What do you think?
Rate this book
Match Point
Book by Sanderlin, Owenita
213 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1979
5 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 28, 2017
12-year-old Dori Sinclair is the third of 4 kids in a Tennis Family, but dad George has been so involved in guiding the paths of 16-year-old Stacy and 15-year-old Davy that has he ever gotten around to teaching Dori or 6-year-old Betsy? Nope, never even thought of it! Dori's role is to look after Betsy on playgrounds near the tennis matches involving her family, including Grandma Sinclair--and sometimes she "drops the ball" there. She and Betsy have gotten involved in local softball, but after a real "chapter-of-accidents" day that's mostly her fault, The Big Game is in jeopardy, (no) thanks to her. But some good comes of this: Dad is convinced he should start teaching Dori and Betsy; and Stacy, Davy, and Grandma are ready and wiling to help.
Will Dori and Betsy be as successful and well-known as their siblings? What else --how much more--do Stacy and Davy want from their own lives? Stacy's got a college-bound boyfriend and wouldn't mind pursuing her own degree; and Davy discovers he's rather good at yet another sport. If one of them gives up tennis stardom, can Dori step up--maybe even overshadow one of them? Does she have a chance? Well, at the time she got into softball, girls were still fighting for their rights (Sanderlin, through her, explains this very well); and when she gets to high school she drops by the gym wanting to join the tennis team, and....
Sanderlin's casual style makes MATCH POINT a treat to read; she provides pronunciations of Spanish-influenced California town names and throws in an unusual feature of one rival school's tennis equipment. Dori says straight out that her English teacher would deduct all kinds of points for grammar, etc., "but I'm just writing the way I talk, okay?"
The book is divided into two parts (unevenly; the 16 chapters aren't divided 8/8, and that's not the only reason it might feel disjointed in spots) and covers about 3 years in the life of the Sinclair family, aka "The Rock Canyon Racketeers." There are several full-pages b/w illustrations by Marilyn Hamman, which mainly depict Dori in the heat of battle, usually with archrival Luellen Jarvis, whose cumbersome equipment includes that worse evil than Tennis Elbow: The Tennis Parent. But since this was originally published in 1979, the battle scenes are tamer than they would be in books written today. (Keep the publishing year in mind and keep calm at how Stacy's boyfriend Sam phrases his answer --and how Dori and Sanderlin phrase the exposition around it--to when the new college semester starts.)
Also dating this basically worthy book: Both Sinclair parents have full-time jobs, but Dori's mother is only called "Mom" or "Mrs. George Sinclair" (as in newspaper accounts of the couple's doubles-tennis matches). Oh, she's "just a housewife" and unequal doubles-helpmeet, whose own mother "back East" is as un-tennis-mad as Grandma Sinclair is tennis-mad. Stacy's man Sam wants to be the sole breadwinner of their future home and family and doesn't understand why Stacy would have a problem with that attitude.
Readers will get a taste of life as it was, hopefully as it keeps changing for the better, and a good look at The Tennis Life. Enjoy!
I probably first read this book in the early 1980s. If any of this review sounds familiar, it was previously published at alibris.com.
Thanks for reading.
Will Dori and Betsy be as successful and well-known as their siblings? What else --how much more--do Stacy and Davy want from their own lives? Stacy's got a college-bound boyfriend and wouldn't mind pursuing her own degree; and Davy discovers he's rather good at yet another sport. If one of them gives up tennis stardom, can Dori step up--maybe even overshadow one of them? Does she have a chance? Well, at the time she got into softball, girls were still fighting for their rights (Sanderlin, through her, explains this very well); and when she gets to high school she drops by the gym wanting to join the tennis team, and....
Sanderlin's casual style makes MATCH POINT a treat to read; she provides pronunciations of Spanish-influenced California town names and throws in an unusual feature of one rival school's tennis equipment. Dori says straight out that her English teacher would deduct all kinds of points for grammar, etc., "but I'm just writing the way I talk, okay?"
The book is divided into two parts (unevenly; the 16 chapters aren't divided 8/8, and that's not the only reason it might feel disjointed in spots) and covers about 3 years in the life of the Sinclair family, aka "The Rock Canyon Racketeers." There are several full-pages b/w illustrations by Marilyn Hamman, which mainly depict Dori in the heat of battle, usually with archrival Luellen Jarvis, whose cumbersome equipment includes that worse evil than Tennis Elbow: The Tennis Parent. But since this was originally published in 1979, the battle scenes are tamer than they would be in books written today. (Keep the publishing year in mind and keep calm at how Stacy's boyfriend Sam phrases his answer --and how Dori and Sanderlin phrase the exposition around it--to when the new college semester starts.)
Also dating this basically worthy book: Both Sinclair parents have full-time jobs, but Dori's mother is only called "Mom" or "Mrs. George Sinclair" (as in newspaper accounts of the couple's doubles-tennis matches). Oh, she's "just a housewife" and unequal doubles-helpmeet, whose own mother "back East" is as un-tennis-mad as Grandma Sinclair is tennis-mad. Stacy's man Sam wants to be the sole breadwinner of their future home and family and doesn't understand why Stacy would have a problem with that attitude.
Readers will get a taste of life as it was, hopefully as it keeps changing for the better, and a good look at The Tennis Life. Enjoy!
I probably first read this book in the early 1980s. If any of this review sounds familiar, it was previously published at alibris.com.
Thanks for reading.
Displaying 1 of 1 review