Red Dirt - by Joe Samuel Starnes (Paperback)

About the Book

A rough Southern country boy rises to the top of the professional tennis world, falls hard, then slowly climbs back.

Book Synopsis

"The original redneck Rocky of tennis novels." --NoirCon

"Comes with highest recommendation."
--Jon L. Wertheim, Tennis Channel and Sports Illustrated

Red Dirt is the story of Jaxie Skinner, an unlikely professional tennis player from a blue-collar family in the sticks of rural Georgia who takes up the game at the age of three when his father scrapes a court out of the red clay behind their farmhouse. He is a natural, rising to the top of junior tennis, and at eighteen has great success at the French Open. He falls as quickly as he rose, however, when troubles back home and injuries arise. He quits the game for years, but then mounts a comeback, struggling for almost a decade in the unglamorous, low-paying minor leagues of tennis, often living out of his van, before getting one last big shot.

A fascinating study of tennis, its demands and tactics, as well as a look at the insular and often selfish character required to reach the pinnacle of the sport. Red Dirt is the Rocky of tennis novels.

"I enjoyed it immensely . . . a marvelous job of pivoting the plot and making it such a good story."
--Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated

"A metaphor for life's vicissitudes and our own fleeting awareness."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A comeback worth cheering." --Atlanta Magazine

Review Quotes

"An ace of a novel, an ace of a writer." --Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

"In Red Dirt, Joe Samuel Starnes captures the gritty, unforgiving world of professional tennis through the rise and fall and rise of an unlikely star. Along the way, we meet an appealing cast of tennis eccentrics (if that term's not redundant), with the occasional descent into pulpy fun, but the moments of true emotion and the author's deep knowledge of the way the tennis mind works takes Red Dirt, on a meteoric rise of its own. Starnes spins a tale with the pace and power of a Rafael Nadal forehand." --Jay Jennings, editor of Tennis and the Meaning of Life: A Literary Anthology of the Game and author of Carry the Rock

'Red Dirt is solid pleasure. Starnes knows what it is to compete, to hope to be made whole by competition, to overcome not just your opponent but your own unquiet. This is a tennis novel, but any athlete--no, any reader--will learn a lot and enjoy the learning.'
--John Casey, author of Spartina, winner of the National Book Award

"Alright, literate tennis fans, it's time to put down the remote and set aside those stat sheets and take an alternately amusing and inspiring trip from the top of the pro tennis barrel to the bottom--and back again. Joe Samuel Starnes's book radiates an aficionado's understanding of not just how the game is played (on and off the court) but what it takes to triumph in the hyper-competitive pro game."
--Peter Bodo, ESPN's lead tennis columnist, and co-author of Pete Sampras's autobiography, A Champion's Mind

"What stands out here, first and foremost, are Joe Samuel Starnes's passion for tennis and his terrific feel not only for the game and its history but for what high-level competition feels like, both on the court and off. But Red Dirt isn't just a terrific sports novel; it's a terrific novel, period. Jaxie Skinner is a complex and compelling character, and Starnes gives him a clear, fresh, lively voice. Red Dirt is utterly persuasive and very enjoyable."
--Michael Griffith, author of Spikes


"An ace of a novel, an ace of a writer." --Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

"In Red Dirt, Joe Samuel Starnes captures the gritty, unforgiving world of professional tennis through the rise and fall and rise of an unlikely star. Along the way, we meet an appealing cast of tennis eccentrics (if that term's not redundant), with the occasional descent into pulpy fun, but the moments of true emotion and the author's deep knowledge of the way the tennis mind works takes Red Dirt, on a meteoric rise of its own. Starnes spins a tale with the pace and power of a Rafael Nadal forehand." --Jay Jennings, editor of Tennis and the Meaning of Life: A Literary Anthology of the Game and author of Carry the Rock

''Red Dirt is solid pleasure. Starnes knows what it is to compete, to hope to be made whole by competition, to overcome not just your opponent but your own unquiet. This is a tennis novel, but any athlete--no, any reader--will learn a lot and enjoy the learning.''
--John Casey, author of Spartina, winner of the National Book Award

"Alright, literate tennis fans, it's time to put down the remote and set aside those stat sheets and take an alternately amusing and inspiring trip from the top of the pro tennis barrel to the bottom--and back again. Joe Samuel Starnes's book radiates an aficionado's understanding of not just how the game is played (on and off the court) but what it takes to triumph in the hyper-competitive pro game."
--Peter Bodo, ESPN's lead tennis columnist, and co-author of Pete Sampras's autobiography, A Champion's Mind

"What stands out here, first and foremost, are Joe Samuel Starnes's passion for tennis and his terrific feel not only for the game and its history but for what high-level competition feels like, both on the court and off. But Red Dirt isn't just a terrific sports novel; it's a terrific novel, period. Jaxie Skinner is a complex and compelling character, and Starnes gives him a clear, fresh, lively voice. Red Dirt is utterly persuasive and very enjoyable."
--Michael Griffith, author of Spikes

About the Author

Joe Samuel Starnes's second novel, Fall Line, published in 2011 by NewSouth Books, was selected for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's list "A Year in Reading: Best of the South." His first novel, Calling, was published by Jefferson Press in 2005. He has had journalism appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, and various magazines, as well as essays, short stories, and poems in literary journals and books. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, a master's degree in English from Rutgers University in Newark, and a master's of fine arts in creative nonfiction from Goucher College. A native of Cedartown, Georgia, he now lives in Haddon Township, New Jersey. He edits the alumni magazine for Widener University, and teaches writing at Widener, Rowan University, and Saint Joseph's University. He was awarded a fellowship to the 2006 Sewanee Writers' Conference. For more info, visit www.joesamuelstarnes.com.