This was kind of bad!

It was like a really weird and malformed first attempt at writing a novel similar to White Noise.

The whole thing seemed rather disjointed and lacking in a cohesive structure.

However, to be fair, there were some parts that were actually quite funny and interesting.

These moments provided a glimmer of hope that perhaps with more refinement and development, the author could have created something truly engaging.

But as it stands, this piece feels more like a rough draft than a polished work.

It makes you wonder what the author was aiming for and if they will be able to take the necessary steps to improve their writing in the future.

Overall, it's a bit of a disappointment, but there are still some signs of potential that could be explored further.

The exemplary spectator is the one who understands that sports is a benign illusion, the illusion that order is possible. It is a form of society free from rats and that does not harm the unborn in any way; organized so that everyone follows exactly the same rules; electronically controlled, which reduces the human margin and benefits the industry; that eradicates the inefficient and penalizes the guilty; that always has a tendency towards perfection.

The novel is set in the 1970s, when the Cold War was in full swing. The protagonist is a college American football player harassed by apocalyptic visions due to a possible nuclear war and fascinated by its potential effects: diseases, fires, genetic chaos, panic, looting, millions of deaths. He shares this obsession with a professor/major in the army, who teaches a nuclear weapons course at the university.

The war story is combined with exciting and fun narrations of college games full of physical pain and much sacrifice. Something very similar to war.

- What is that photo that is stuck to the wall? Who is the girl?

- It is Teresa of Ávila. She was a remarkable woman. A saint of the church. Do you know what she did to remind herself of the end of things? She ate using a human skull as a bowl.

Teresa of Ávila was a very important figure in the history of the Catholic Church. She was known for her deep spirituality and her contributions to religious life. The practice of using a human skull as a bowl was a very unusual and perhaps even shocking one. It was a way for her to constantly keep in mind the impermanence of life and the importance of preparing for the afterlife. This story about Teresa of Ávila shows us the extremes to which some people will go in order to strengthen their faith and connection with God. It also makes us think about the different ways in which people throughout history have dealt with the reality of death and the unknown.

I must be a complete cock, because whenever anyone mentions football, even the august DeLillo, I immediately revert to my Waterboy roots. As I've said elsewhere, it's likely that I'm an original Goodreads asshole. This is especially true for this review, as I was traumatized by high school football and still have nightmares about it. When football ended, I felt like the guy in the novel: "No more football. No more hitting. No more sweat and pain. No more fear."

The format here is the same as will be used later for White Noise: three sections, each with shortish chapters. The second section is the shortest but also coincides with one chapter, the longest in the novel. The middle section/chapter is the thematic center of gravity, like the "airborne toxic event" in WN. It's a howl of outrage that stitches a caesura in the novel's pulsebeat.

The novel opens with the great premise of the first black student at Logos College in West Texas as the new star tailback, and the narrator as an "exile or outcast." These are haunted figures, but it's not a sustained examination of either. The narrator is homo sacer in Agamben's meaning. The tailback and the exile are closely tied, and the narrator's exile is generally not unaesthetic, except for the silence. The locus is a place so flat and bare that it suggests the end of recorded time, similar to the imaginary of Blood Meridian and The Road.

The text is reminiscent of Ratner's Star as the narrator has extraordinary confrontations. Some characters have silly names, and the best is the roommate who wants to "unjew" himself. The novel also presages Ratner's Star with the idea of radio astronomers communicating with beings at the ends of the universe. DeLillo must have played football, as his coach characters capture all the annoying mantras. The narrator takes military theory courses and becomes enamored of the contemplation of death. The marketing copy's interpretation of the text as equating football and warfare is wrong, as the text clearly rejects this.

The novel does draw some parallels between football and warfare, as well as between the lexicon of nuclear strategy and business school economics. The linguistics in the novel ties to Bakhtinian grotesque realism through the "new asceticism." The narrator's girlfriend embraces the carnivalesque by declining the responsibilities of beauty. The narrator looks up words in the dictionary, and we see the application of apotheosis in the novel. Someone is taking a course in "the untellable," and we come full circle with homo sacer. Recommended for those who appreciate the slowly gliding drift of identical things and readers who go through the motions and the motions seem to reciprocate.

Don DeLillo is truly remarkable. He is just so incredibly great. And this particular novel stands out as the absolute best one about sports that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The reason it is so outstanding is that it doesn't really matter that it is about sports.

He writes, "I reject the notion of football as warfare. Warfare is warfare. We don't need substitutes because we've got the real thing. The exemplary spectator is the person who understands that sport is a benign illusion, the illusion that order is possible." This profound statement makes us think deeply about the true nature of sports. It's not just about the action on the field but about the ideas and concepts that lie beneath the surface. DeLillo's ability to explore these themes in such a masterful way is what makes this novel a must-read for anyone interested in sports or literature.

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It has happened to me, quite frequently in fact, to read more or less veiled criticisms of this or that publishing house for the publication of a youthful work by a successful author. With the keyboard soiled by a certain assumption and an attitude bordering on snobbery, such publications were branded as mere "commercial operations", forgetting - among other things - that a publishing house is also a business and as such must aim to achieve a profit that guarantees its survival and, consequently, the possibility of publishing all the books we love so much.

There is more: except in very specific cases (I have one in mind but I wouldn't confess it even under torture), these forms of rediscovering youthful works I LIKE. I'll be brutal, but two thoughts come to my mind that can follow the reading of the youthful novel of an author I appreciate: if it were to be a half-baked work, the result would be comforting ("ok, not everyone is a genius, there's hope for all of us"). Vice versa, if the result were to be convincing, one would have been able to deepen the path taken by an author, that road strewn with phrases and words that led him to write our cult novel. In short, one triumphs in any case.

Although it concerns an author who, also because of his origins, is really very much loved in Italy, the publication in our country of "End zone", Don DeLillo's second novel dating back to 1972, is rather recent. And we are clearly in the second of the two possible scenarios I have described: in a form that certainly suffers from the not yet reached maturity, the young DeLillo shows us how already in his first narrative attempts there were themes and colors that distinguish his subsequent works, first and foremost that great masterpiece published under the title "Underworld".

"End zone" can serenely fall within the happy round of the so-called coming-of-age novels: the protagonist, Gary Harkness, is a young man from the state of New York who, due to a series of vicissitudes, has ended up in a small college in Texas to try to improve the fortunes of the local team, a reality certainly far from the most titled American universities.

It is the occasion for a frankly interesting narrative proposal: I'm not sure, but I imagine that American football teams are not teeming with literature and philosophy enthusiasts and constitute a universe in which cultural interests lag kilometers behind the passion for cheerleaders and that for hard liquors. DeLillo plays on this stereotyped image and creates a group of friends and players used (also) to reasoning about philosophy and poetry, with ties that vaguely recall those from "The Fugitive Moment" but that essentially refer to the present history. Thus, football becomes a perfect metaphor for war (Vietnam was still on the minds of Americans), adolescent fears are reflected in the fears of a nuclear holocaust (we are in full confrontation between the Western and Soviet blocs), the coach - a displaced person who lives in a tower that dominates the playing field - is called Creed ("Belief").

There is a lot, really a lot of the mature DeLillo. There is a lot of "The Falling Man", an exemplary novel of the post-September 11 American mindset. There is the whole path of an author still in the bud, but already great.

--- review published on http://www.masedomani.com/2015/03/24/... ---

Holy shit. TBR.

Fun fact: This book is mentioned in the McCaffery 100, yet it is not on the actual 100 list. It is interesting to note that it is mentioned in conjunction with the book The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop..

Perhaps this omission from the 100 list is a mystery that awaits further exploration. It makes one wonder why it was mentioned in the McCaffery 100 in the first place. Was it a significant oversight? Or maybe there are other factors at play that we are not aware of.

Nonetheless, the fact that it is associated with another notable book adds an element of intrigue. It makes us curious to know more about this particular work and why it might have been included in that mention.

Could it be that it has some unique qualities or features that set it apart? Or perhaps it has had an impact on the literary world in a way that is not immediately obvious.

In any case, this fun fact has piqued our interest and left us with many questions to ponder.

Love DeLillo, love End Zone.

Don DeLillo is a remarkable writer whose works have left a profound impact on the literary world. End Zone is one of his notable novels that showcases his unique style and profound insights.

D.F. Wallace, my favorite author, has also been influenced by DeLillo. It is evident that Wallace borrowed a few pages late in his own novel, Infinite Jest, for the incredible 'Eschaton' section.

This borrowing not only pays homage to DeLillo but also demonstrates the interconnectedness of great writers. The 'Eschaton' section in Infinite Jest is a tour de force, filled with complex ideas and vivid descriptions.

It is fascinating to see how different authors can draw inspiration from one another and create something truly original. Love for DeLillo's works and admiration for Wallace's genius continue to grow as we explore the depths of their literary contributions.

Don DeLillo indeed has an undeniable talent when it comes to handling language and描绘 landscapes. However, in this particular novel, it seemed to me that it got a bit lost beneath the weight of its own narrative. The themes were clearly present, but the structure was rather weak. Moreover, the speaker's voice appeared to blend into that of the other (male) characters. It was somewhat like the recognition theory, where the "profound" conversations were those that mirrored his own speech and perspective on the world. In a sense, everyone was a caricature, dynamic yet not fully developed - merely a mouthpiece for the speaker's obsessions with asceticism, death, and jargon. It's as if the novel was trying to convey so much but ended up not quite hitting the mark in terms of overall coherence and character depth.

If this appears to you as a football book, simply believe me when I say that it is an outrageously funny, dark, and brilliant novel that employs football to contemplate the cold war - authority, obedience, competition, ambition, discipline, the terrifying beauty and power of men in uniform following orders.

This book delves into organized violence. It explores the absence of meaning in modern life. And it uncovers the scarcely concealed longing to encounter pain, death, and annihilation that lies at the core of the will to dominate others, the aspiration to win, and the impetus to be the best.

The story weaves a complex tapestry, using the backdrop of football to examine these profound themes. It forces us to question our own values and the world we live in.

As we turn the pages, we are drawn into a world where the lines between right and wrong, good and evil, become blurred.

The author's unique perspective and masterful storytelling make this novel a must-read for anyone seeking a thought-provoking and entertaining literary experience.

There is a great deal to appreciate in this work. However, much like a significant portion of Don DeLillo's oeuvre, it suffers from a lack of narrative focus.

One is left yearning for a unified story, despite the descriptive pyrotechnics and a satisfying sense of humor that are present.

The erudite footballing elements are clumsily or haphazardly infused with the atmosphere and fantasies of a nuclear apocalypse.

Certainly, it is better than the maddening clunker that is "White Noise."

Nonetheless, the lack of a clear narrative thread somewhat detracts from the overall impact of the work.

Perhaps with a more refined and focused narrative, this piece could have achieved even greater heights.

As it stands, it remains an interesting but flawed exploration of various themes.

It is a work that invites further examination and discussion, despite its shortcomings.

Overall, it is a testament to DeLillo's unique writing style and his ability to create engaging and thought-provoking works, even when they do not fully succeed in all aspects.