Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My LifeHarperCollins, 2007 M07 5 - 275 pages In 2004, James Blake's life was getting more perfect by the day. A rising tennis star, with each passing year his game seemed to improve. In 2002, he was named Sexiest Male Athlete by People, and along the way he continued to gain in the rankings and earn respect on the court. Each day seemed to offer a new milestone, a new achievement; he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of the ride. But that life came to an abrupt halt in May 2004 when Blake broke his back in a freak accident on the court. A few months later, as Blake was recovering from his injury, he suffered another tremendous setback when his father–the man who had raised him and provided the inspiration for his tennis career–lost his battle with stomach cancer. Shortly after his father's death, Blake's situation was further complicated when he contracted Zoster, a rare virus that paralyzed half of his face and threatened to end his already jeopardized tennis career. Breaking Back tells the story of the tumultous year that followed these three devastating events, detailing how Blake persevered through hardship to become one of the best tennis players in the world. Here Blake explains how the wisdom and words that his father imparted to him over the years gave him the ability to succeed in the face of these seemingly insurmountable odds. Though these trials proved the most difficult of his life, ultimately this trifecta of tragedy became the culmination of all his father's lessons, showing Blake that even in death, his father was still teaching him how to be a man. In the spirit of Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking comes this remarkable tale of strength and determination from one of tennis's biggest stars. A story of passion, willpower, and the unbreakable bonds between a father and a son, Breaking Back is one athlete's account of finding hope in the bleakest of times. |
From inside the book
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... wasn't the beer . I hadn't even had a beer . It was the zoster , a virus that grabbed me back in July and hadn't let go . A vicious illness , zoster had paralyzed the left side of my face , distorted my sense of taste and hearing , and ...
... wasn't particularly daunting to me because I had spent time in a brace before - much more time in a much bigger brace . I was bummed that I wouldn't be able to play in the French Open , and that I wouldn't make the Olympic team that ...
... Wasn't that enough to make anything true ? Wasn't that enough to keep my father alive for as long as he was willing to keep at it ? If only the doctors had given us instructions . If only they had said , " Do this , and this and this ...
Contents
It Could Be Worse | 35 |
Requiem for a Superman | 63 |
Five Minutes of Hitting | 115 |
Copyright | |
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