Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Look At Human Aloneness and Male Friendship
Review: Abraham Verghese's second book, "The Tennis Partner," is far different from his first, "My Own Country," in which he chronicles his work in a rural area in Tennessee as the physician in a "one doctor town." An inordinate number of AIDS cases begin to come his way and he tells the story of his learning quickly how to deal with this challenging disease in an area with extremely limited resources. (An outstanding read available through Amazon.)"The Tennis Partner" begins with Verghese's arrival in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and two sons where has taken a new position as a Professor of Medicine in a teaching hospital, a prestigious advance in his medical career. Soon into the story, we learn that Verghese finds himself fairly humanly bankrupt as he finally realizes the reality that his marriage is in ruins and now ending due to his own neglect of his wife in the amount of attention he has given to his career. He learns that he is extremely rootless: a foreign born physician, in a new town, with no friendships or personal support systems. Verghese, after assisting his wife establish a new home and a create a sense of stability for his sons, begins to look for an apartment near his wife's home so that he can be near his sons and complete the actual separation from his wife that they have been essentially living for quite some time by this point. Verghese begins a friendship with David, an intern in his final year (actually, we later learn, that David is repeating his internship, due to drug addition having interrupted his earlier, nearly completed internship.) There is a similarity to Verghese's rootless and David's own. The intern, a bit older than the typical medical school following a fairly successful run on the professional tennis circuit. The heart of the story is the newly developing friendship between the two men, the mutually rewarding relationship they ultimately establish in co-mentoring each other; Verghese mentoring his intern in medicine and David mentoring Abraham in improving his tennis game. While sounding simplistic, as one reader, I enjoyed observing the somewhat complex relationship that is rife with the the awkwardness and clumsiness of two heterosexual men essentially creating a non-sexual love and friendship that is a fundamental need that all men have. Verghese's book very accurately mirrors the reality of men needing other men in their lives for significant friendships and characterizes well, the complexity of "male bonding."The story doesn't have a particularly happy ending, yet, it is a true story. It is an excellent documentation of the need for, the high degrees of complexity, the platonic love men often develop for one another, the degrees of petty rivalry and subtle competition that often exist in men's friendships and the ultimate limitations of any friendship - male or female.The "tennis element" adds even more to the story for the person who is a tennis fan but the tennis games and the medical mentoring the two men exchange are, in many ways, metaphors of the manner in which male friendships develop and volley from one side to the other, each holding high expectations of the other, each contributing something to the other, yet careful not to overwhelm the other -- often with one winning more than the other as is the case in this story in both tennis and medicine. Verghese is clearly an excellent physician who takes great interest in his patients and uses his keen personal intuition as one of his best diagnostic tools. Yet, Verghese's sensitivity, attentiveness and keen intuition seems to start and stop at the hospital doors as he shows himself to be quite human in his personal inadequacy, stilted personal development and in his normal human incompleteness. David is equally complex, engaging at the same time he is able be maintain his clear boundaries and keep a certain distance. An excellent and gripping story. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: A satisfying read despite inherent flaws
Review: Whether or not you have a background in medicine, this book will draw you in and keep you interested. The only parts that may seem a bit tedious to run through are some of the tennis sequences. This may seem odd coming from a tennis player, but reading about tennis is like watching grass grow. However, the sequences do bring other parts of the book together, and they are tolerable.
My only other issue is Verghese's constant romanticizing of El Paso, neighboring Juarez, and their inhabitants. Having lived here for almost three years (*and* having worked as a physician in the hospital he mentions in his novel), I can promise you that the innocence, the bluster, and the graciousness of his side characters is almost completely fictional.
I don't think it would have detracted from the book to portray the city and the people more realistically.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredibly well written
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I am both a doctor and a tennis player, and Dr. V describes both tennis and healthcare with such great detail and insight that I found myself rethinking all I have previously thought on both topics. Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Painful and Moving Study of the Dark Side of the Soul
Review: Having just finished this book for the second time, I feel compelled to write down my feelings. Verghese has that effect on you - a journal writer at heart, he brings out the writer in the reader. I see far too much of myself in David - for those in the know, the ease of relapse is both understandable and horrifying familiar. In the end, Verghese fails to understand the demons that haunt his best friend - but thankfully for him, this is due to a lack of walking in his shoes, rather than a deficit of compassion or intellect. I can't say that this book makes me feel good - but it does impart valuable knowledge on a variety of subjects. Recommended, but only to those who don't mind a little pain with their pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: Verghese's a great writer-this effort is very disappointing.
Review: A lot of people, if one reads the previous reviews, see this as a novel of male friendship and bonding. I do not see it that way at all. Rather, I see it as a novel about men who are congenital loners trying to break out and find a meaningful relationship--unfortunately without success. That failure seriously undermines the premise of the novel.Dr. Verghese, the author and narrator (although cited as fiction the book obviously is heavily autobiographical) and a fourth-year medical student named David Smith, encounter one another while working at the local teaching hospital in El Paso, Texas. Both are in the midst of breakups in their marital/significant other relationships and desperate for some sort of trusting, stable emotional bond. When they discover a mutual love of tennis-David has had limited semi-pro experience, Verghese has been enamored with the game all his life as an escape mechanism from his childhood loneliness-the basis is found for the beginning of the development of a relationship. Both bring substantial emotional baggage to the relationship. It develops that David is a "recovered" drug addict. Verghese, stigmatized by his minority status and unable to relate to anyone except through very limiting roles (patient, neighbor, boss) is divorcing and managing it very badly. That the relationship seems to work at all is due to the role reversal it requires-David, the student and receiver of medical knowledge becomes the teacher of tennis wisdom and Verghese the receiver of same. This is a deep, complex & ambitious book that fails. It fails because the central story, the relationship between David and Verghese never really exists-they never truly bond on an emotional level at any point. By the end we are supposed to be moved by the somehow deeply moving effect David has had on everyone in sight-Verghese, David's women, the other hospital folks, the local addict community and, presumably, the reader. Yet the man never really, at any point, truly touches anyone in the book at any sort of human level. There are worthwhile elements to the book. One does get a genuine feel for what teaching hospital life is like. Also, one gets a feel for what life in El Paso, Texas, a very unusual community I like a lot, it like. Verghese's love for tennis is genuine and his prose about the sport is almost poetic. There are little historical snippets-mini biographical pieces, really-about the lives and quirks of some of tennis' great players that are interesting and informative. And, finally, Verghese is a gifted writer with an engaging and riveting writing voice. In the end, I was really disappointed, though I was glad I read the book. But, the failure to deliver a convincing central story left this as much less of a book than it could have been.
Rating:
Summary: More than a game
Review: This is a moving memoir about two men: Abraham, a doctor, and David, a doctor-to-be, who build a deep friendship by playing tennis together. However, tennis becomes much more than just a game- the author Abraham Verghese manages to beautifully tie the different pieces of the story together by using tennis as a metaphor for life. It doesn't matter that David's inability to overcome his addiction and get his life together comes as no surprise to the reader- it still leaves you crushed and deeply saddened. One thing I wish the author would have added more of was reflections on his own problems. It would have been interesting if he had woven in more of his thoughts and feelings about his imminent divorce, his relationship with his wife, children, and thoughts about his romantic future. However, I suppose this is really David's story, and the story of the friendship that developed between the two men and then ended so tragically.
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