Dr. Abraham Verghese is a senior medical school faculty member and an infectious disease specialist in El Paso, TX. He is also a huge tennis fan, having played the sport since he was quite young. Upon meeting one of his new medical students, David Smith, who not only is smart and motivated to learn, but has also played professional tennis, Verghese feels he’s met his match, so to speak. Finally, here is someone he has something in common with! Moreover, he sees his own loneliness reflected in the face of this new friend, and he understands that they might be a support for each other. As Verghese learns more about David, and specifically about his addictions, he sees that this relationship may be more challenging than he imagines.
This autobiographical work by Verghese is an emotional and moving portrait of what it feels like to be close to someone who has an addiction as well as to be blindsided by it. While Verghese has clinical experience (albeit in a different area of medicine) and as well as deep compassion and understanding, he cannot help being sucked in to the dramatic ups and downs of his friend’s disease. Verghese becomes the only true friend David Smith has, the only consistency in David’s chaotic life; on the other hand, he is in the awkward position of really not being David’s peer as well as having quite a bit of stress of his own (his dissolving marriage, his worry for his own two young sons). Nevertheless, we watch as he becomes the friend that David comes to rely upon and he finds himself caught up in David’s world.
I did find the story a bit repetitive and predictable, although that may be a function of addiction itself. Many sufferers of addiction bounce in and out of rehab, feeling the low of needing to detox and the high of coming out feeling rehabilitated. While there are many who succeed in remaining sober, it is a daily if not hourly struggle – and the repetition seen here is likely a reflection of this. It may be that one has to convince others even as they are convincing themselves that THIS time will be their time to make it. That seemed to be the case with David – and Verghese may have tried to believe it each and every time. I imagine it is the hardest thing to overcome.
If you’re interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the terrible disease of addiction, if you’d like to learn how loneliness and abandonment can impact an addiction, this book is for you. [Also, be ready for much in the way of tennis details. If you hate the sport, this may not be for you!]
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