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"As nearly perfect as any American fiction I know," is how Reynolds Price (The New York Times) described this classic that has been a favorite of readers, both here and in Europe, for almost forty years. Set in provincial France in the 1960s, it is the intensely carnal story--part shocking reality, part feverish dream --of a love affair between a footloose Yale dropout and a young French girl. There is the seen and the unseen--and pages that burn with a rare intensity.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Ryan Silva
reviewed A Sport and a Pastime on December 06, 2018 A Sport and a Pastime
How rare is it to find exquisite, naked-as-a-jaybird, hot-as-Hades, life affirming sex scenes in a book of lit-fic? I'll tell you: very rare. It pretty much never happens.
It happened here. Although I'm starting to feel like it was all a dream. Like I'm going to wake up after I write this review, open the book, and find reams of pages about auto manufacturing, or people in lab coats saying "genitals" over and over while indicating to a medical diagram. (In other words, very NOT sexy things.)
I'm not going to lie, it's a strange little book. The strangest thing for me by far is the narration. This novel, which got off to a bit of a slow start, chronicles the steamy love affair between Dean and Anne-Marie. The story is told by some other guy. Think about that. Some other guy is describing the very prolific, intimate couplings of his friends, down to the minute, personal detail. He warns us at the beginning that he's made much of it up. But that just makes it even more weird (not to mention, pervy and pathetic) for him to document his imaginings of what these two people do behind closed doors. (That's for writers to do, not friends!)
Except, except, except. Except, you just have to open the book to any page, and you will find passages that cut you open, make you pant, tell the truth about sexual love and the fluctuating, unfair nature of relationships. Salter has a minimalist style that is poetic, fragmented, yet precise. After you spend time in his pages, you'll realise this is more than just an account of Dean and Anne-Marie going from car to hotel room to restaurant to hotel room, sex scene strung to sex scene strung to sex scene.
Though, it IS sex scene strung to sex scene.
And, at the same time, it's deeper than that. Salter's story explores love, voyeurism, youth and impermanence. It examines the kaleidoscope of cruelties and imbalances that exist in relationships. It shows the oh-so-relatable struggle to find the ingredients for a happy life. It's about the importance of telling stories, even if they're not your own. Plus the sex. All in under 200 pages? What a masterpiece!
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