Levels of the Game

Written for the New Yorker magazine in 1969, this 150 page sports 'classic' has all the punch-and-jab terseness that makes John McPhee's writing both immediate and immediately recognizable. It's fun to read, no question. And it has a way of implying that more is at stake than the ostensible subject of investigation, although McPhee is often artfully cagey about declaring what that "more" might be. "Levels of the Game" is constructed around a point-by-point account of a single tennis match played in 1968 by Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, an African-American and a German-American who were the soul of the championship American Davis Cup team, playing both as singles and as doubles partners. Ashe and Graebner were as much friends as fiercely competitive rivals can ever be, despite their markedly different personalities and world-views. Graebner, the 'spoiled' scion of a conservative Christian dentist, plays stiff and predictable power tennis, "Republican tennis" as it were. Ashe, also a 'privileged child' despite his color and father's illiteracy, is "bold, loose, liberal, flat-out Democratic." Several critics have made McPhee's point more explicitly than McPhee would ever do: "You are the way you play." Like the volleys of an exciting match, the profiles of Ashe and Graebner - their childhoods, their fathers, their training in life and tennis, their quirks and virtues - are lobbed back and forth between the points of the game, from Ashe's first serve to Ashe's last winning stroke. McPhee is crafty; he depicts both men with implicit admiration and maintains as judicious an air of impartiality as an nominee for the Supreme Court under hostile questioning. But there's little doubt about whom he assumes HIS readers will root for, and his tone shows it. Ashe's victory - Ashe's whole career - was a triumph of Civil Rights in America over the forces of stand-pat hold-on-to-your own conservatism. Anyone who doesn't cheer when Ashe scores a point in this match has totally missed the point. When McPhee wrote this book, in 1969, it must have seemed that the societal match which it symbolized was almost over, almost won. Racism had 'charged the net' in the South of Wallace and Faubus, and the ball had been lobbed out of reach. Watching the ads on TV today, couple-watching on the streets of American cities, noting the approval ratings of the First Couple in the White House, one could indeed say that Ashe's victory was prophetic of America's racial Redemption. "Game, set, match to Lieutenant Ashe," McPhee wrote; "When the stroke is finished, he is standing on his toes, his arms flung open, wide, and high." However, if we take this historic match as an analogy for the cultural match-up between conservatism and liberalism, McPhee's success as an oracle is less clear. In 1969 perhaps, the egalitarian ideals of the New Deal and the Great Society might have seemed pervasive and permanent. The 'loose' liberalism expressed in Ashe's tennis was the preferred style of American youth, and the tight hind-end game played by Graebner didn't stand a chance. Ahh, that was before the Culture Wars, before the 'Southern Strategy', before Reaganism and Ollie North, before egalitarian idealism got lost in the Bushes. What McPhee didn't foresee was that Clark Graebner's 'Republican tennis' could claw and scratch, rage and pout, and make a comeback. After all, they play how they are.

The story attempts to contrast two persons of very different backgrounds (one poor black, one fairly privileged white) as the wrap-around of a tennis match between the two. McPhee is a good and honest writer, and this is non-fiction -- so the story does not have the punch that the story could have had, if he had moved the same notion over to the fiction side of the library. Overall a good read, but (and this is not the author's fault) this is ultimately a fairly superficial study of two very different people who crossed paths by virtue of playing the same game -- tennis -- during an era of change in society and tennis.

The story of tennis balls moving back and forth over the nets by two master conductors of the game, Ashe and Graebner - this is the central player of this book. One’s personality is one’s game and on pro level differences of personalities determine who is gonna win - that’s the main thesis of McPhee’s book. McPhee wielded this thesis by means of drawing pictures both in past and present. The book was like a movie with a lot of cut scenes. The cut scenes are so well-meshed that, be it Ashe’s bending of norms or Graebner’s adherence to structured play or their differential life that stems out of their family, financial status, and race - it feels like everything is getting captured in one take. The aces are of John McPhee’s. And he had a lot more of them than other writers of his genre, the genre of telling non-fiction stories in a fictionesque way. To, diving into more of John McPhee’s work.

I see why many call McPhee a master writer. Just all go. Interchanging between the game and their lives. Characters that are relatable and epic in their play. Levels of the Game explains not just the depth of the match, but of the actors in the play. And it goes to show the levels of McPhee's writing style. A spectacular piece of writing, one of the best I've ever read.

a great book if you're a tennis fan. mcphee is so good a writer he was able to get me to read 200 pages, 2/3 of a book, on the geology of california. in this book he spends time with arthur ashe and clark graebner and watches a film of their forest hills final with each of them, revealing what they were each thinking from moment to moment. he weaves in biography and other material. in all, a fascinating and fun read.

It's always a good thing when a book leaves you wanting more, and that's exactly how I felt after I read the last sentence in this short book, which describes the action in a tennis match and also examines the personalities and life of the two competing players, Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner. Ultimately it's a magazine article which was fleshed out a bit more, but its still a riveting read and made me think of how athletes bring their inner self to their game.

What John McPhee did for Bill Bradley and college basketball in "A Sense of Where You Are," he does here for Arthur Ashe and Clark Braebner and professional tennis in "Levels of the Game." In McPhee's inimitable style, he uses sport—a particularly complex and athletic game— to consider the psychology of two players from very different backgrounds. Each uses imperfect knowledge of those cultures to try to outwit the other. Although one will learn a lot about tennnis from this book, McPhee's true subject—as in all his books—is human nature. Originating in articles from "The New Yorker," "Levels of the Game" is echt McPhee: a delightful, page-turning read.

This guy can write. What an interesting story. I'm a huge tennis fan but this brought a lot of history and new intrigue to a sport. Great characters. Bravo.

Adorei a forma de escrita do autor e como ele liga diversos assuntos, como desenrola a história seu desfecho, uma obra prima para quem ama o tênis

Mr M lifts the game of information, style, syntax and ground's one's thinking. If ever am asked what mystery guest I can choose for breakfast, I will choose this writer.

Would never have chosen to read this book but it was voted for by my book group. A really interesting narrative structure weaving US tennis history with revealing unevolved views on humankind, casual racism through somewhat thrilling sports journalism.

Excellnetitem

Very enjoyable book