{"product_id":"9781250234926","title":"The Circuit : A Tennis Odyssey","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Circuit\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Rowan Ricardo Phillips\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2019 PEN\/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The Circuit\u003c\/i\u003e is the best sports book I've read in years, maybe ever.” —Rich Cohen, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Chicago Cubs\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMonsters\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As sports writing goes, \u003ci\u003eThe Circuit \u003c\/i\u003eis unusual in the very best way. Rowan Ricardo Phillips writes with such fluidity, and packs the book with bursts of brilliance. This is a compulsively readable guide to one truly Homeric year of professional tennis.” —John Green, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Fault in Our Stars\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn energetic, lyrical, genre-defying account of the 2017 tennis season.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e, the award-winning poet—and \u003ci\u003eParis Review\u003c\/i\u003e sports columnist—Rowan Ricardo Phillips chronicles 2017 as seen through the unique prism of its pivotal, revelatory, and historic tennis season. The annual tennis schedule is a rarity in professional sports in that it encapsulates the calendar year. And like the year, it’s divided into four seasons, each marked by a final tournament: the Grand Slams. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Phillips charts the year from winter’s Australian Open, where Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal renewed their rivalry in a match for the ages, to fall’s U.S. Open. Along the way, Phillips paints a new, vibrant portrait of tennis, one that captures not only the emotions, nerves, and ruthless tactics of the point-by-point game but also the quicksilver movement of victory and defeat on the tour, placing that sense of upheaval within a broader cultural and social context. Tennis has long been thought of as an escapist spectacle: a bucolic, separate bauble of life.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Circuit\u003c\/i\u003e will convince you that you don’t leave the world behind as you watch tennis—you bring it with you.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Phillips keeps the pages turning with an easy yet exacting style and keen observations. Tennis nerds in particular will enjoy his parsing of Federer’s retooled backhand . . . Phillips’s wit suffuses this text . . .   \u003ci\u003eThe Circuit\u003c\/i\u003e is a welcome palate cleanser, a license to enjoy an underrated sport at its best.\" —Andrew Lawrence, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s \u003ci\u003eThe Circuit\u003c\/i\u003e is a tennis romance, and unique. Phillips knows the love. He is a sportswriter and poet, and remarkably, because tennis love isn’t easy to explain, he has found the right supple, sometimes tactile, and tender language for it . . . \" —Lynne Tillman, \u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The touchstone for any tennis writer is John McPhee, who wrote \u003ci\u003eLevels of the Game\u003c\/i\u003e, the finest book in the history of the sport. Mr. Phillips has writing skills comparable to Mr. McPhee’s, which is high praise.”  —Tom Perrotta, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As an aficionado and player, Phillips is especially attuned to tennis’ weirdness among other sports . . . Phillips’ lyrical impulses ignite his compressed, efficient, accurate, lively and always liquid prose . . . Phillips wields his prose like an elegant, one-handed backhand, fending off florid metaphors and deflecting the canards about sports, to present the tour’s basic process: the sport is a distraction.” —Walton Muyumba, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Phillips reveals his love of tennis on every page. There is a generosity of spirit toward the reader . . .  a joy to read: a poet’s love song to the game of tennis.\" —Geoff Macdonald, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A delightful book, told with a true aficionado's passion. \u003ci\u003eThe Circuit\u003c\/i\u003e's engrossing account of the 2017 professional tennis season opens out into unexpected vistas of meaning.\" —Ian Frazier, author of \u003ci\u003eTravels in Siberia\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“For those who follow tennis, \u003ci\u003eThe Circuit \u003c\/i\u003eis \u003ci\u003ethe \u003c\/i\u003ebook to read. With sharp insight into the key players' mannerisms, dazzling physical description, and lyrical, gorgeous prose, it's a pure treat. Rowan Ricardo Phillips's passion for the sport, its subtle geometries and self-defeating head games, is unequaled: game, set, match.\" —Phillip Lopate, author of \u003ci\u003eTo Show and to Tell\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong-listed San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (2018)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781250234926\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40698855817422,"sku":"9781250234926","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781250234926","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}