Lionel Shriver is one of my favorite writers. I have read almost all of her books since 2010 and I thought I would go back and read the earlier ones. These did not get published until she became successful. Doublefault is one of those books. It is about a couple of professional tennis players. Willy is a female player who has been obsessed with tennis since she was five. At 23 she has climbed up the rankings but still has a long way to go. For her tennis is everything. Eric her husband who she meets at age 23 is a natural athlete and good at everything. In the beginning Willy is much better than Eric but as he ascends she descends(a knee injury contributes this). Eric is the good supportive husband but Willy can't deal with his success as her career goes into the tank. This book is more about choice, one pointedness than it is about tennis. As always, Shriver's writing is great. The tension in the marriage is hard to take and how Eric puts up with Willy seems beyond belief. What is good about the book is that it is real in terms of what can happen in a competitive marriage. Not a happy ending but a worthwhile read from a great author in the beginning of her career before she achieved success. If you have not read Shriver, I recommend her most recent works. If you enjoy those than double back to this earlier work. ( )

I actually enjoyed this novel. But like other reviewers I found Willy to be unbearable and it was hard to see what her husband could love in her.

After reading "We Need to Talk About Kevin", I have become used to Shriver's obsession with detail, which I had found unnerving in the beginning. There's something about her style that is truly riveting.

I'm also interested in her penchant for male names (Willy, Lionel) for females, and her use of "the eye". To anyone who has read "Kevin", the eye reference here will be obvious. To see the "eye" theme again in "Double Fault" was disconcerting. Willy's therapist had a lazy wandering eye, that appears to emphasize his speech by its out of alignment movements. And then Willy has a run in with one of her husband's eyes ...

I have another Shriver novel on hand to read. If there is any reference to people with only one operable eye in it, I'll be REALLY spooked! ( )

I feel that this is one of Shriver's weaker novels, especially seeing what her next two novels published after this one were like. Perhaps it is because I am so disconnected from the world of sports that I found the characters unengaging and the plot not all that interesting. ( )

It is a tough read, following a marriage as it falls apart and reading about an independent young woman who becomes bitter and full of self-loathing. Don't read this novel if you are feeling bad about yourself. I wasn't as gripped and so along for the ride with this novel as others of Lionel Shriver. It is clever and well put together but was hard work from beginning to end. ( )

Lionel Shriver’s books always seem to be about crumbling relationships. She gets into her subject matter in all its details, right under the skin of every character, every action or comment is viewed under the microscope. You have to like them to like this book. Happily I did, though I struggled throughout with the principal female character being called Willy. I can accept Lionel, at a stretch, being a woman’s name, but Willy???

This is a book where you can take sides. Tennis playing girl meets tennis playing boy, they fall in love, get married, it affects their tennis rankings, everything starts going pear shaped. Though I thought Willy behaved pretty badly nothing is clear cut, and every step of the way I could imagine being in her shoes and feeling just the same.

It is instructive about the game of tennis at grass roots level, and after reading it I will never look at those qualifiers who lose in the first round of Wimbledon in quite the same way again. ( )