Naples Daily News - This story unfolds with compelling suspense. Readers may shudder at what is happening on the court but they will not look away. It is a fine story full of awakenings, surprises and analogies.

Reader Testimonials & Reviews

 "To bring two men through the harrowing experience of self-analysis to turning-point decisions within the framework of an intense, physically draining tennis match is a daunting task. Mawe has successfully met the challenge in a truly unique, beautifully written, absorbing story."
-- D. Walker - Fort Myers, Fl

"I recently read the remarkable debut novel, Grown Men, by S.M. Mawe. The author takes the reader to a combat zone where the weapons of choice are tennis racquets, athletic prowess, and well-honed mental skills. Mawe does not rely on exotic settings, gratuitous sex, violence, or complicated plot to hold the attention of his audience. Instead, one is riveted by the thought processes of the characters as communicated vividly in the colorful language of the players and sees the origination of these thoughts through insightfully chosen, gem-like flashbacks. Well placed conversations, thoughts, and descriptions in the person of friends/associates of the "combatants" help create additional personality recognition. Mawe's ability to get inside the head of his characters can only come from personal experience. The intricacies of the play, as the book progresses through games and sets that are set forth in exciting, fast-paced detail, also reveal an uncommon knowledge of the game. To bring two men through the harrowing experience of self-analysis to mid-life, turning point decisions within the time frame and diversion of an intense, physically draining, mind numbing tennis match is a daunting task. S.M. Mawe has successfully met such a challenge and given us a truly unique, expertly presented, beautifully written, absorbing story. I encourage everyone who likes a "really good read" to pick up a copy of Grown Men at your nearest book store."

-- D.T. - Manchester

"George Steiner the European social philosopher says that tennis is seldom played for fun anymore. A friendly match at the club or the public courts more often than not takes on the air of a monumental struggle for power, dominance and status. In S.M. Mawe's first novel Steiner's observations seem fulfilled as two former high school players and rivals play a match some twenty years later in which all of this and more seems at stake for both. Austin Sinclair and Jack Winston play a tennis match in the noonday Florida summer sun which carries both to the brink of exhaustion. Each sees the match as an opportunity to redeem a lifetime of failure, while each sees the other as being highly successful. As boys Austin and Jack learned the game together and developed a great rivalry and respect for one another's game. They lifted each other to a level of excellence that they had not achieved anywhere else, and they shared a joy in the game. After high school their lives moved away from tennis and away from one another, although both continued to play the game and both continued to live in the same small Florida community. Austin Sinclair was from the respected middle class, worked extremely hard, went to college, returned to marry the high school prom queen, worked his way to the top at the town bank, helped found a country club and designed the tennis courts, and found little joy in life off the courts. Jack Winston was the high school star. Women fell all over him, he had a warm and easy going personality, could charm anyone out of anything, bypassed college and succeeded quickly in business, had married several times always to beautiful women, moved up and down the ladder of success, came from the wrong side of the tracks, and refused to conform to middle class respectability. After years apart and barely acknowledging one anothers existence Austin Sinclair approaches Jack Winston at a restaurant and asks him for a match at Sinclair's club. Jack jumped at the opportunity, as he was looking for a way to approach Austin about a loan that would salvage his boat business and his life. As for Austin this would be an opportunity to see up close the man whose life he envied, and perhaps restore some spark in his own life by renewing his friendship with Jack. The tale is told from the point of view of both men, going back and forth from one chapter to the next, like a tennis ball across the net. The story flows very well, with drama and tension not unlike the match itself. The pace and tension build to the exhausting and not entirely conclusive end. Both leave the match having learned more about themselves than one another, and both leave the match knowing once again why they love the game of tennis. For the most part the narrative device works well. The tennis is woven nicely through the inner thoughts of the players, and despite long digressions into the past or long narratives about life's trials, the game is always there to drive the story forward to its dramatic conclusion. One does wonder at times if it would be possible for anyone to play tennis at such a high level, while being so distracted by a lifetime of memory and a caseload of current personal and psychological problems. At one point there is so much going on in the heads of these two men that the narrative loses track of the game, while at other times the language seems a bit stilted or a bit too melodramatic. The introduction of three other narrators in scattered chapters is another distraction the novel does not need. But these are small points and they detract only slightly from an exciting and compelling story that is difficult to put down. The writing about the game itself often finds the essence of tennis, as here when Jack reflects on Austin's skill:

Watching him, you'll read a backhand and turn for it, only to see the ball bounce to your forehand and go flipping off over the doubles line. So what you do is, you shuffle around during the toss, let him think you've out-guessed him and know exactly what way he's going. You try to make him change his mind. Lose some concentration. Take away some of his power. Force a fault or at least a tentative shot. And mostly none of it works. (p.64)"
 

-- R.L.P. - Dublin

"Midlife epiphany on the tennis court is what it's all about in Grown Men, and a grueling, marathon rematch under the hot Florida sun is the setting. Two fiftyish former rivals in the sport who have neither seen nor played together in decades have hidden motives for taking each other on again, and Mawe lobs the point of view from one to the other as the game, and the personal stakes involved for each, intensifies.

"The story's pace ranges from quick to breakneck, and the characters are believable, sympathetic, and for those over forty, perhaps very familiar. A highly recommended read for summer vacation or any situation that allows time for reflection, Grown Men leaves its readers not only as breathless as Austin and Jack, but with plenty of food for thought about their own youthful dreams and the outcome thereof."

-- H.H. - Chicago