FEDERESQUE Book Review : Roger Federer Fandom on paper!

It’s fitting the genesis of this elegant Roger Federer book FEDERESQUE began as an idea for a gift.  Editor Sandor Szabadaos searched for the perfect present to give a Federer fan and could not find one that expressed the man in all his glory rather than just an appreciation of the skill this swiss tennis player possesses so he decided to create one.

With millions of fans all over the world and many who do not play tennis, it is proper that we should all have a book that celebrates the many facets of the Swiss legend known to many as the Maestro.

In form, it is labeled a book but this collection is so much more.  It is fandom on paper.  The Author Mark Hodgkinson carefully selected six dimensions of a champion to delve deeper into the humanity of this God-like creature.  Emotion, Artistry, Humility, Immortality, Elegance, and Perfection are all at once synonymous and overused descriptions of the tennis player who holds the most Grand Slam trophies in history.  The words are overused only in the positive sense as we mere mortals are challenged to put into limiting labels what we feel and why we love this man so much.  The width of the book is impressive equalling almost two normal hardback books side by side.

Federeresque is elegantly presented as mini-museum of the best photography from Antoine Couvercelle.  There is something exceptional to having these photos enlarged to the wide book format and permanently curated leaving the reader with an immortal feeling.  Nothing as temporal as a facebook feed or Instagram pic shrunken to prefab size here.

As is right, the book is principally glorious images filling full, clean white pages with glory.  At this scale, Roger seems to almost be in motion and you can hear the roar of the crowd from his impending winning stroke.   The writing by author Hodgkinson is as clean and simple as the white pages the words take life from comprised of facts and chronological context.

The section of the book that sparked the most joy for me was called scrapbook placed towards the end.  This section is multi-picture layouts featuring quotes from peers like Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Andre Agassi and many more.  There is something so satisfying having these words that stay like little Psalms from the tennis world at large which remind and cement our faith in the religious experience of Federer worship.

There are many small touches in the book that feel totally right such as the collection of Federer’s 20 grand slam photos, decidedly Swiss pride undertone and the shout out to the Roger Federer Foundation encouraging us to support the mission of the Maestro.

I am sure every Federer fan would like to see a 300-page photo lexicon of every moment of Roger.  One hundred pages is no small body of work and like the perfectly timed song leaves you longing for more.  Strangely there is not one picture of wife Mirka and family which I imagine follows the guidelines of Federer journalism as Mr. Federer has often stated he prefers his children to be left out of the limelight as much as possible.

I am so grateful to be the owner of this most excellent gift and believe everyone who possesses it will agree.  Kudos to the team for creating a book of books that any sports fan would be well pleased to receive.  I will share it with pride over a cup of coffee and treasure it for years to come.  I now have a dream to carry this book with me to Indian Wells and pray for the chance to have Roger Federer sign this piece of artwork elevating it to the heavens.

Federeresque is available in English, English/French and English/German.  Here is a link to the English version on Amazon

Available on Amazon here https://amzn.to/33r5h9M
you can find more information about the book and it’s creators here https://www.federesque.ch/