James salters depictions of sex as a glorious, writhing inevitability in a sport and a pastime divulge certain truths about companionship. The cycle of meeting, flirting and fucking forms the books. Beautiful and haunting, a sport and a pastime is one of the first great american novels to speak frankly of human desire and the yearning for passion free of guilt and shame. This study guide consists of approximately 33 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of a sport an d a pas time. The film traces writer james salters lifelong love affair with france, unforgettably expressed in his 1967 masterpiece, a sport and a pastime. I bought my copy many years ago, after falling in love with his story collections and enjoying light years, probably his bestknown novel. Pdf a sport and a pastime download full pdf book download. A sport and a pastime with an overdrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for. A sport and a pastime is a novel by the american writer james salter. A sport and a pastime lyricizes the flesh and france with the same ardent intensity.
Set in provincial france in the 1960s, it is the intensely carnal story part shocking. A sport and a pastime established james salters reputation as one of the. As nearly perfect as any american fiction i know, is. Remember that the life of this world is but a sport and a pastime. A sport and a pastime audiobook james salter audible. A sport and a pastime by james salter librarything. Librarything is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers all about a sport an d a pas time by james salter. Set in provincial france in the 1960s, james salters a sport and a pastime is the intensely carnal storypart shocking reality, part feverish dream of a love affair between a footloose yale dropout and a young french girl.
Philip dean, a footloose yale dropout, is touring provincial france and sometimes paris in a borrowed, once elegant car. They are merely discolored a bit by time, like coins in the pocket of a forgotten suit. Set in provincial france in the 1960s, it is the intensely carnal story part. This ebook features an illustrated biography of james salter including rare photos from the authors personal collection. A sport and a pastime by james salter, paperback barnes. The book follows an american college drop out in france, named philip dean and an eighteen year old french girl. Sparknotes are the most helpful study guides around to literature, math, science, and more. Fragments of the novel, read by the late author, reynolds price, are intercut with ralph gibsons photographs, conversations with robert redford for whom salter wrote the screenplay. The more clearly one sees this world, the more one is obliged to pretend it does not exist.
A sport and a pastime is a seductive classic that established james salters reputation as one of the finest writers of our time. Recently, for the fourth or fifth time in my life, i started trying to read james salters a sport an d a pas time. James salter, quote from a sport and a pastime there are men who seem to have seized the trunk of life, and he was one of them. A sport an d a pas time by james salter abebooks passion for books. A sport and a pastime is a pretty good definition of how a certain kind of man treats women in relationships. A sport an d a pas time is a short novel first published in 1967 by james salter. Philip dean is an american whom the narrator first meets at a party in paris with the wheatlands. As a adjective sport is suitable for use in athletic activities or for casual or informal wear. 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. James salter authored numerous books, including the novels all that is, solo faces, light years, a sport and a pastime, the arm of flesh revised as cassada, and the hunters. Salter chronicles a love affair between a young shopgirl and an american college dropout against the backdrop of provincial france. What is a summary of a sport and a pastime by james salter. Plot outlines should be no longer than 239 characters.
Since its publication in 1967, during the decade of sexual revolution, a sport and a pastime has set the standard not only for eroticism in fiction, but for the principal organ of literature the imagination. With a jagged, faintly hemingwayesque style, he wanders into the murk of reality and appearance. A sport and a pastime book king county library system. He goes beyond the animalistic use of human beings. Skip to main navigation skip to main navigation skip to search skip to search skip to content. Publishers summary 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. Summaries should be more than 239 characters, but still reasonably brief. Click to read more about a sport an d a pas time by james salter. It might not be for everyone, the great, scarring thing you could not get your arms around, but it was there for him. Shorter summaries may be rerouted to the outlines list.
Set in provincial france in the 1960s, james salters a sport and a pastime is the intensely carnal story. Released in 1967, james salters a sport and a pastime, which has become something of a cult novel, doesnt seem to fit in with the summer of love ethos of its time. Find sample tests, essay help, and translations of shakespeare. Animation, sport and culture is a wideranging study of both sport and animated films. Fiction survives through minor novels like this one. A sport and a pastime book hennepin county library. He begins a mismatched affair with a young shop girl named annemarie. His novel attempts to substantiate this view in two. James salters title, a sport and a pastime, is taken from the koran. Uncommonly good collectible and rare books from uncommonly good booksellers.
Most of the details, though, have long since been transformed or rearranged to bring others of them forward. He published another novel, a sport an d a pas time 1967, while working as a screenwriter. This is a brilliant, probing and very subtle depiction of the relationship between a rich american boy and a poor french girl without prospects. As verbs the difference between sport and pastime is that sport is to amuse oneself, to play while pastime is obsolete to sport. Together they burn in an everyday but stunningly sensual paradise.
Depending on the study guide provider sparknotes, shmoop, etc. From goofy to goalkeepers, wallace and gromit to tiger woods, mickey mouse to messi, and nike to nationhood, this olympicsized analysis looks at the history, politics, aesthetics and technologies of sport and animation from around the globe. As in his bestknown book, a sport and a pastime, the act of love forms a recurrent rite of cleansing and reinvigoration in all that is. He lifts the chain of conscience and finds personality locked against change by the past. A sport an d a pas time by james salter and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. Find a sport and a pastime by salter, james at biblio. The fifth in a series of essays on reading as personal experience. Reading this book fifty years later, im testament to that statement. A sport an d a pas time, though not obscure, has a whiff of the occult about it, with its hazy voyeuristic sex and a title taken from the koran. A sport and a pastime is a young uppermiddle class american mans dreamy journey through postwar france, as he drinks in the landscape and culture, and, well, gets it on with a french shopgirl. There is the seen and the unseenand pages that burn with a rare intensity.
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