by vqfarrold
This is an expertly crafted story narrated in a warm and natural voice so that it is convincing as well as entertaining. The subtle elegance of the storyline and the engaging characters completely masked the disparate nature of the elements required for the story. Bravo!
5 Stars.
Well done, a little bit sad because of the lost chance. I like the historic background. But are you sure that, in 1980, there was an Olympic Women's Tennis Competition? I think they made tennis Olympic only later ...
Well done, a little bit sad because of the lost chance. I like the historic background. But are you sure that, in 1980, there was an Olympic Women's Tennis Competition? I think they made tennis Olympic only later ...
---To begin with, the pun between the title and the events - the tennis COURT and the COURTship of a potential lover. The best joke was the claim by the Russian woman to 'identify herself with' the views of the Soviet newspapers, but then she would not express her own views to avoid 'identifying herself'. The joke's punchline comes late, when she says she still identifies herself with the views of the newspapers because she now owns them in the post-Soviet capitalist era. This tells us about the difference between oppression and the freedom to express your own views rather than slavishly echoing the official view or keeping your mouth shut. There's a lot to be said in favour of using humour to poke fun at oppression, and although it's now all in the past, I believe this story will enlighten many readers about the horrible Soviet and other communist oppression of free thinking, and alert them to the fact that there are those who want to re-establish oppression. The macho thug Putin is diguising his oppression under the pretence that Russians are now free. Bullshit in spades. Thanks for a good laugh - well several good laughs - and I wish more of these sexually oriented stories were vehicles for serious consideration. Humour and seriousness are NOT incompatible.
Freddy, the British nut in Brazil
If you could enter the competition in my cw class, you would win. Thank you.