Rating: 
Summary: YouCanNotBeMoreBIGHEADED
Review: If your a Die hard Tennis fan,your going to LOVE this Book.McEnroe goes into every game he's played since he was 5,every Point,everyPain,and you will be in pain also for the most part.Every time we get to an interesting part,John skips over the event.(Like the famous star he dated who was alot older than him with 2kids.Cher,CarlySimon?The thing he took at a party were he had to be carried out. Was it Advil? ) I also can't understand why Tatum is upset with the book.I guess she's still in love with him.John doesn't go into details about her problems.I also hate the fact that McEnroe does not believe in God.I guess when your handed this great talent,fame and money at a young age,you think your GOD.I also can't believe John thought he was going to become a HUGE rock star.YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!To be honest,I did enjoy some parts of the book,but my hero,Jimmy Connors,is shot down,and made to be the bad guy in Johns version.I would love to hear Jimmys side.
Rating:
Summary: Get that spot light back over here!!!
Review: Mac tells his story in his words. But when you are a "spotlight hound" who likes the advantages of being famous but doesn't feel he should have to live with the negatives, how creditable can the story be? I play lots of tennis and remain a big fan of his artistry on the tennis courts. But let's be honest. The only reason Mac stopped playing tennis is the game evolved beyond his abilities. There are few serve/volley players because the game is based on power now. Mac did not have great power. It was sad to watch Mac play Lendl in the late 80s expecting a compelling duel when what you saw was Mac unable to handle the consistent pace of Lendl's power. But unlike many players, Mac was more than just a player. He attended private school through one year at Stanford. And while still a pro, he developed a deep interest in art by touring various museums around the world. Then there is the other side of Mac which occupies significant space in the book. Mac the musician. Here he uses his celebrity to play guitar poorly with famous people. While I'm sure this is quite a rush, he eventually forms his own band that does some minor touring. But his budding music career comes to an abrupt halt. He continues to bug his musician/wife Patty Smythe to sing with his band. When she finally agrees, Mac walks out in the crowd playing his guitar effectively taking the spotlight off the true artist, his wife. At least he's willing to put this story in his book showing how badly he needs the spotlight. Mac does talk extensively of his celebrity status and the advantages it allowed him. In our current pop culture this may be the most interesting part to people who don't closely follow tennis. While Mac may have thought he was writing a compelling intelligent biography, it will always remain known for the publicity is generated by his statements of wife Tatum O'Neal and her televised response. In summary, Mac is a very good tennis television commentator and a former great player. He also is a celebrity who needs the stage. But Mac, your time was over in the 80s. Time to move on and writing a book about yourself justifying why you whine on the tennis court doesn't quite cut. I'm glad I read this book, as I'm a big tennis fan. But Mac's highest and best use is a challenge match against one of the Williams sisters. He's become Bobby Riggs. And I'll bet the match eventually takes place because Mac needs the spotlight.
Rating: 
Summary: You cannot be more boring!
Review: Arguably one of the most charasmatic and colorful athletes of the 80's has written a ... boring account of his life. McEnroe has written a "tell-nothing" book which pits him as the noble, misunderstood guy of tennis, and (relative)clean-cut athlete. All the while he is quick to criticize other players on and off court behavior and greed (namely Jimmy Connors). You would think a mercurial and brilliant athlete, who revolutionized his sport, and then married a famous child actor / heroin addict, would have an interesting tale to tell. Guess again. The book is drowned in sportspage type writing, where Johnny Mac painfully accounts hundreds of matches throughout his brilliant carreer (who cares who McEnroe played in the 1979 Milan Open in the 3rd round?). When it comes to providing insights into what was life like on the tour, and what drove him to be the best player and worst behaved; McEnroe is way off the mark and sheepish. McEnroe has never been accused of being a saint and you definitely get the sense he was privied to some wild offcourt experiences, but he never divulges. Probably to protect his image and family. In the end, the only real takeaway from the book is McEnroe is a bitter, greedy, self-serving, and selfish human being.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Interesting Read About a Tennis Legend
Review: I found "You Cannot be Serious" to be an insightful view into John McEnroe's life as a tennis player, and he certainly has gone on to become probably the best commentator on the sport today (when is Bud Collins going to retire? He's almost as painful to listen to as Dick Button about Figure Skating, and I think that he has retired)....when reading the book, myself being an avid tennis player for over 20 years, I was solely concentrating on McEnroe's rise in the ranks. Another thing that surprised me was when he was a ball boy for Bjorn Borg, he went on to play him in more than several tournaments, and had a complete Idol worship of the Silent Swede, going on to say that Borg was the best male tennis player that the public had ever seen.
Rating: 
Summary: ....a serious author is born!
Review: ...incredible and genuinely evocative; a wonderfully creative and indeed thought provoking rarity. Imagine an author with several very urgent, refreshing, candid and most definitely intelligent scenarios to share with insight and wit. John McEnroe definitely does possess a wide and rich assortment of tangible literary gifts and engrossing "story-telling" skills. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: You Cannot Be Serious
Review: A good read, even for a non-tennis person. He does tend to overly name names, but if you're into tennis the names are all familiar, if you're not...you can skim over them easily. He goes through his career and ends with his lovelife. Interesting.
Rating:
Summary: More excuses than a 3-year-old
Review: To be honest, I was never a big fan of McEnroe. Sure, he was an amazing tennis player and it was a joy to watch him play. Until he opened his mouth! But in recent years, I had begun to admire his commentating style. He had insite into the game, and wonderful behind-the-scenes stories which made watching a match much more enjoyable. I purchased this book hoping there would be something that would find me liking him for the player he was all those years ago. Unfortunately, what I found was what a lot of other reviewers found - an ego the size of Texas and an astonishing lack of remorse or repentance for his inexcusable behavior while on the court. I have never heard so many excuses in my life. For every emotional explosion or match he lost there was, to quote him, "reasons, not excuses." It takes a mature man to be able to say "I played a bad match" and leave it at that. He just doesn't seem capable of doing that. Unfortunately, this book is really nothing more than 300 pages of Mac trying to explain to us why we shouldn't hold him accountable for his actions and/or losses - that we should blame the conditions surrounding them instead as he so obviously does.
Rating: 
Summary: No, YOU cannot be serious
Review: This is a very breezy and elliptical biography that doesn't scratch the top layer of whomever John McEnroe is. The kinds of insights here are what you'd expect strangers at a dinner party to gladly reveal of themselves without provocation (much less twenty bucks). I mean, John McEnroe was arguably the most charismatic athlete of the 20th century. But I'm reading his book and feeling that he missed out on the entire train ride himself. I'd have loved for some real insight on what it was like to be such a competitor and to keep come out winning -- sometimes despite yourself. How did that work for him? At what cost? We're not told. He never reveals what was going on inside his head when he would melt down on court or what he was like preparing for matches. He'll tell you that he used to cry when he lost, but not what he was thinking. He authors the story as though all of his achievements and misdeeds just burst out of the blue. He sounds so passive. He doesn't attempt to account for who he is. There's no life or excitement to this book. Perhaps this explains for the gratuitous insertions of exclamation points to tart-up the otherwise turgid prose. Like this! I'm very disappointed in this book. If you're going to write an autobiography, then say something to the reader who is (presumably) already interested in your life that will enlighten his knowledge of you. I don't know where to strike the balance between this remote and reserved style of biography and a heart-on-the-sleeve tearjerking tell-all. But you know what? That's not my job. Game. Set. Match.
Rating:
Summary: In honor of John, a four letter word: BORE
Review: I admit to being in the habit of not finishing a book, temporarily; however, it is rare that I skip chapters to get to the end and never care to read what I missed. This was a difficult read...or rather difficult to read. When you have lived a public life, it must not be easy to share what we (the public) have already seen in a way that is as interesting as the live moment that we have already witnessed. For John, it was almost impossible. It was painfully obvious that unlimited exclamation points were relied on to bring life to stories that should have had enough energy on their own. And that brief parenthetical phrases were used in place of a more in-depth telling of the John McEnroe story. Instead the book read like a drawn out People Magazine article, cropped and unengaging. Unfortunately, the book was as disappointing as John's Borders Bookstore visit to SF. He obliged his audience with autographs but sent word ahead of his arrival that he did not want to talk about the book. Did he really think we were there to get his signature?? I hoped the book would redeem his lack of interest in his audience, however, instead it highlighted how little he actually wants to say. Unlike other autobiographical reads that deserve their adoring audience, this one was not worth the time or the money.
Rating:
Summary: From the Shrink's Couch
Review: John McEnroe is one of the more intelligent and well-spoken sports superstars. I suppose with a good private school background and an attorney father it stands to reason. I have always liked McEnroe not just for his tennis ability, which at the net was truly artistic, but for his bluntness, openness and dare say honesty. During a match if he argued a call he was usually correct. I had some first-hand knowledge about that, I was a line umpire at one of his matches (he just bought the blue 450SL at that point in his career).
That said I couldn't help but feel that the book is a compilation of many sessions with his shrink. It read a little too cute for me, too self-aware in a PG type of format. I suppose he couldn't really let loose because of his T.V. career.
He leaves out plently of interesting stuff. Enough with Borg already, tell us how he self-destructed, went from Nordic God to
Nordic trash hauler. What happened? I'm sure McEnroe can shed some light but refuses to do so.
We don't really read what happens on the road other than a few banal generalities. Again, I suppose he doesn't want to go into the gory details in order to protect his TV image and not make enemies. Taum O'Neil? I suppose she has to write her own book to get her side of the story out.
If the book was a movie it would be produced by Disney and given a G or PG rating. As a sports celebrity book it is above average but not outstanding, steady from the baseline but lacks the killer volley.
David Watner
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