Description: From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of themost gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, comes a beautiful, hauntingautobiography. With its breakneck tempo and raw candor, "Open" is a treat forboth ardent fans and those who know nothing about tennis.
Review Quotes:
A New York Times Notable Book and a Forbes, San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington Post Best Book of the Year
"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. . . . An unvarnished, at times inspiring story [told] in an arresting, muscular style. . . . Agassi's memoir is just as entrancing as his tennis game."--Time "Fascinating. . . . Inspiring. . . . Open describes Agassi's personal odyssey with brio and unvarnished candor. . . . [Agassi's] 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 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."
--The Wall Street Journal "Honest in a way that such books seldom are. . . . An uncommonly well-written sports memoir. . . . 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 "Not your typical jock-autobio fare. This literate and absorbing book is, as the title baldly states, Agassi's confessional, a wrenching chronicle of his lifelong search for identity and serenity, on and off the court."
--Los Angeles Times "The writing here is exceptional. It is can't-put-down good."
--Sports Illustrated "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."
--The Washington Post "The most revealing, literate, and toes-stompingly honest sports autobiography in history"
--Rick Reilly, ESPN "Much more than a drug confession--Agassi weaves a fascinating tale of professional tennis and personal adversity. . . . His tale shows that success is measured both on and off the court."
--New York Post "Not only has Agassi bared his soul like few professional athletes ever have, he's done it with a flair and force that most professional writers can't even pull off."
--Entertainment Weekly "[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 "Hard-won self-knowledge irradiates almost every page of Open. . . . 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."
--The New York Times Book Review "A riveting and reflective memoir by a man who rose to the top of his sport--despite hating it."
--San Francisco Chronicle "Celebrity tell-alls have rarely been this honest and this interesting."
--Baltimore Sun "A vivid portrait of the internal battle faced in some measure by every athlete."
--Bloomberg News "Articulate. . . . Expertly rendered."
--The Morning News (Boston) "Refreshingly candid. . . . This lively, revealing, and entertaining book is certain to roil the tennis world and make a big splash beyond."
--Publishers Weekly