love love love her writing - I can think of only a tiny number of writers who articulate feelings so brilliantly. For example, after Willy and Eric have had an argument, she writes: "Willy wanted to say she was sorry, but could not quite get on the other side of something to get the words out". I knew exactly what she meant - been there, done that.
I also love tennis, and can fully understand why non-tennis fans find large parts of the novel dull....you really need to understand what's going on.
I just wish she (LS) could be a little less pessimistic - I found this novel riveting, but grim.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 28
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