Tie-Breaker

William Blackburn is a professor of English at the University of
Calgary.

Brad Fraser is the teenage hero of this novel by author and sportswriter Jack Batten. Brad is a member of the Canadian team sent to play in the Wimbledon Juniors; there he is encouraged to enter the qualifying round for the senior Wimbledon instead, and eventually confronts John McEnroe on the court. The end is inevitable, but Brad grows in many ways as a result of his experience. Earlier, an old acquaintance of Brad’s, who had long encouraged his career, had asked for a “favour” — a gram of cocaine. Brad had allowed himself to be pressured into compliance. Brad nearly bungled the attempt — escaping hilariously from the police in a dumbwaiter, accompanied by a dwarf — only to have his father find the cocaine. Brad’s younger sister took the blame while he, fearing refusal of permission to go to Wimbledon, remained silent. At the novel’s close, he sets out for home, not yet having decided on the right course of action; but the implication that he will find the courage to confess the truth is strong.

The author is to be commended for his sense of humour and tone, his ear for the idiom of young people, and his sympathy with their confusions. He writes well of the strain of competition, and the greater strain of Brad’s moral dilemma; the device of the suspended ending effectively suggests which contest is the more important of the two.