My third novel, Red Dirt: A Tennis Novel, published by Breakaway Books, will be available in late March.
Praise for the Novel
“Starnes spins a tale with the pace and power of a Rafael
Nadal forehand.” —Jay Jennings, editor of Tennis and
the Meaning of Life: A Literary Anthology of the Game
“Alright, literate tennis fans, it’s time to put down the
remote and set aside those stat sheets and take an alternately amusing and
inspiring trip from the top of the pro tennis barrel to the bottom—and back
again. Joe Samuel Starnes’s book radiates an aficionado’s understanding of not
just how the game is played (on and off the court) but what it takes to triumph
in the hypercompetitive pro game.” —Peter Bodo, Tennis
magazine senior writer, ESPN columnist,
and co-author of Pete Sampras’s autobiography, A
Champion’s Mind
“Red Dirt is solid pleasure. Starnes knows what it is to compete, to
hope to be made whole by competition, to overcome not just your opponent but
your own unquiet. This is a tennis novel, but any athlete—no, any reader—will
learn a lot and enjoy the learning.” —John Casey, author of
Spartina, winner of the National Book Award
“Red Dirt isn’t just a terrific sports novel; it’s a terrific novel,
period. Jaxie Skinner is a complex and compelling character, and Starnes gives
him a clear, fresh, lively voice.” —Michael
Griffith, author of Spikes.
About the Book
Red
Dirt is the story of Jaxie Skinner, an
unlikely professional tennis player
from a blue-collar family in the sticks of rural Georgia who
takes up the game
at the age of three when his father scrapes a court out of
the red clay behind
their farmhouse. He is a natural, rising to the top of
junior tennis, and at
eighteen has great success at the French Open. He falls as
quickly as he rose,
however, when troubles back home and injuries arise. He
quits the game for
years, but then mounts a comeback, struggling for almost a
decade in the
unglamorous, low-paying minor leagues of tennis, often
living out of his van,
before getting one last big shot. A fascinating study of
tennis, its demands
and tactics, as well as a look at the insular and often
selfish character required
