End Zone

Oddly enough, this slight existential sports novel is the Delillo book I think about most. Maybe it's the earnest young people splitting their time between playing football and pontificating out of their depth that does it for me. ( )

Distinctive and darkly humorous look at the intersection of football and thermonuclear war and the rituals and neuroses of both. DeLillo's distinctive and lovely prose style also benefits the book - this early work shows some of the techniques he would develop much later. ( )

I haven't read this book in several years, but I've read it 3 or 4 times since 1989. I had no idea it was written in 1972 when I read it in 1989, it just didn't have a "dated" feel then. I am not a football fan, but the sport is integrated into the plot, and is not a burden to follow. The book skirts the edges of black comedy, topical fiction, and coming-of-age. Characters are interesting, issues are interesting, and even if nuclear war doesn't carry the same heft as it used to, you get the idea. Gary's girlfriend Myna, oversize and in an orange dress, is sure to make an impression. Highly recommended. ( )

Incredibly funny - a look into the humor and philosophical pathos of college years. ( )

This is Delillo's second novel and I had to read it out of order because I couldn't find my copy. I'm actually glad I did, though, because I would have then been more disappointed than I was in Great Jones Street (see my review on this site). It would have been a major letdown after this novel. Which is nothing short of sublime.

End Zone is clearly the novel that put him on the map as a great writer. If Americana revealed him to be a talented writer, this novel proves him to be a talented writer to be reckoned with.

What makes this novel so wonderful to me is that it's about football. And I hate football. I think it's a dumb sport. But I was never bored while reading this book. I didn't catch myself skimming over descriptions of a play-by-play. I didn't catch myself getting annoyed with explanations of the rules. Instead, I found myself fascinated with how thoroughly-realized Delillo's main theme was. He picked a theme, ran with it, and manages to convince us completely that his theory is true. The theme in question isn't all that original in this day and age, but if a reader keeps in mind that this novel was first published in 1972, we can see how far ahead of its time it was.

The theme is simple: a book-length exploration of the metaphor of football as war.

Coach Veech has assembled the best college football that Logos College in West Texas has probably ever seen. The two main assets to this year's team are Taft Robinson, Logos College's first ever black student and a one-track minded receiver that can run like the wind, and distracted running back Gary Harkness, who has been thrown out of many colleges for being too violent. Harkness, a man who will jump into a dogpile just to be a part of the melee, functions as well as the novel's narrator. He also subscribes fully to Coach Veech's football mantra of "Hit somebody Hit Somebody Hit Somebody."

Despite the novel being about subject matter I couldn't care less about, I found this novel to be remarkably readable. Delillo writes with a spark and finesse that few novels about sports can claim. There's an extended sequence halfway through the book, a play-by-play of a match with West Centrex Biotechnical Institute, an undefeated team notorious for breaking bones, that is so excitingly realized that I actually went back and read it again in an attempt to map out the maneuverings. Another extended sequence describes a scrimmage that takes place during a snowstorm. A scrimmage that keeps going and going despite limited visibility because the team members want the added challenge. As the storm progresses, new rules are added (You cannot wear gloves, no passing unless you throw the ball overhanded and backwards over your shoulder, one quarterback against the rest of the team). It's a beautiful sequence tinged with frustration and adrenalin. You can almost hear the snow as it bounces off the player's helmets.

But the novel isn't all about football. Harkness is obsessed with violence and enrolls in ROTC classes just so he can learn about nuclear weaponry. He plays odd games of war with one of his professors in secluded hotel rooms. Another student breeds colonies of insects in his dorm, pitting the insects against each other in violent survival-of-the-fittest battles.

Delillo's first great book. The only reason that I don't give it five stars is that I've read later Delillo novels that are better, novels that are truly worthy of a five-star praise. But this one is still quite good. ( )