Trophy Son
A Novel
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4.1 • 13 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"Trophy Son brings Conroy's The Great Santini and Malamud's The Natural into the present day...A terrific book." -Harlan Coben
Private lessons. Professional coaches. Specialized camps for sports, math, music, and other fields. Today’s children are pushed to achieve excellence—or else. But at what cost? New York Times bestselling author Douglas Brunt’s third novel, Trophy Son, tells the story of a tennis prodigy, from young childhood to the finals of the US Open, Wimbledon, and other tournaments around the world.
Growing up in the wealthy suburbs of Philadelphia, Anton Stratis is groomed to be one thing only: the #1 tennis player in the world. Trained relentlessly by his obsessive father, a former athlete who plans every minute of his son’s life, Anton both aspires to greatness and resents its all-consuming demands. Lonely and isolated—removed from school and socialization to focus on tennis—Anton explodes from nowhere onto the professional scene and soon becomes one of the top-ranked players in the world, with a coach, a trainer, and an entourage.
But as Anton struggles to find a balance between stardom and family, he begins to make compromises—first with himself, then with his health, and finally with the rules of tennis, a mix that will threaten to destroy everything he has worked for.
Trophy Son offers an inside look at the dangers of extraordinary pressure to achieve, whether in sports or any field, through the eyes of a young man defying his parents’ ambitions as he seeks a life of his own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brunt's (The Means) third novel chronicles the tennis career of Anton Stratis, which commences under his father's thumb when he's still a child and terminates before he turns 30. The younger son of two former professional athletes, Anton endures a brutal training regimen fueled by his father's ample time, money, and ambition. Anton remains close to his older brother, Panos, who manages to slip the noose of his father's control and live a normal life. Anton's daily existence is lonely, a loop between the court and his hotel room. His attempts at being a normal kid are thwarted by both his father and his inability to connect with others. Anton tries to find his footing as a person and a player as he approaches his 20s, ditching his dad; pursuing Ana Stokke, a beautiful actress; and seeing a psychologist. Unfortunately, it's at this point that the book loses its momentum. While there is there occasional skirmish with his father, it seems unlikely that someone who had built his entire life around his son would relinquish control as easily as Anton's father does. The writing explains obvious things to the reader, which dulls the impact of the scenes. Brunt's novel works as a glimpse into the lives of professional athletes with all the politics and the moral greyness that results when everyone is on some kind of enhancement cocktail but he misses an opportunity by mishandling the book's established conflicts.
