{"product_id":"on-being-john-mcenroe","title":"On Being John McEnroe","description":"The greatest sports stars characterize their times. They also help to tell us who we are.\n\nJohn McEnroe, at his best and worst, told us the story of the 1980s. His improvised quest for tennis perfection, and his inability to find a way to grow up, dramatized the volatile self-absorption of a generation. His matches were open therapy sessions, and they allowed us all to be armchair shrinks.\n\nIn this book, Tim Adams sets out to explore what it might have meant to be John McEnroe during the turbulent 1980s, and in his subsequent lives, and to define exactly what it is that we want from our sporting heroes: how we require them to play out our own dramas, and how the best of them provide an intensity by which we can measure our own lives.\n\nAt the heart of this book are two fascinating characters—McEnroe and Bjorn Borg—and the extraordinary rivalry that defined them, a rivalry as compelling and dramatic as Ali and Foreman or Spassky and Fischer. Their great Wimbledon match of July 5, 1980—the central event in Adams’s narrative—was, as he writes, “a confrontation between two highly developed states of mind: a struggle between extreme consciousness and an absolutely studied containment of consciousness.”\n\nIt’s a book that’s “full of pleasures,” according to the London Sunday Times, and will appeal to any tennis fan or serious sports reader.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 1400081475\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: 56JPY7000PGA_ns\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Acceptable\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Adams, Tim\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: Pages can have notes highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. The dust jacket or box shows normal wear and tear. May have varying covers. Fast Shipping - Mailed in plastic mailer!  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Reliant Bookstore","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43344594174129,"sku":"56JPY7000PGA_ns","price":8.88,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0544\/8872\/7729\/files\/skuimage_99388bdb-1d6e-4ef6-88b5-7f3a273e717a.jpg?v=1707287354","url":"https:\/\/www.reliantbookstore.com\/products\/on-being-john-mcenroe","provider":"Reliant Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}