Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 18, 1993 TAG: 9307180210
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by LENI ASHMORE SORENSEN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Charles Barkley was paid to make a television ad declaring that he is not a role model. On the other hand, Michael Jordan is presumed to be such a role model that his gambling troubles are the subject of talk shows and numerous magazine articles.
Athletes, especially black athletes, are asked to fill many roles in our society. Few can live up to the expectations. One who can and did is Arthur Ashe.
Ashe wrote several books, most notably a three-volume collection on black Americans in sports, but this book, written with the biographer of Langston Hughes, has been published posthumously.
"Days of Grace" deals primarily with the last years of Ashe's life and the issues surrounding the public disclosure of his battle with AIDS. It is a remarkably frank and detailed look.
Ashe was more than a tennis player, more than a business man, more than an activist. He was a thoughtful, introspective man who had clear ideas about his place in a world that has yet to solve the problems of race. He was willing to put his name, his reputation, and his money behind projects that would help the young, especially young black kids.
"Days of Grace" is not just a non-critical look at the American scene. The failures of the Black Power Movement in the sixties; the inability of black America to free itself of a dependence on certain charismatic leaders who are self serving and corrupt; and the loss of moral grounding in our youth all come under fire. There is a cool quality to the narrative; Ashe was not a man to weep or gnash his teeth and Rampersad, as his co-author, did not push for a confessional tone.
However, I was moved to tears by his letter to his young daughter. His love of family and his strong sense of the possibilities in a life well lived shine through.
Whether one followed Arthur Ashe's career in tennis or not, his life off the court was complex, compelling and well worth reading about.
Leni Ashmore Sorensen will begin graduate studies at the College of William and Mary this fall.
by CNB