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Sport and a Pastime (Panther) (Paperback)

by James Salter (Author)
Key Phrases: Madame Job, Claude Picquet, Place du Carrouge (more...)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
This appears in this publisher's Paris Review Editions, a series sobriquet which in this case rather suggests the old Olympia Press. Salter, who did earlier books, one dealing with the mystique of flight, now transfers to the fever of the flesh in what is as erotic a novel as any since Henry Miller even where it is as lyrical as it is lubricious.... As seen or rather imagined by an older friend, thirtyish, filled with autumnal resignation, this views the months spent together by Dean with Anne-Marie, a rather common, ultimately a little boring, office worker. Seldom has the progression of a consumingly physical attachment, from its initial insatiability to its more advanced experimentation, been charted as explicitly. But what is most seductive about the book actually are Salter's descriptions of France around Dijon and Nancy (and sometimes Paris), dusty towns, courts, cafes, cemeteries, changeless and inviolable. (Kirkus 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

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Harvill Pr (May 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1860463851
ISBN-13: 978-1860463853

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,470,749 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Madame Job, Claude Picquet, Place du Carrouge, Madame Picquet

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 6 books:

A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel by James Salter in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Front Matter (3)
Light Years by James Salter in Front Matter
Solo Faces: A Novel by James Salter in Front Matter
Ethan Frome (Signet Classics) by Edith Wharton in Front Matter
Burning The Days by James Salter in Front Matter

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49 books cite this book:

Meet The Writers: The Steinbeck Project: 1978-2002 by William M. Peterson on page 48, and page 133
Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments by Mr. Michael Dirda on page 22
The Year of Reading Proust: A Memoir in Real Time by Phyllis Rose in Back Matter
Death Comes for the Archbishop (Modern Library) by Willa Cather in Front Matter
The Canterbury Tales (Middle English Edition) by Geoffrey Chaucer in Back Matter

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	4% buy Solo Faces: A Novel 4.5 out of 5 stars (11) $11.90
	3% buy Last Night 4.0 out of 5 stars (23) $10.40

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Customer Reviews

32 Reviews

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4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
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4.2 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Year of Living Sensually, August 26, 2001

By	Doug Anderson (Miami Beach, Florida United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (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.

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eros imagined . . ., August 22, 2005

By	Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (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.

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure and simple joy!, November 7, 2000

By	Glenn McLeod (London, Ontario) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sexuality and Sadness
"A Sport and a Pastime" (1968) is the third novel of the American writer James Salter (b. 1925). Before becoming a writer, Salter lived an energetic life as a West Point graduate... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Robin Friedman

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not the best
This book is half voyeur, half first person, and can never make up its mind which it wants to be. The entire book evolves around sex and eating at restaurants and not much more... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Joshua L. Waters

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended
Dean is an American college dropout visiting France and who meets the narrator through a social dinner. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Erin Brooks

5.0 out of 5 stars Floating through words
I read this book a few years ago as a young, wide-eyed college student. Recently, with more experience (both literary and in life) I've come to it again and I'm still amazed by... Read more

Published 22 months ago by TheLonelyArtistClub

3.0 out of 5 stars Eloquent and erotic.
The writing is lovely. Salter strings together words in a refreshing and clean style. The story itself didn't grab me the way I had hoped it would after reading previous... Read more

Published 24 months ago by groovymamma

3.0 out of 5 stars Objectification as Art
Salter has an incredible sensuous style, so I'm giving this three stars because I just like how he puts the words together on the page. Read more

Published on March 31, 2006 by Lynn Reynolds

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thrill and a Seduction
This book set me spinning in dilemna trying to decide whether to devour or to savor each of leaf of this luscious novel. Read more

Published on February 22, 2006 by Avid Reader

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
I bought this book and also Last Night based upon the gushing reviews you see above. Who are they kidding? The main character is a cad. Read more

Published on February 19, 2006 by Vermont Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better the second time around
I first read this novel when it was new, in the late sixties, and I liked it because I, too, had been a student in France and had experienced some cross-cultural coupling during... Read more

Published on November 9, 2005 by Joel Cohen

2.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to read
I was really looking forward to starting this book based on the positive reviews. But I was very disapointed. I had a very difficult time reading this book. Read more

Published on August 10, 2005 by tarrajo

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