Searching for Novak: The Man Behind the Enigma

In this mostly successful account, biographer Hodgkinson (Ivan Lendl) traces the life of Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic. After starting tennis lessons at age five, in 1992, Djokovic was immediately recognized for his preternatural focus and dedication, and his parents shelled out for lessons they could scarcely afford in the hopes that he would strike it big. Their sacrifice paid off; Djokovic eventually won 24 Grand Slam men’s singles titles and spent “more than 400 weeks as the world number one.” Hodgkinson provides enlightening analysis of Djokovic’s technique, explaining that the athlete’s economical movements help him conserve energy and he has an “ability to redirect and change the direction of the point” without providing any “visual clues about what he’s about to do.” Elsewhere, the author explains that Djokovic’s attraction to New Age spiritualism began in 2010 after an alternative medicine practitioner turned his faltering career around by suggesting his sluggishness stemmed from gluten intolerance, leading Djokovic to embrace outside the box thinking in his personal and professional life. Unfortunately, the brief treatment of Djokovic’s politics raises troubling questions Hodgkinson fails to answer. For example, he notes that Djokovic has been photographed consorting with war criminals from the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s without further commenting on what such associations reveal about his political outlook. This doesn’t have all the answers, but there’s enough here to satisfy curious fans. (Aug.)