The Tennis Partner & Home Again

Monday Ken and I spent the night in a very nice hotel not far from Sasha's (former) home. I spent the late afternoon and post-dinnertime evening reading The Tennis Partner, a memoir by Abraham Verghese, the Indian expatriate from Ethiopia and the author of Cutting for Stone, which I finished a week or so ago.

I'm now halfway through the 326-page book and am finding it rivetting. I believe this is because I'm finding Abraham Verghese, the writer and the person, fascinating. I've been reading about him and about his life and he speaks to me on a profound level. His books are replete with medical details, which I enjoy, but they also have a deep humanistic component.

Yet The Tennis Partner is most of all about relationships: Verghese's relationship with David, his protege at the hospital and tennis partner who is struggling to recover from a crippling addiction; his two sons; his wife from whom he is estranged; and lastly and most importantly, his relationship with himself. Verghese does not spare his psyche the scalpel, which I appreciate most of all.