****
Open by Andre Agassi
(Knopf, 2009)

I wanted to read this book a second time before I wrote the review. The reason? I wasn’t sure if it fit the mandate of ChickLitChickFlick.com, but have since confirmed it does.  So, here we are.  First off, if you don’t like tennis, you probably won’t like this book.  But, my mom, who isn’t a tennis fan, enjoyed it.  So, don’t skip over it, but just be warned it’s a book with a lot of tennis references.

What makes this book so good is Agassi’s story and the honest, straight-forward writing style of J.R. Moehringer, Jr.  Moehringer won the Pulitzer Prize for features writing in 2000.  Moehringer, according to Agassi’s endnotes, passed on writing credits because he believed his name shouldn’t be on another man’s life story. 

Open takes the reader on Agassi’s unlikely rise as a boy who hated tennis to one of the greatest players of all time.  Open provides insight on Agassi’s trouble with his dad, coaches, health, hair loss, and of course, relationships.

Agassi is candid about wanting to flee on his wedding day from Brooke Shields and his long-standing adoration of current wife, Steffi Graf.  It’s the love story with Graf, how he admired her from afar and how he finally managed to build a relationship with her, that is the best story in this book.   Indeed, the story could be a book in itself.

This was an unexpected page turner.  It’s part rags to riches and part chick-lit. 
I recommended it to another friend and she loved it, too.  Open tells Agassi’s complicated life story, including revealing that he never understood the context for his famous tagline “Image is everything”  for the Canon Rebel camera, when he filmed the line.  The book reminds you that Agassi, who just has a grade school education, is no dummy.  There are several examples of his brilliance in Open, but perhaps the best example is Agassi choosing Moehringer to work on the book with him.

If you’re looking for something a little different, try Open.