Seeing Serena

June 29, 2020
Marzorati (Late to the Ball) delivers a serviceable book that follows tennis star Serena Williams throughout the 2019 tennis season in her unsuccessful attempt at a 24th Grand Slam title. Marzorati had no special access to Williams or to those closest to her, and his collage-like book, while well written, offers little new about Williams. He does, however, enthusiastically break down each game Williams played in 2019 and peppers in information about her personal life, covering her humble roots in Compton, Calif.; her marriage to Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian; and the birth of their daughter, Olympia, in 2017. Williams’s 2019 season was marked by injuries and losses, including a crusher at the U.S. Open that dashed her hopes of tying the record for most Grand Slam wins by a female player. The book features an interview with tennis legend Chris Evert, who discusses Williams’s impact on the sport, and, in noting Williams’s development of clothing and jewelry lines, highlights her savvy as a businesswoman. Win or lose, Marzorati writes, Williams remains a paragon: “Serena would not, could not, be extinguished.” This is a solidly reported book, but Marzorati doesn’t do quite enough to show what makes his subject tick.