Sparknotes are the most helpful study guides around to literature, math, science, and more. Skip to main navigation skip to main navigation skip to search skip to search skip to content. The film traces writer james salters lifelong love affair with france, unforgettably expressed in his 1967 masterpiece, a sport and a pastime. Librarything is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers all about a sport an d a pas time by james salter. Animation, sport and culture is a wideranging study of both sport and animated films. 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. This ebook features an illustrated biography of james salter including rare photos from the authors personal collection. Shorter summaries may be rerouted to the outlines list. 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.
Summaries should be more than 239 characters, but still reasonably brief. He goes beyond the animalistic use of human beings. As a adjective sport is suitable for use in athletic activities or for casual or informal wear. Pdf a sport and a pastime download full pdf book download. As verbs the difference between sport and pastime is that sport is to amuse oneself, to play while pastime is obsolete to sport. A sport an d a pas time by james salter and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. 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. 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. James salters depictions of sex as a glorious, writhing inevitability in a sport and a pastime divulge certain truths about companionship. 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.
The fifth in a series of essays on reading as personal experience. His novel attempts to substantiate this view in two. 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. Philip dean is an american whom the narrator first meets at a party in paris with the wheatlands. He lifts the chain of conscience and finds personality locked against change by the past. Reading this book fifty years later, im testament to that statement. A sport and a pastime by james salter, paperback barnes.
I bought my copy many years ago, after falling in love with his story collections and enjoying light years, probably his bestknown novel. It might not be for everyone, the great, scarring thing you could not get your arms around, but it was there for him. A sport and a pastime is a novel by the american writer james salter. 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. 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. Together they burn in an everyday but stunningly sensual paradise. Remember that the life of this world is but a sport and a pastime.
A sport and a pastime by james salter librarything. What is a summary of a sport and a pastime by james salter. Uncommonly good collectible and rare books from uncommonly good booksellers. He begins a mismatched affair with a young shop girl named annemarie. Other articles where a sport an d a pas time is discussed. Plot outlines should be no longer than 239 characters.
The book follows an american college drop out in france, named philip dean and an eighteen year old french girl. A sport an d a pas time by james salter abebooks passion for books. A sport and a pastime with an overdrive account, you can save your favorite libraries for. 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. 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. Fiction survives through minor novels like this one. A sport and a pastime audiobook james salter audible. A sport and a pastime lyricizes the flesh and france with the same ardent intensity. Depending on the study guide provider sparknotes, shmoop, etc. A sport and a pastime is a seductive classic that established james salters reputation as one of the finest writers of our time.
A sport an d a pas time is a short novel first published in 1967 by james salter. James salters title, a sport and a pastime, is taken from the koran. Set in provincial france in the 1960s, james salters a sport and a pastime is the intensely carnal story. With a jagged, faintly hemingwayesque style, he wanders into the murk of reality and appearance.
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. 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. 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. Recently, for the fourth or fifth time in my life, i started trying to read james salters a sport an d a pas time. Set in provincial france in the 1960s, it is the intensely carnal story part. 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. Most of the details, though, have long since been transformed or rearranged to bring others of them forward. Salter chronicles a love affair between a young shopgirl and an american college dropout against the backdrop of provincial france. He published another novel, a sport an d a pas time 1967, while working as a screenwriter. Philip dean, a footloose yale dropout, is touring provincial france and sometimes paris in a borrowed, once elegant car. A sport and a pastime book king county library system. The more clearly one sees this world, the more one is obliged to pretend it does not exist. There is the seen and the unseenand pages that burn with a rare intensity. A sport and a pastime is a pretty good definition of how a certain kind of man treats women in relationships.
A sport and a pastime book hennepin county library. As nearly perfect as any american fiction i know, is. Set in provincial france in the 1960s, it is the intensely carnal story part shocking. The cycle of meeting, flirting and fucking forms the books. This is a brilliant, probing and very subtle depiction of the relationship between a rich american boy and a poor french girl without prospects.