- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (2 April 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330426451
- ISBN-13: 978-0330426459
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 386,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
End Zone
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
First published in 1972, End Zone has never been more relevant, offering a timely and topical look at America’s apparent enthusiasm for conflict and confrontation.
Book Description
Gary Harkness is a football player and student at Logos College, West Texas. During a season of unprecedented success on the football field, he becomes increasingly obsessed with the threat of nuclear war. Both frightened and fascinated by the prospect, he listens to his team-mates discussing match tactics in much the same terms as military generals might contemplate global conflict. Offering a timely and topical look at human beings' obsession with conflict and confrontation, End Zone is a clever, playful and, above all, funny novel, which confirms DeLillo's status as one of the great American writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and reaffirms the unerring incisive accuracy of his portrayal of the modern world.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of DeLillo's early books which seem to get little of the attention heaped on his more recent efforts post-White Noise. However, along with 'The Names' this is one of his best, with his characteristic love of language already fully formed.
In this case the comparison he makes is between the language of American football, and that of nuclear holocaust - an idea that reappears in the first section of 'Underworld'. As a geeky Brit I know next to nothing about American sports, so it must be a testament to DeLillo's talents as a literary stylist that I remained fascinated by the often lengthy descriptions of games.
The most fascinating aspect, however, is the examination of nuclear language. DeLillo's insights into the hinterlands of late 70s detente are profound, and pre-date respected postmodern critiques which are seen as intellectual masterpieces.
None of this should take away anything from the fact that this is a great read - full of humour and the joy of language.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Please read this novel if you are interested in current American fiction. Delillo is an excellent writer, and this novel provides a great introduction to his style.
Read this book if you like humor, football, language, words, life and death. It is well worth your 10 bucks and 4 hours.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm a big DeLillo fan.
He's one of my favourite authors, Underworld is in my top ten favourite books.
I'm a huge admirer of his style of writing, his world view, his intelligence and the way he can craft poignant and moving novels around big ideas.
To date I have enjoyed every one of his books that I've read. So I picked up End Zone expecting the same.
It began okay, the style is intact, the control of language, the big idea. But somehow the novel just doesn't hold together.
By the end I was annoyed and disappointed with it.
Gary Harkness is a college American football player who over a season becomes obsessed with the possibility of nuclear war. The football becomes a metaphor for combat, the complicated plays become military maneouvers and Gary devours book after book about the man made apocalypse.
All familiar DeLillo territory. But End Zone falls short. There are stylistic blips, strange chapter structures, verbatim reproduction of lectures that run to 3 or 4 pages and have none of his sparkle, could be copied from textbooks. And whilst this book is funnier than most of his (White Noise excluded), the central metaphor is contrived and nowhere near as effortless as I would expect from DeLillo. The surrealism seems forced and self-conscious. The dialogue doesn't fit with the characters, the scenes have no cause and effect, just a series of vignettes tagged together.
Maybe the problem is one of translation, American football is unfathomable to my English mind. Maybe it doesn't seen as pertinent now cold war is just a memory and we've got different universal fears. But either way End Zone just doesn't ring true in the way I expect from a DeLillo novel.
This is an odd book, almost as if a lesser talent was trying to write a DeLillo book and not quite getting it right and left me empty.
He's one of my favourite authors, Underworld is in my top ten favourite books.
I'm a huge admirer of his style of writing, his world view, his intelligence and the way he can craft poignant and moving novels around big ideas.
To date I have enjoyed every one of his books that I've read. So I picked up End Zone expecting the same.
It began okay, the style is intact, the control of language, the big idea. But somehow the novel just doesn't hold together.
By the end I was annoyed and disappointed with it.
Gary Harkness is a college American football player who over a season becomes obsessed with the possibility of nuclear war. The football becomes a metaphor for combat, the complicated plays become military maneouvers and Gary devours book after book about the man made apocalypse.
All familiar DeLillo territory. But End Zone falls short. There are stylistic blips, strange chapter structures, verbatim reproduction of lectures that run to 3 or 4 pages and have none of his sparkle, could be copied from textbooks. And whilst this book is funnier than most of his (White Noise excluded), the central metaphor is contrived and nowhere near as effortless as I would expect from DeLillo. The surrealism seems forced and self-conscious. The dialogue doesn't fit with the characters, the scenes have no cause and effect, just a series of vignettes tagged together.
Maybe the problem is one of translation, American football is unfathomable to my English mind. Maybe it doesn't seen as pertinent now cold war is just a memory and we've got different universal fears. But either way End Zone just doesn't ring true in the way I expect from a DeLillo novel.
This is an odd book, almost as if a lesser talent was trying to write a DeLillo book and not quite getting it right and left me empty.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Minor De Lillo
If you like Don De Lillo, you will enjoy this light, surreal novel about American brutality. Conflating football and nuclear war makes some sense, and the characters seem like... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2009 by The Outsider
Texas Football and Nuclear Annihilation
This is my favorite book. I have read most of DeLillo's other books and found them to be everything form pompous to strained to boring. But this is a gem. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 1997
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
