Carrie

For the past few years, the American author Taylor Jenkins Reid has been carving out a unique literary space, mostly novels of women characters. And it's almost impossible to read them without wondering if you're reading a biography or a fictional story. Nowhere is this better illustrated than byThe Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The story character is so real. So much so that I think it has come from the journalist work of Walter Isaacson.

Taylor Jenkins Reid's recent novel Carrie Soto is Back is even more authentic. Carrie Soto is a fictional tennis superstar who simply wanted to be the greatest tennis player in the world. When her friend suggested that joy was more important, she laughed. "Winning is joy," she said.

Carrie Soto, once the leading figure in women's tennis with a record of winning Grand Slam titles for twenty times, retired at 31. She decided on a comeback at 37, when another upcoming tennis player had tied that record. To reclaim the world record for most Grand Slam singles titles, Carrie returned to play all four Grand Slam events, including the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Over the course of her lifetime, she was living in the dream that her body or skills didn't have an expiration date.

At the end of each chapter, I'd have to remind myself that being the very best is antithetical to being happy, but in the next chapter Carrie would convince us otherwise. Such debate, to and fro, is like moving our head right and left, left and right, chasing the tennis ball. By itself, it's downright satisfying. This is the reward for reading Taylor Jenkins Reid's book. 

The pearl didn't all come from Carrie's obsession; the rebuttal from her friend or opponent is entertaining. Competing against people half her age, as her friend mentioned, is going to face people with brand-new knees, brand-new everything including brand-new hearts. I love the metaphor about old hearts: It's like an old mattress that's been bounced on so many times that now, if you put your hand on it, it leaves a permanent imprint. Just a big old mattress showing every dent.