A Sport and a Pastime is an astonishing performance, the classic novel from a remarkable writer whose sentences bristle with a singular passion. Salter chronicles a love affair between a young shopgirl and an American college dropout against the backdrop of provincial France. The narrator's cool distillation of events-real or imagined-makes the book both lyrical and tightly, dangerously pitched.
A Sport and a Pastime (Open Road)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Salter inhabits the same rarefied heights as Flannery O'Connor, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, and John Cheever."--Ned Rorem, The Washington Post Book World
"A feverishly compressed, exquisitely controlled story."--Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times
"A tour de force of erotic realism, a romantic cliff-hanger; an opaline vision of Americans in France . . . A Sport and a Pastime succeeds as art must. It tells us about ourselves."--The New York Times Book Review
"Salter particularly rewards those for whom reading is an intense pleasure."--Susan Sontag
"A feverishly compressed, exquisitely controlled story."--Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times
"A tour de force of erotic realism, a romantic cliff-hanger; an opaline vision of Americans in France . . . A Sport and a Pastime succeeds as art must. It tells us about ourselves."--The New York Times Book Review
"Salter particularly rewards those for whom reading is an intense pleasure."--Susan Sontag
From the Inside Flap
"A Sport and a Pastime is as nearly perfect as any American fiction
I know," Reynolds Price wrote of James Salter's 1967 novel that tells of the mismatched love affair between Phillip Dean, a Yale dropout adrift in Europe, and Anne-Marie Costallat, a young French shopgirl. An erotic tour de force, licentious yet pure, it is also a hymn to provincial France and has been admired and quoted from since its first publication. Its stunning knowledge and insight have the power to change lives.
It brings a kind of splendor to the life that refuses to bow to conven-
tion or mores, and, like Cavafy's poems, evokes the illicit in a way that endows it with an astonishing beauty. Brilliantly written and overwhelming in its effect, it remains a triumph on every level. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
I know," Reynolds Price wrote of James Salter's 1967 novel that tells of the mismatched love affair between Phillip Dean, a Yale dropout adrift in Europe, and Anne-Marie Costallat, a young French shopgirl. An erotic tour de force, licentious yet pure, it is also a hymn to provincial France and has been admired and quoted from since its first publication. Its stunning knowledge and insight have the power to change lives.
It brings a kind of splendor to the life that refuses to bow to conven-
tion or mores, and, like Cavafy's poems, evokes the illicit in a way that endows it with an astonishing beauty. Brilliantly written and overwhelming in its effect, it remains a triumph on every level. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
70 of 73 people found the following review helpful
By Glenn McLeod
Format:Paperback
A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter. North Point Press San Fransisco 1985
On the surface this is a love story. Phillip Dean, an American dropout from Yale, and Anne-Mari Costallat, a French shop girl, live and love, love, love... for several months in France. As the observer/narrator tells the story, one is never quite certain whether the narrative is an objective account of the life of Phillip and Anne-Mari or a fabricated wish fulfillment of a frustrated stymied paramour of the beautiful Claude Picquet. In the end it doesn't matter as the story ebbs and flows inexorably and smoothly through the shimmering French countryside to its tragic conclusion.
The writing is astounding. I stopped time and again to read and reread passages as the combinations of words and phrases evoked emotions and feelings that I thought not possible given the simplicity and directness of the words. There is a conciseness to both the story and the language. So much is said with so few words that one sometimes regrets that this parsimony of words brings the end too soon. I wanted the novel to continue so I might continue to savor this beautiful writing.
A wonderful novel that I will continue to read for years to come.
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like Salter's other novels, this book is a study in hero worship. Here the hero is not a fighter pilot ("The Hunters") or an alpine mountain climber ("Solo Faces") but a lover, whose intensely erotic affair with a young French woman is imagined by the novel's narrator, a casual friend who scarcely knows him. Phillip Dean (like a real-life counterpart James Dean) is in his twenties, good looking, intelligent, and with a fatal attraction to fast cars. (Dean Moriarty of Kerouac's "On the Road" also comes to mind.)
As a movie, this would be NC-17 material. Far from romance, it's a graphic portrayal of the unpredictable interplay of desires and emotions between two people physically attracted to each other. And in its fascination with the shifting moods of lovers consumed by their passions, it is "very French."
Though published, and apparently set, in the 1960s, the book captures the look and feel of post-war France. The provincial towns where it takes place are lifeless and silent, seemingly exhausted. Salter's gift for seizing sharply drawn impressions from fleeting images makes the settings almost jump from the page. Written in present tense, his sentences are short and often fragmentary. While evoking the great weight of history, his images have the immediacy of the present. An American reader who has traveled in Europe will recognize the emotions Salter describes.
Meanwhile, the story is layered with ironies. The narrator himself seems to have a life that is almost empty of eros, and he reminds us that for all its graphic detail, he has imagined all the intimacies of Dean and Anne-Marie's affair. Maybe the lesson in this has to do with our own perceived inadequacies and voyeuristic curiosity about the private lives of others, especially celebrities and public figures. Almost 40 years later, Salter's novel stands up very well today, its vision and its ambiguities more pointed than ever.
As a movie, this would be NC-17 material. Far from romance, it's a graphic portrayal of the unpredictable interplay of desires and emotions between two people physically attracted to each other. And in its fascination with the shifting moods of lovers consumed by their passions, it is "very French."
Though published, and apparently set, in the 1960s, the book captures the look and feel of post-war France. The provincial towns where it takes place are lifeless and silent, seemingly exhausted. Salter's gift for seizing sharply drawn impressions from fleeting images makes the settings almost jump from the page. Written in present tense, his sentences are short and often fragmentary. While evoking the great weight of history, his images have the immediacy of the present. An American reader who has traveled in Europe will recognize the emotions Salter describes.
Meanwhile, the story is layered with ironies. The narrator himself seems to have a life that is almost empty of eros, and he reminds us that for all its graphic detail, he has imagined all the intimacies of Dean and Anne-Marie's affair. Maybe the lesson in this has to do with our own perceived inadequacies and voyeuristic curiosity about the private lives of others, especially celebrities and public figures. Almost 40 years later, Salter's novel stands up very well today, its vision and its ambiguities more pointed than ever.
56 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In the opening pages an unnamed narrator describes the French countryside and small towns he is traveling through by train. The writing is flawless, sharply observant and evocative of a locale and country that is traditionally linked with romance. As the narrator settles into a rented villa and begins to explore the night life of the small village he has decided to spend some time in we become aware of a peculiar habit of mind he has. The narrator likes to imagine the inner and private lives of strangers he meets. This is woven into the narrative in a way that makes it exciting to read as you don't always know just how much of what he relates is observation and how much created out of an imagination fueled by some personal need to embellish. The narrator is dedicated to a life of inaction so much so that he is relieved to find the woman he admires from a distance is no longer available. The books title is taken from the Koran and as Salter says in his autobiography is meant to be ironic as in its context it is meant to refer to the insignificance of this life in comparison to the life to come. But the narrator is no follower of traditional thought or beliefs and his only pastime is that habit of mind. Entering into his world is his exact opposite Dean. Outwardly handsome, exuding a sense of adventure, recently arrived from Spain, and immediately gaining the attention of women he also gainds the attention of our narrator. The two become friends....apparently. For here the clues as to what is observed and what is imagined becomes grey. Nevertheless this is not a distraction, rather it makes for an intriguing complexity to the narrative. Dean is soon involved in an affair which is highly charged, almost purely physical in its nature. Dean and Anne-Marie frolic in every way imaginable, including the favorite way of that most depraved of Frenchman, Sade. All could well be an invented affair but maybe not. The writing is so succinct and yet so rich in detail that as a reader you really don't care. It is a good sexy story. Eventually Dean who has been living out of his rich American fathers pockets must return to America but what a ride it has been. Dean leaves his rare sportscar in the care of our narrator but as soon as Dean is gone the car shows signs of decay. Every detail of this story from the descriptions of the French towns to the weather, which is often foul, to the sex scenes and trips to Paris is exceptionally told. This book has enough interesting aspects to be much longer but unfortunately it does end.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Time Stops
Creates its own world, using beautiful language, images, fantasies. Like sex itself, it makes time stop. Read more
Published 5 days ago by harrison young
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classic style
Despite any reservations a reader night encounter embracing the graphic, sometimes sordid sensual adventures of a young and adept American in his journey through the rural French... Read more
Published 8 days ago by TJG
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written coming-of-age novel
Language and setting like a Hemingway novel, narrative like a sexy "Catcher and the Rye". A classic in my judgement!
Published 8 days ago by Ted H. Hansen
2.0 out of 5 stars
so tedious
I had high expectations for this book, particularly because of the nature of the reviews I've read, and based on the claims of Salter being a writer's writer. Hmmm. Read more
Published 16 days ago by H. Humbert
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe He's Not A Writer's Writer, But Maybe He Is
Salter is the flavor of the month right now--getting the positive attention that he could have used earlier in his writing career. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Jean Gross
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read by a hell of a writer.
I recently "discovered" James Salter in an article in The New Yorker, and what a find he has been for me. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Pecksniff
4.0 out of 5 stars
Erotica in French countryside
It is amazing how things changed This novella, initially not published because of too explicit sexual content seems a little dated now. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Jerzy E. Henisz
5.0 out of 5 stars
Salter is grossly underrated
James Salter is immensely evocative with just a few words. He marries psychology and sensuality with tremendous grace. A delightful read.
Published 26 days ago by Jean-Pierre Plouffe
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written and adult themed
I enjoyed the book which is very well written, and the French and historical settings are excellently delineated. The book is erotic and sensitively handled.
Published 26 days ago by Deanne Churchill Cricket fan
3.0 out of 5 stars
Writier is competent but not inspired!
Not likely to complete the whole after reading the sample. Descriptions are too consciously "writerly". Feel as though I've read of time and place before.
Published 1 month ago by Diana K. Miller
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