Rating: 
Summary: I wish he were my doctor!
Review: After reading both of Dr. Verghese's books I a) wish he'd hurry up and write the next segment of his life story and b) wish that he could be my very own personal physician. I can't imagine trusting anyone more. He is honest, and from his careful medical discussions here, he is brilliant and intuitive. I love the way he combines his knowledge of medicine and tennis with his friendship and his marriage. Some folks are bored with his medical and tennis descriptions, but I felt so privileged to be peering over his shoulder. To admit to such vulnerability! To lay your soul bare! He is a poet and a master of the language. This man knows how to write creative nonfiction.
Rating: 
Summary: The compassionate heart of the doctor again takes control of
Review: The compassionate heart of the doctor again takes control of his pen just as it did in his first book,MY OWN COUNTRY. Having been in situations where an addiction has ended a treasured friendship, I was touched by the doctor's story of bonding and loss, of the hard work of relationships and the failure that might follow successes. This is a powerful story of two men connected by a game that is of life as well as tennis; the deep ties that so often are typical of women but rarely are they seen between men; the struggles of each man to hang on to the value of life built between them. It is not often such a deep sense of love is so sensuously described except by women between women.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing book from a good writer
Review: The author of My Own Country seems to have lost his touch. Nowhere in The Tennis Partner do you see the same charm or honesty. His prose continues to be elegant, and his images vivid. But this story is simply not as compelling as the one he had to tell in My Own Country. The fatal flaw in The Tennis Partner is that you never really understand the basis of the friendship between the doctor and David. What, besides tennis, did they have in common? David is Verghese's intellectual inferior and the doctor's fascination for him is puzzling. Another problem is the structure of the book. He juxtaposes long italicized segments on tennis that have nothing to do with anything, with themes of drug addiction, medicine, loneliness, marital breakdown, David's relationships with women, and travel-book descriptions of El Paso. The book simply does not cohere. I hope Dr. Verghese can give us more in his next book.
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Summary: An interesting combination of infectious disease and tennis.
Review: Like Abraham Verghese, I am an infectious disease physician and an avid tennis player. I found his skills and knowledge as a clinician equal to his skills on the court. He is a great student--knows how to take in a lesson from a master tennis player and guru, Pancho Segura--and is an inspired and enthusiastic instructor of students and residents. I found the book thoroughly entertaining and enlightening, from "Occam's Razor" to "approaching on the short ball". How does Peter D. Kramer fit in this picture?
Rating: 
Summary: Sophomore slump?
Review: While not a bad read, "The Tennis Partner" lacks the vision and purpose of Dr. Verghese first book, the remarkable and extraordinary "My Own Country." It isn't just the sometimes long winded passages about tennis (which can easily be skimmed over without causing the reader to lose touch with the overall narrative) that make this less interesting, it is simply that the subject matter comes across a bit more ego driven at times. Granted Dr. Verghese's compassion for his drug addicted friend is most evident, but the purpose in relaying this story sometimes comes across as more for the purposes of writing a second book, whereas "My Own Country" clearly had a story that needed to be told. "The Tennis Partner" is still a decent read, and perhaps it is unfair to expect a second book, or any book for that matter, matching "My Own Country." If the subject matter of "The Tennis Partner" appeals to you read it, but be sure to read "My Own Country" as well.
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Summary: A doctor's pain and loss by the death of a tennis partner.
Review: Abraham Verghese tell us another story of real life within the circles of his life. He tells it in such a way to keep one glued to the pages until finished. In the earlier going I became confused as to whether his young student David Smith was in fact a "friend" or a tennis partner, and then when Abraham states, " my student, my intern, my tennis partner, my friend," I began looking back over the pages in an attempt to discover if he meant the above quote in just that order. Well worth reading, and may leave you wondering as well.
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Summary: Beautiful, painful and engrossing
Review: Do not fear reading The Tennis Partner if you are not a fan of tennis. Dr. Verghese uses his and David's love of the sport as a way to illustrate how some things in life are simple on the surface, yet incredibly involved once you peer beneath it. The friends' tennis meetings are originally scheduled to get some exercise and enjoy the outdoors, yet soon turn in to the tie that binds the two men as well as an outlet for their innermost secrets. Tennis is also a game of seemingly simple bodily motions, yet slight changes in those movements can yield tremendous gains or losses. For Verghese, this is a metaphor for life itself. David is at first appearance everything that Verghese wishes he was - young, attractive, a former tennis pro. Yet once the two cement their relationship with tennis and get together outside their profession, David's problems become apparent, and somewhat mysterious to the author. Verghese's medical background serves a similar purpose. The somewhat detailed accounts of his career serve to illustrate his gifts for intuiting the things that destroy people's bodies. And through his gifts, he is able to look past David's emotional facade and find that his friend is troubled. And although medical diagnoses come as second nature for Verghese, he is unable or afraid to act when he sees David destroyed by his own inner demons. The Tennis Partner is a beautifullly crafted story of a painful, yet enriching friendship and loss. I enjoyed it so much I immediately went out and bought a copy of Verghese's first book. I very highly recommend that anyone read this incredible book.
Rating:
Summary: a big disappointment
Review: I had looked forward to this book, expecting an inciteful analysis of friendship and drug addiction. I loved "My Own Country", and lookd forward to enjoying this book as much. I was sorely disappointed; irritated by travel book descriptions of El Paso, smug case histories of patients, egocentric self-analysis of the author's relationship with others. I found little to explain WHY the two men were friends, outside of being tennis buddies, and almost no incite to the problems faced when a friend has a drug addiction. Perhaps my expectations were too high, you can't always hit a home run.
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Summary: An honest and compassionate book
Review: I was very impressed with Dr. Verghese's book about friendship and addiction. While he appears to be a wonderful doctor and a master diagnostician, he has the courage to write about a disease that escaped him ( the disease of addiction) It is not an easy thing for most physicians to do. In addition, book is beautifully written and difficult to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Well crafted, engaging, and interesting.
Review: "The Tennis Partner" focuses on the author's friendship with a fellow doctor who had once been a tennis pro and also a cocaine addict. But the book also weaves together other aspects of the author's life during a five-year period: his profession (internal medicine), his passion for tennis, the breakup of his marriage, and his efforts to create a home for himself as a newly single man. I liked the way in which these themes were dealt with in short chapters, some of which were single-topic (such as a tennis lesson with Pancho Segura), and others of which brought together several threads of the author's life. The shifts from medicine, to tennis, to marriage, and so forth, were smoothly accomplished and kept me engaged and interested. I also liked that the book was informative, especially about drug addiction, diagnosis of diseases, and the subtleties of tennis. The author may strike some readers as a bit of a showoff where his medical skills and tennis are concerned, but I see his descriptions of these skills as realistic self-assessments: he's good at what he does. My only complaint is that Verghese (the author) seems humorless and not especially likable. But I guess I should cut him some slack here, considering that the book covers a dark period of his life. In reading his "New Yorker" pieces, Verghese has not struck me this way. I recommend this book.
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