#164. "Endzone" by Don Delillo

Few sports have been as essential to the American identity like football. For most of the 20th century, athletes have taken to the field to adoring fans who believe their silly rituals will be enough to get them over the hump. It's an activity that is in itself comical and few authors felt as ripe to tackle it like Don DeLillo. The mater of post-modernism took on the whole nine yards in a story that studies the masculinity and the homoeroticism underneath. It's a chance to break down every play and find the comedy within fumbled plays. Even if it fails to live up to his greatest work, those wanting a breezy sports comedy will be rewarded from an author who knows how to economically structure a sentence so that it mixes highbrow insight with lowbrow confusion. The results would be anyone else's high point, but it's credit to DeLillo's technique that it's in the middle of the huddle.
Having read several texts that romanticize football, especially from a high school perspective, it's interesting to see the irreverence that DeLillo has for it. While he manages to drop the reader into the events with clarity, there is still the sense that this institution is closer to an office comedy, where coaches and co-workers are constantly sabotaging each other in hopes of toughening them up for the big game. Anticipation is often more DeLillo's focus than glorifying these men as heroes. As a result, he makes one wonder what the sacrifice and pride of this sport is for anyone. It takes a toll on body and mind, resulting in a risk that they may not even get the promotion they want. They may even be demoted. What is the point of anything?

Much like the traffic scene in "White Noise," "Endzone" has one moment that packs a major punch even for those who may not understand the rhetoric. The text is dense with football speak, meaning that those unfamiliar with gameplay may be lost during this seemingly pivotal scene. Even then, the comedy that comes from a sense of failure as the big game falls apart reflects what the author does best. He makes the reader privy to every movement and play, watching chaos unfold in hope of eventually settling back into something useful. While the rest of the novel is intimate and focuses on behind the scenes behavior, this contrast allows for the joy of football to be subverted and even questioned, especially from the perspective of losers.

As a whole, "Endzone" isn't one of the greatest sports comedy novels of the 20th century. It still has a lot going for it that makes the reader feel aware of what it means to be in a football club. Even then, it's a tough game to play and even harder to survive in a community that is constantly taunting one into being insecure and cloesd off. At its heart, it does a fantastic job of understanding the athlete's struggle in a comical, almost vaudevillian fashion. It may be messy and confusing, but with DeLillo in control it manages to never stray too far from its goal. Everything happens as it should, and that's enough to have a good time.