Although John McPhee is best known for his work in the 1960s through 1990s, he is still going at 93. He is known for being a pioneer in a style of writing called “creative nonfiction” or “literary journalism.” Years ago, I read his four-volume work Annals of the Former World, about the geology of the United States, basically the formation through time of various areas of the country, which was absolutely fascinating. Later I picked up a copy of his Coming into the Country, about homesteaders in the wilds of Alaska in the 1970s. So, when I saw he had written a book that could fill a hole in my A Century of Books project, I got it.
Levels of the Game is not really my subject matter. It cleverly combines a play-by-play description of a tennis game at Forest Hills in 1968 with profiles of the players. This is an amateur game between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner. Although I used to watch tennis a bit when Ashe was further along in his career, I couldn’t really follow the subtleties of the play-by-play that well. I’m sure for tennis lovers it might have been climactic.
Ashe at the time was the only Black player of the U. S. circuit, and there were no others following behind. A lot of what McPhee says in his profile is interesting and a lot is dated. Coming up, Ashe ran into situations where he was barred from clubs. Yes, it was still like that.
If you’re a sports fan, particularly of tennis, you’ll probably get more out of this book than I did. Still, I didn’t really understand the important place Ashe holds in the game until I read this book.
P. S. The description of Ashe, who at the time was a lieutenant at West Point, putting on love beads to go on a date, cracked me up.
What? Me Read? 
It’s odd the things that stick in the mind. I don’t remember being particularly struck at the time by the fact that Arthur Ashe was black but I vividly remember him being the only player who wore glasses while playing! I was young at the time – obviously later I realised his importance as the first (and so far, only) black man to win Wimbledon – the only tennis tournament that was televised over here back then. Not that I was happy about him winning, since he beat my heartthrob of the time, Jimmy Connors…
I knew he was the first black man to win Wimbledon, but I didn’t know he was the only black player. Jimmy Connors was your heart throb? Not interesting to me, but a few years earlier I had a huge crush on Jean-Claude Killy.
I don’t know Jean-Claude Killy, but looking at pictures of him, yes, I can certainly see the attraction! 😉
He was a skier who won three gold medals in the 1968 Olympics, which was pretty unheard of back then. (Now, there are lots of people who win several.) He made a couple of action movies after that.