It’s Wimbledon time again! For the next two weeks, my life consists of only two colours, green and white, and the only thing I’ll be worrying about is whether my favourite players will continue to the next round. It’s such great escapism, especially at the end of the school year when so many things still need to be done. I occasionally wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t loved this sport so much. Come to think of it, Julian Barnes’s novel The Only Story is about a life which is turned completely upside down after its protagonist starts playing tennis. Want to know how? Read on!
The Only Story is about Paul Roberts, a young man who comes home from university and starts to play tennis. He partners up with Susan McLeod, a 48-year-old married woman. They soon start an affair, which turns into a long-term relationship. What follows is an investigation into the human ability to remember things and the notion of love and its power to change us.
Playing tennis is easy – even with these admittedly confusing rules. For Paul, everything seems easy at first, too. He doesn’t feel like playing tennis, but soon realises that he and Susan are a great team. He doesn’t mind that she’s an older woman, and he often forget that she’s got two children of his age. So when they start their relationship, it is almost as though they were meant to be. It is only later on, when he looks back on his life (the entire novel is told long after their relationship has ended) that he realises how his affair with Susan has affected his life and his disability to love other people. It does show, of course, just how important tennis can be; none of these events would have happened if Paul hadn’t decided to play.
As with many other sports, there’s only winners and losers. The interesting thing about Barnes’s novel, however, is that nobody sure who’s who; Paul initially feels proud of himself for being with a mature woman, but later on, especially when he finds out she’s an alcoholic, he feels more and more trapped inside their relationship, and in the end he isn’t sure if he should have stayed in this relationship for that long. So maybe his decision to start playing tennis wasn’t such a good one.
Here’s the thing. I started writing this post because Wimbledon has started and I wanted to write a light-hearted tennis-related post, and the first tennis book I thought of was The Only Story, and I thought of my love affair with tennis and how I’ve had one great tennis love, just like Paul has his true love, and how nothing will compare to that. So let’s talk about that now.
I’ve written about my true tennis love before, and I will continue to mention him until I die. In fact, my boyfriend says he’s completely aware that there will always be two men in my life: him and Roger Federer. Much like Paul’s life changed when he first laid eyes on Susan, so my life was never the same when I first saw him play. I cheered when he won, I cried when he lost, and I hated everyone he lost to. I only ever saw him play on television, but that doesn’t really matter. Whenever Wimbledon had started and Federer played, that was the only thing I cared about.
Of course, my love for Roger Federer and Paul’s love for Susan is not similar at all. My love is purely fictional and one-sided, and takes place only within the confines of a tennis court, and (despite the fact that it’s a made-up story) theirs is a troubled and deep relationships with long-lasting effect. Paul still suffers from this relationship because it forced him to grow up before he was ready for it, and he shut out everyone, even his own needs, for Susan, while my love for Roger started when I was twelve and never cost me anything. However, Paul compares every single woman he dates to Susan, just like I compare every tennis player to Federer. Susan is Paul’s only love, just like Roger is my only tennis player.
Barnes’s novel is called The Only Story because Paul is convinced that the only thing that truly matters is love, and the way love can change us. He often wonders what his life would have been like if he hadn’t met Susan, and if he would have been able to love other women. He concludes by saying that every proper love story comes with pain, and even though it might partly destroy us, it might all be worth it.
So what was I saying? Right, there’s only love. Sometimes love starts at a tennis court, and sometimes it ends there. Just make sure you’re competing – or, in my case, watching.
Ready? Play!
What do you think of The Only Story? Have you started a relationship with a sports partner? What is your favourite sport, and do you have a favourite player? Please let me know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to follow me for more bookish (and tennis-related) posts!
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