MOVING IN STEREO

A tennis star tries to deal with his own demons in this debut literary novel.

It’s 1996, and Richard Blanco is tennis’s reigning enfant terrible. “I’m a fifteen-year circuit veteran,” he explains. “I’ve made five million dollars in endorsement and prize money over my career. I’ve got homes on both coasts. Things come naturally to me. I surf. I can heave a football seventy-five yards. I’m a sexual dynamo.” He’s given his name to the Blank Shot, any shot that is high risk, wrongheaded, or just plain weird. Now, at the age of 31, Richard has finally made it to the Wimbledon quarterfinals. The only problem? He might be on the edge of another mental breakdown. He’s hearing voices, including those of his father, who died of AIDS four years ago, and Luke Scream, the dead lead singer of the punk band the Fangs. Richard manages to keep it together at the tournament—mostly—but once he’s back in America, his lifetime of anxieties, losses, and impulsive decisions threatens to undo the fragile kingdom he has built for himself. He’s got matches to play, business deals on the line, coaches and managers who throw in their two cents, a girlfriend whom he loves, and a seductive, would-be lover. Can Richard hold on to all of it while quieting the ghosts of his past? Richard, as brought to life by Trondson, is a brash, self-loathing protagonist summoning the ’90s both in his ethos and his narrative style: “A Japanese photographer shoots me with a long lens Pentax. You see, I’m big in Japan. Play continues. I start to find my tempo. There is a rhythm to this mad game; otherwise, it would be random and pointless, two men in silly tight shorts, a yellow ball tied to an invisible string.” It’s a short novel, and a lot of the page space is given over to describing tennis matches, but the real energy comes from the myriad distractions that are constantly vying for attention in Richard’s mind. It’s a nostalgic, low-stakes read that never really gets to any serious questions and yet it somehow manages to feel fresh and vital.

A throwback ’90s tale with a compellingly dysfunctional, tennis-playing protagonist.