Love Match

Library Journal

This potentially juicy ``kiss and tell'' account fails miserably. The relationship and separation of tennis star and millionaire Martina Navratilova and former beauty queen and housewife Nelson is detailed after the fact by Nelson and her friend Faulkner, a sociologist. This could have been a revealing look at the financial legalities of palimony between two women in a state (Texas) that doesn't recognize nonmarital cohabitation, but it isn't. This also could have been an insightful portrayal of two complex women, one of whom is a world-famous athlete, but it isn't that, either. Even the most compelling question to readers--the dollar amount of the financial settlement--goes begging. Not recommended.-- J. Sara Paulk, Concord P.L., N.H.

Ilene Cooper

Let's get the players straight because it's a little hard to follow the bouncing ball. First, there's Martina Navratilova, tennis star and multimillionaire. Then there's Judy Nelson, a Texas housewife and mother who, according to her own account, met Navratilova for lunch in 1986 and fell in love with her, subsequently leaving her husband and two sons to follow Martina on the tennis trail. After eight years with Judy, Martina elected to split up, prompting Judy's multimillion-dollar "galimony" suit and, finally, this book. Playing supporting roles are coauthor Faulkner, who's a good friend of Nelson's, and novelist Rita Mae Brown, who wrote the book's foreword and is a former lover of Navratilova and a friend of Nelson (though the tabloids intimate she's more). For all its dishy potential, this account is actually quite sober, even ponderous. Brown, for example, feels compelled to take on the role of shrink: "No one of us has the right to judge either Martina or Judy, but I think we can certainly try to understand them." Faulkner, for her part, is a sociologist and writes like one. She makes an earnest effort to explain Judy's "conversion experience" and the relationship dynamics as objectively as possible. Unfortunately, she also treats us to a transcript of the "non-marital cohabitation agreement" that eventually brought the couple's breakup to court. Navratilova claimed during the trial that she never actually read the agreement, and readers won't want to, either. Ironically, Nelson was told by her editor to include "juicy tidbits that would enrich this human interest story." That would have helped, especially with the book's likely audience--those who've followed the headlines and are looking for the real scoop. What they'll find instead is an awkward mishmash of scandal and sociology.