Don Delillo is the real author of this fictional memoir of a female goalie in the NHL. Cleo Birdwell is a pseudonym. My own feeling is that Delillo is at his best when he's just having fun and being funny, both of which he's doing here. None of the pretense of say, Underworld or The Names, where he's trying too hard. Some of it may be a little too silly, but it's still a fun ride. Also, some of the best/funniest sex scenes in literature. I just regret that I lost my copy. Damn.

I was expecting more from this secret Don Delillo novel. basically, the first female hockey player has a lot of sex in her search for love.... a let down.

A tedious novel from a tedious author. Leave it to DeLillo to spend his time writing under a female surname to talk endlessly about the shape and feel of countless dicks.

Playful far past the point of fatigue.

Laugh-out-loud funny novel by Don Delillo writing as Cleo Birdwell, a faux-memoir by the first female hockey player in the NHL. Delillo has since disavowed the book and refused his publisher's request to reprint it. It was his 7th novel and until White Noise (his ninth) came out in the mid-80s, it was his top selling book. Not sure why he's distanced himself from it. A handful of scenes aren't PC, maybe that's why. Hard to find, but worth it for the Delillo completist. Next up is Ratner's Star.

A perfect novel

That Cleo Birdwell . . . always "hopping into bed" with guys. I have to love her.

Secretly written by Don DeLillo, this "memoir" by the first woman to play in the NHL is by turns hilarious and lyrical. Lots of old-world/eccentric New York City, frank, untortured sex scenes, and philosophical digressions on modern America. Highly recommend. I wrote an essay about some of the themes in the book, which you can find here:

http://www.theawl.com/2014/02/everyon...

Well then.

I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time and I’ve tried many times. I’m a diehard New York Rangers fan and I thought a fictional take on what it would be like to be a female Ranger would be a blast. But after 10 pages, I soon realize that’s not what “Cleo Birdwell” (aka Don DeLillo) is going for here.

This book is really about sex. Lots and lots of sex. Sexual exploration, etc.

Which is fine. I’m not a prude. But wanting to read about one thing (hockey, the Rangers, gender dynamics) and instead getting another (sexuality, postmodernism, satire), especially with a male perspective makes this tough for me to appreciate.

The big issue is: can a man write all about female sexuality from a female’s perspective? I feel like in most instances, DeLillo handled it well. There are some predictably squicky moments too. I’m forever leery of men writing female POVs in the same way I am white people writing non-white ones, straight people writing gay ones, etc. I get the sex is a only a gateway to examine the socio-cultural norms DeLillo wants to autopsy but still. I can at least appreciate how he makes the larger point of a female philandering athlete and how that would be received differently versus a male one.

Can’t make this clear enough, if you’re reading it solely for the hockey, give it the hardest of hard passes. But if you like satire and are a fan of DeLillo, you should check it out because there are plenty of moments of inspired comedy and sharp satire. It also functions as a good snapshot of New York City at the dawn of the 80s. DeLillo treats it respectfully and realistically instead of making it out to be the giant toilet bowl most of America thought it was at the time.

Probably the best (ostensibly) hockey book I've read. Recommended to anyone who is a fan of hockey and/or Don DeLillo.

Characters were a little unbelievable, but that is typical Don DeLillo - you just have to have a suspension of disbelief.

Whew, doggy, did Delillo get his rocks off with this one. Almost a religious purge of a novel, it contains all of Delillo's goofiest, horniest, most farcical intentions in one package. Cleo Birdwell is a fascinating (if not the least problematic) creation, a representation of the dual sexual and feminist revolutions taking place over the decade-and-a-half leading up to Amazons' publication, all imprinted onto the most incongruous of the major sports, hockey. I wish this was a bit more "in publication," as it's something that has to be read to be believed, but it also makes sense that it has been largely lost to time.

"You add the heavy cream and sugar at low speed because you want a heavy cheesecake. The original Lindy's is heavy. If you beat at high speed, you get air pockets and that gives you a feathery cheesecake, which is the last thing you want. If you beat at moderate speed, you get a well-balanced, midwestern cheesecake. We want to be extremist here. So we go low speed. The best cheesecake sits in your stomach like a gold bar. Cheesecake has to hurt a little. That means it cares."

–Murray Jay Siskind