Weintraub vividly depicts Marble’s life and times using primary and secondary sources, including the athlete’s own memoirs and correspondence ... An intriguing book about a fascinating woman, and an inspirational story of her overcoming various odds to become a tennis legend. Highly recommended.
In his exhaustive biography...Weintraub transports the reader into Marble’s vibrant world ... Was Marble a World War II spy for her country? ... the biography as billed does disappoint. Despite his best investigative efforts, which Weintraub laboriously details in nearly 400 pages of text, he could not solve that central mystery of Marble ... A lack of resolution isn’t the only perplexing issue for this biography. Weintraub’s writing is anachronistic, a battle between clever and cloying that, upon instant replay, lands just outside the line ... Surprisingly for a book about women’s tennis, he leaves out obvious comparisons to Serena Williams and Venus Williams ... The author is more successful when he removes himself and re-creates Marble’s first victory at Forest Hills ... a dreamy, indomitable life worth reading about, as today’s tennis tries to return to form.
Weintraub uses Marble’s memoirs as the foundation of his research, and his discoveries turn this sports biography into a page-turning thriller ... serves not only as an opportunity to marvel at the accomplishments of these women, but also as a reminder that some things haven’t changed.
