Double Fault by Lionel Shriver

"The experience of failure is common as dirt. So why don't we write about it more often? In fact, I have come to deeply admire the mature, philosophical, sometimes even cheerful resignation with which so many "ordinary" people come to terms with lives that don't remotely resemble the ones they'd hoped for. The amount of grace required is stupendous. [And] Double Fault is about a young women signally lacking in that grace." - Lionel Shriver

What is the appropriate response to failure? Is it acceptable to wallow in self-pity with every dejected emotion consuming you? Or are we expected to graciously bounce back, take inventory of our present selves, and move on? Whatever belief you hold, failure is an uncomfortable and metamorphic experience to someone's life. Not only do we shy away from discussing it but it appears that I have never come across an author who has illustrated the truly devistating effects it can have; not simply on ourselves but every aspect to our surrounding lives. Point blank: it can be despressing!

Lionel Shriver has beautifully illustrated a heartbreaking, and yet enlightening, tale of how we handle it when failure knocks on our door. Willy Novinsky, the main character, becomes desolate, angry, spiteful, and just plain mean, after the downfall of her pro-tennis career due to a sudden injury.

As you read this story, it isn't a matter of hoping for a changed heart or improved spirits on behalf of Willy because somewhere, deep down, you succumb to the understanding that Willy is beyond reach. She is so deeply invested in her failure and jealousy of her husband's (Eric, another pro tennis player's) atheletic success that she can't see straight. Though she KNEW how she should act, what she should say, the contrary seemed to always prevail. As the reader, I grew so frustrated (slamming books down, stomping like a toddler) with the impending doom that I literally closed the book, walked away, and vowed NOT to pick it up and finish the remaining half.

But like the literary sucka I am, I sucked it up and finished! Hooray.

Before I give you a thesis statement worth of review, I will leave you with this: this cautionary tale isn't about whether Willy will bounce back from her injury and conquer the tennis world but the astonishing response she has to her own failure. While reading this book it's like watching a car crash in slow motion, knowing the damage that will be caused, knowing what might happen once the two cars have collided and yet hoping against hope that at the last minute someone will steer their car in the other direction and normalcy will remain.

I guess, in essence, that is the beauty of this book. No matter how bad it seems to get, you are always hoping for Willy to do what's right. But to reference what I said earlier, what exactly is the right way to handle failure?

"Failure can become an ambition of its own. In its attainability lies its allure."

-Double Fault