Description: A stunning memoir by one of the world's most beloved athletes, "Open" offers a nuanced self-portrait, an intensely candid account of a remarkable life, and a thrilling inside view of the pro tennis tour.
Review Quotes:
"Insightful [and] exceedingly well-written . . . [Open] has the cadence and plotting of a good novel . . . The raw energy and emotion throughout are pure Agassi."
-Newsday Top 10 Books of 2009
-Entertainment Weekly 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2009 "Bracingly devoid of triumphalist homily, Agassi's is one of the most passionately anti-sports books ever written by a superstar athlete."
-The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009 "Andre Agassi's memoir is just as entrancing as his tennis game . . . By sharing an unvarnished, at times inspiring story in an arresting, muscular style, Agassi may have just penned one of the best sports autobiographies of all time. Check--it's one of the better memoirs out there, period."
-Sean Gregory, Time
"Not just a first-rate sports memoir but a genuine bildungsroman, darkly funny yet also anguished and soulful. It confirms what Agassi's admirers sensed from the outset, that this showboat . . . was not clamoring for attention but rather conducting a struggle to wrest some semblance of selfhood from the sport that threatened to devour him."
-Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times Book Review
"A remarkable and quite unexpected volume, one that sails well past its homiletic genre into the realm of literature, a memoir whose success clearly owes not a little to a reader's surprise in discovering that a celebrity one may have presumed to know on the basis of that haircut and a few television commercials hawking cameras via the slogan 'image is everything' emerges as a man of parts--self-aware, black-humored, eloquent."
-Michael Kimmelman, The New York Review of Books
"[A] heartfelt memoir . . . Agassi's style is open, all right, and his book, like so many of his tennis games, is a clear winner."
-O, The Oprah Magazine
"Open describes [Agassi's] personal odyssey with brio and unvarnished candor . . . His career-comeback tale is inspiring but even more so is another Open storyline. It could be called: The punk grows up . . . Countless athletes start charitable foundations, but frequently the organizations are just tax shelters or PR stunts. For Mr. Agassi helping others has instead become his life's calling . . . Open is a superb memoir, but it hardly closes the books on an extraordinary life."
-Jay Winik, The Wall Street Journal
"It's both astonishing and a pleasure to report that Andre Agassi . . . has produced an honest, substantive, insightful autobiography . . . The bulk of this extraordinary book vividly recounts a lost childhood, a Dickensian adolescence, and a chaotic struggle in adulthood to establish an identity . . . While not without excitement, Agassi's comeback to No. 1 is less uplifting than his sheer survival, his emotional resilience, and his good humor in the face of the luckless cards he was often dealt."
-Michael Mewshaw, Washington Post
"Honest in a way that such books seldom are . . . An uncommonly well-written sports memoir."
-Charles McGrath, The New York Times
"Probably the most candid sports autobiography ever written . . . A remarkably real, tell-it-like-it-is, record-breaking read."
-Nancy Isenberg, The [Baton Rouge] Advocate
"Agassi weaves a fascinating tale of professional tennis and personal adversity . . . His tale shows that success is measured both on and off the court."
-Doree Shafrir, New York Post
"Refreshingly candid . . . This lively, revealing, and entertaining book is certain to roil the tennis world and make a big splash beyond."
-Publishers Weekly
"Enigmatic tennis great Agassi lays it all on the line . . . Agassi's photographic recall of pivotal matches evokes the raw intensity of watching them from the stands. Lovers of the sport will also appreciate this window into the mind of a champion . . . An ace of a tale about how one man found his game."
-Kirkus