Since I have been unable to find suitable titles that align with the Clay Court season leading into the French Open at Roland Garros this year, I have decided to follow the calendar in a different way. Over the next few weeks, I will be reviewing tennis-themed “Beach Reads” to get us primed for summer vacations. These books are entertaining and fun, with specific appeal to tennis fans.
Red Dirt: A Tennis Novel by Joe Samuel Starnes is a fictional tennis memoir about Jaxie Skinner. He is an American tennis player from rural Georgia, that enjoys a “Cinderella” run to the semi-finals at his first French Open. Unfortunately, his meteoric rise is immediately followed by a spectacular crash. Family tragedies, an injury, and a series of poor personal decisions contributed to his downfall.
I was thoroughly entertained by Red Dirt. Starnes’s description of the tennis match play is very believable, and the novel has received high marks from tennis industry insiders. That made it easier for me to overlook a couple of times when the narrative crossed the bounds of plausibility. The abrupt conclusion left me elated but vaguely dissatisfied. I think that Starnes wrote himself into a little bit of a corner.
One of the more implausible parts of the narrative for me is how many attractive women Jaxie attracted throughout his life. Parents should be warned that this book has some adult themes, including underage sex. Rather than being gratuitous, it is a mechanism that illustrates that Jaxie’s character was very much a product of his environment.
Ultimately Red Dirt is about a tennis player who loved the sport over everything else. Reaching the cusp of super-stardom and an immediate fall from grace is simply the preamble to a much longer story about a lost soul trying to find his place in the world. Jaxie’s redemption ultimately comes via tennis. After all, it is a tennis novel.
I highly recommend Red Dirt as a tennis “Beach Read.” It won’t make you a better player, but you will probably enjoy the story. It is entertaining and fun.
 | Red Dirt: A Tennis Novel |
