LOS ANGELES (Aug. 26, 2022) — An elite athlete returns to the tennis court in “Carrie Soto Is Back,” the fast-paced new novel from best-selling author Taylor Jenkins Reid. First introduced in Reid’s one-night epic “Malibu Rising,” a titular character is a powerhouse pro who comes out of retirement to defend her record-breaking run of Grand Slam titles. “Carrie Soto” has much to say about aging athletes and public perception. But it also tells the story of an unconventional family striving for greatness and learning to reframe what it means to be “the best.”
Though the novel takes place at tennis tournaments all over the world, spanning decades and countries, Southern California is Soto’s home court. Reid is a quintessentially Los Angeles author, describing the city as “urban and suburban all at once” in her 2015 drama “Maybe In Another Life.” (“I can hear crickets while standing in the middle of a city,” she wrote. “I forgot that about Los Angeles.”)
LA is a central character in her other smash hit best-sellers, “Daisy Jones and the Six” and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” Set in the 1970s rock scene and old-school film studio system, both books are being adapted for the screen – and both examine the nature of celebrity and women who blazed trails in popular culture. (“Malibu Rising” ventures west to the coast, but still centers on a tight-knit family descended from a famous father.)
Reid expertly tells stories about talented women experiencing fame. She deepens that niche in “Carrie Soto,” juxtaposing the athlete’s personal struggles with her public persona. Carrie’s father and coach Javier, who weaves a strong familial thread into the story, tells her in the early pages: “Do not let what anyone says about you determine how you feel about yourself.” That could summarize all of Reid’s recent books, but this one delves deeply into the sport, adding more action and internal monologue about Carrie’s craft. The author maintains what made her other books wildly popular, while still living up to the dust jacket promise that this is “her most vulnerable, emotional story yet.”
The plot finds a 37-year-old Soto trying desperately to defend her record as the winner of 20 Grand Slam titles, the most in the sport’s history. Her return to the national stage is a media spectacle, but the novel quiets the noise and takes us into Soto’s innermost motivations. Because it is told almost entirely from Carrie’s perspective, we get a glimpse into the mind of an unapologetically fierce competitor who is met with misogyny and ugly nicknames in public. Her private life, like any of ours, tells a different story, and Reid takes us inside her mental state as an aging athlete in the 1990s – long before mental health became a subject of debate in the sports sphere.
Reid’s writing is crisp and cinematic, allowing the reader to imagine each match like a movie montage. Several tennis films have been released in recent years, with Zendaya starring in Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming comedy “Challengers.” While “King Richard” and “The Battle of the Sexes” were about great tennis players mostly in relation to their male coaches or competitors, “Carrie Soto” is about Carrie Soto. The supporting characters are well-formed but less revered.
Its Aug. 30 release feels timely on the heels of Serena Williams announcing she is “evolving away from tennis” after decades of domination, penning a heartfelt essay in Vogue about the pain of walking away from the sport. This novel is right on time as the U.S. Open gets underway, and as sports fans contemplate the difference between one athlete’s graceful exit and another’s messier, much more publicized approach to ending a successful run in sports.
“Carrie Soto Is Back” combines the best of sports, film and literature with its subtle themes and unique characters. Hers is not an underdog story, nor should it be….
Read More: Taylor Jenkins Reid Is Back With Powerful Tennis Drama ‘Carrie Soto’