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sashamoment's review against another edition
4.5
stunned me and came to me at exactly the right time. a book whose linguistic tricks play with the untellable & that strange shifting thing you cannot look directly in the eye
roachmonk's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
libellum_aphrodite's review against another edition
2.0
I would edit the GoodReads description of Endzone as "Dr. Strangelove meets Dallas Forty" to include "meets Holden Caulfield." The narrative style and attitude reminded me of the tone of Catcher in the Rye.
I liked that DeLillo brought a new slant to the intelligence of a bunch of football players - the conversations in the dorms were on par in intellectualism as ones that might be heard amongst the boys of Dead Poets Society, not a level of depth typically associated with a football squad.
Despite enjoying the fresh discussion of a football team, I never felt particularly attached to the story or any of the characters. The character studies were interesting, but didn't leave me feeling invested in anyone in the book.
I liked that DeLillo brought a new slant to the intelligence of a bunch of football players - the conversations in the dorms were on par in intellectualism as ones that might be heard amongst the boys of Dead Poets Society, not a level of depth typically associated with a football squad.
Despite enjoying the fresh discussion of a football team, I never felt particularly attached to the story or any of the characters. The character studies were interesting, but didn't leave me feeling invested in anyone in the book.
wmbogart's review against another edition
“Maybe he had heard others use it and thought it was a remark demanded by history, a way of affirming the meaning of one's straggle. Maybe the words were commissioned, as it were, by language itself, by that compartment of language in which are kept all bits of diction designed to outlive the men who abuse them, all phrases that reduce speech to units of sounds, lullabies processed through intricate systems.”
In retrospect, it’s hard not to read End Zone as a rehearsal for DeLillo's later novels; most of the concerns here are fleshed out and expanded on elsewhere. Nuclear disaster, war, and academia in White Noise. Sport, tradition, and the relation of objects and spaces to silence in Underworld. Optics and linguistic struggle in Libra and mass ritual in Mao II.
Ultimately, DeLillo is preoccupied with language. How it is used, by people and systems, how it changes and molds and affects people. How we use it, or how it uses us, or how we are used through it. There are incredible passages on that subject in End Zone, even if the novel doesn’t reach the heights of Libra or Underworld. Few do!
As with Great Jones Street, there are some unsavory comedic elements here that haven’t aged well. And his singular approach to dialogue doesn't always land in the way it would in his later writing. But the central metaphor is inspired and explored with impressive depth, and the prose itself is astounding. I don’t think any novelist diagnosed the (post-)modern condition as well as DeLillo did. He was able to render that diagnosis in the system’s own language from the beginning, with his signature blend deadpan absurdity and despair.
In retrospect, it’s hard not to read End Zone as a rehearsal for DeLillo's later novels; most of the concerns here are fleshed out and expanded on elsewhere. Nuclear disaster, war, and academia in White Noise. Sport, tradition, and the relation of objects and spaces to silence in Underworld. Optics and linguistic struggle in Libra and mass ritual in Mao II.
Ultimately, DeLillo is preoccupied with language. How it is used, by people and systems, how it changes and molds and affects people. How we use it, or how it uses us, or how we are used through it. There are incredible passages on that subject in End Zone, even if the novel doesn’t reach the heights of Libra or Underworld. Few do!
As with Great Jones Street, there are some unsavory comedic elements here that haven’t aged well. And his singular approach to dialogue doesn't always land in the way it would in his later writing. But the central metaphor is inspired and explored with impressive depth, and the prose itself is astounding. I don’t think any novelist diagnosed the (post-)modern condition as well as DeLillo did. He was able to render that diagnosis in the system’s own language from the beginning, with his signature blend deadpan absurdity and despair.
hieronymusbotched's review against another edition
4.0
An early DeLillo gem, coming off as far more polished, focused, and cohesive than something like Players or Running Dog.
The premise of End Zone is such a fantastically strange idea, to essentially write about football as if describing the blows traded by nuclear powers, but DeLillo pulls it off wonderfully. There’s a dark, almost occult-like emphasis on the limits of language and the way people sometimes seem to speak, not to be heard, but to reify the boundaries of their identify, or maybe just to secure themselves against what they know, can’t help but know, in a world that is permanently a few button presses away from ruin.
It is also, as far as I know, the only book where you’ll hear football players bludgeoning one another with Wittgenstein, so if that sounds fun, this is an excellent way to spend your time.
The premise of End Zone is such a fantastically strange idea, to essentially write about football as if describing the blows traded by nuclear powers, but DeLillo pulls it off wonderfully. There’s a dark, almost occult-like emphasis on the limits of language and the way people sometimes seem to speak, not to be heard, but to reify the boundaries of their identify, or maybe just to secure themselves against what they know, can’t help but know, in a world that is permanently a few button presses away from ruin.
It is also, as far as I know, the only book where you’ll hear football players bludgeoning one another with Wittgenstein, so if that sounds fun, this is an excellent way to spend your time.
minervadashwood's review against another edition
This was possibly worse than Fox news and definitely worse than watching football. I really hated this book.
chillcox15's review
4.0
As opposed to Americana, which could have been shorter, I would have liked more football and more nuclear paranoia here, Mr. Delillo. In some ways feels more 'first novel' than Americana, but also slightly more accomplished in its scope and interests.
chassen2's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
3.0