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A Sport and a Pastime

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A Sport and a Pastime

By: James Salter
Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
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About this listen

"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. Set in provincial France in the 1960s, it is the intensely carnal story - part shocking reality, part feverish dream - of a love affair between a footloose Yale dropout and a young French girl. There is the seen and the unseen - and pages that burn with a rare intensity.

©1967 James Salter (P)2013 Audible Inc. Classics Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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I found the narration annoying at times with the French accents, would have been better without.

The first few chapters are a little dry... but you have to give this style some time to work on you.

Deeper into the story the beautiful writing tells a vintage 50mm film camera story, in true shoe gazing, explicit and vouyeristic fashion. Lustful in a genuine sense (not at all cheapened) all the while it's true narrative being hidden until the end, delivered in an abrupt fashion.

I really enjoy this book less for its narrative, more for its aesthetic fell. That said, its end narrative was meaningful and moving.

I really liked it!

Peotic and lustful

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It is a joy to encounter such a piece of work as this. It is complete and has nothing superfluous. Such perfection is rare indeed to find. Recalls, off course, such masters as Fitzgerald. But none the worse for that. Recommended without reservation.

A masterpiece

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