Name: End Zone
Rating: 4 (5 reviews)
ISBN: 9780671820121

Don DeLillo

End Zone

Ostensibly, Don DeLillo's blackly comic second novel, End Zone, is about Gary Harkness, a football player and student at Logos College, west Texas. During a season of unprecedented success, Gary becomes increasingly fixated on 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 generals might contemplate global conflict. But as the terminologies of football and nuclear war - the language of end zones - become interchanged, the polysemous nature of words emerges, and DeLillo forces us to see beyond the sterile reality of substitution. This clever and playful novel is a timeless and topical study of human beings' obsession with conflict and confrontation.

didnt want this to end, so captivated by delillos characters. football parts skimmed hard af because i dont know any of those words

yasi

jack

i had it in my head while reading this that this was his first book, but it is actually his second. still, this is written with such incredible confidence that it is hard to believe this isn't four or five books into his idiosyncratic style. this is my favorite delillo so far. the concern with language, beauty, asceticism, blackness in america, sports, and destruction are all so well-handled. structurally, this book is somewhat shocking and follows delillo's anti-climactic style but with a bit more flare. it was hard to read this having read infinite jest, as DFW rips so much directly from this book. eschaton, the sportscaster kid, and the premise of hyper-educated, pseudo-intellectual athletes all in one secluded space are all present. as are many other things that are potential spoilers for either book.
delillo's characters are not characters, but people. this makes it hard to read and harder to sit with but i think his characters are the ones that best represent what it feels like to lead a modern american life.

Max L

Chuck D'Antonio

Several young men in pursuit of different dreams find themselves drawn together in their desire to play football at a small college in a remote part of Texas during the Cold War.

Anthony Sabourin

The second novel by Don DeLillo, author of White Noise (winner of the National Book Award) and The Silence At Logos College in West Texas, huge young men, vacuum-packed into shoulder pads and shiny helmets, play football with intense passion. During an uncharacteristic winning season, the perplexed and distracted running back Gary Harkness has periodic fits of nuclear glee; he is fueled and shielded by his fear of and fascination with nuclear conflict. Among oddly afflicted and recognizable players, the terminologies of football and nuclear war--the language of end zones--become interchangeable, and their meaning deteriorates as the collegiate year runs its course. In this triumphantly funny, deeply searching novel, Don DeLillo explores the metaphor of football as war with rich, original zeal.

End Zone

Reviews

Highlights