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Don DeLillo

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Pafko at the Wall: A Novella Kindle Edition

by Don DeLillo (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 107 ratings

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"There's a long drive.

It's gonna be.

I believe.

The Giants win the pennant.

The Giants win the pennant.

The Giants win the pennant.

The Giants win the pennant."

-- Russ Hodges, October 3, 1951

On the fiftieth anniversary of "The Shot Heard Round the World," Don DeLillo reassembles in fiction the larger-than-life characters who on October 3, 1951, witnessed Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Jackie Gleason is razzing Toots Shor in Leo Durocher's box seats; J. Edgar Hoover, basking in Sinatra's celebrity, is about to be told that the Russians have tested an atomic bomb; and Russ Hodges, raw-throated and excitable, announces the game -- the Giants and the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in New York. DeLillo's transcendent account of one of the iconic events of the twentieth century is a masterpiece of American sportswriting.

About the Author

Don DeLillo is the author of seventeen novels including White Noise, which was made into a Netflix film, Libra, Underworld, Falling Man, and Zero K. He has won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the PEN/Saul Bellow Award, the Jerusalem Prize for his complete body of work, and the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His story collection The Angel Esmeralda was a finalist for the Story Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. In 2013, DeLillo was awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and in 2015, the National Book Foundation awarded DeLillo its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Print length

96 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Scribner
Publication date

June 30, 2008
File size

3796 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001D1YCYA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner (June 30, 2008)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 30, 2008
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3796 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 96 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #380,168 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #517 in Classic Historical Fiction
- #1,135 in Classic Literary Fiction
- #2,164 in Historical Literary Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.4 107 ratings

About the author

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Don DeLillo

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Don DeLillo is the author of fifteen novels, including Zero K, Underworld, Falling Man, White Noise, and Libra. He has won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize for his complete body of work, and the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010, he was awarded the PEN/Saul Bellow Prize. The Angel Esmeralda was a finalist for the 2011 Story Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. In 2012, DeLillo received the Carl Sandburg Literary Award for his body of work.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

107 global ratings

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Darrell Barber

Prompt Shipping

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023

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Prompt shipping, good quality product

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2017

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Baseball lovers will enjoy this book.

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2017

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Read this when it was 1st published in Harper's in the early 90's. Been looking for it since the late 90's. What a thrill to be able to purchase it on Kindle.
Great well written multi dimensional story with crazy twists.
I am old enough to remember listening to the game on the radio. To be able to read the depiction of the happenings albeit fictionalized of what was going on in the stadium during the game really gave me pause for reflection.

4 people found this helpful

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Lord Byron

This is how to write a book

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2003

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Who cares about Underworld? I didn't go near it. Separating this classic from that tome was the best marketing move anyone's ever done. This book should be in the public domain anyway. Imagine taking a baseball game, exploding it into one of the world's greatest historical events as seen from various characters' points of view, and at the same time encapsulating the dawning of a new moment in world history. Every sentence is sharp and detailed, anticipating the next. And then when Thomson hits the home run, Delillo freeze frames each second like you're in a car crash, making sure you're aware of everything that's going on. It's one of the best books ever written.

16 people found this helpful

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Bill Emblom

Somewhat Interesting Fictitious Account of 10-3-'51

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2022

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Okay, so there is no rhyme or reason for this story. However, it is a fun account of a very momentous happening in baseball history with a great title called "The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff" or "The Shot Heard Around the World." Especially interesting is the fictitious conversation between Toots Shore, Jackie Gleason, and Frank Sinatra. However, and I know this is picky, picky, picky, the actual happening on the field of play could use some correction. In the story author Don DeLillo has Whitey Lockman's hit going to left field when it actually went past the first baseman into right field. The author also doesn't mention the pinch runner for Don Mueller was Clint Hartung. He just refers to him as "the runner."

Other than than that this is merely the first chapter in a book entitled "Underworld" and let's let it go at that and not take it too seriously.

One person found this helpful

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William H. Bischoff

This is a superb novella which tells the story of ...

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2017

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This is a superb novella which tells the story of "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" - Bobby Thomson's legendary home run in the ninth inning of the deciding 1951 game 3 playoff against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The underlying story is the ball - no credible claim of ownership has ever been established. A MUST read for all sport fans !!

2 people found this helpful

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Earthshaker

DeLillo for non-fans

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2003

First things first - this is a brilliantly-evoked account of the Giants/Dodgers playoff game that ended with the "Shot Heard Round the World". It is also the opening section of DeLillo's novel Underworld. Like most of the other reviewers of this book, my main beef is "Why should one bother to buy this extract?" In context, this is only the beginning of a long exploration of American history in the 50 years that separate us from that game - particularly the Cold War, which could be said to begin on that day with news of the Soviet Union's atomic test reaching the US. The historic baseball goes weaving from hand to hand binding the stories together. If you're a DeLillo fan, then, don't buy it for yourself. If you want a taster of his work, perhaps buy it as an entry-level sample but be prepared to fork out for it all over again if you decide you need to read the full novel. Best of all, buy it as a gift for someone who's unlikely to be a DeLillo reader, now or in future, but is a fan of baseball and/of 50s Americana. It's great stuff, but its appeal in this format is just pretty limited.

3 people found this helpful

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Timothy D Dolan

Beautiful

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2020

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This is a beautiful story about a historic moment in baseball. Packing watches the ball as it soars over the wall, leaving the Dodgers behind.

2 people found this helpful

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tomomori

「Longing on a large scale is what makes history」…スポーツ系ノベラの最高到達点かも？？

Reviewed in Japan on July 23, 2023

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…けど、アテクシ的にはそーんな楽しい一冊ではなかったデス。プロ野球ファンじゃないもんで。逆にMLBファンの方はどうぞ。さて、アメリカの文豪デリーロです。いやー、こんなノベラでもデリーロは読み難いなぁ。難解いうのではないですが…や、やっぱ難解なのだろーか。見事な臨場感やし、時にウットリするような詩情が漂うんですけど、全体的にどうも文章に乗れないってのか。
本書はデリーロの代表作のひとつ『Underworld』の序盤部分を抜粋した短編……いや、元々はこの短編部分がスタンドアロン物として発表され、後に『Underworld』と融合したんだわ。もしかしたらもしかしてスポーツ小説の最高峰かもですわよ。スポーツ小説ってのはこういうふうに書くんですよ、みたいなお手本かも。スタジアムという「場」があり、プレイする選手の意識があり、大きな群衆の熱気と蠢きという無意識があり、社会のエリート層の視点があり、それらが全て統合されて個々人を超越した時代的・人類的「意味」を帯びてくるってな。特に楽しんでもないのにこんなデカいこと言うのもなんですが。
内容は、1951年のドジャーズ対ジャイアンツのペナントレース、九回の裏での大逆転の模様をですね、選手の視点、ブロードキャスターの視点、FBI長官フーバーの視点で捉えてます。その他にもシナトラとかジャッキー・グリーソン（当時の有名俳優らしい）といった芸能人も観戦してます。その最中、フーバーの元にソビエトによる核実験成功の報が入って来る。『End Zone』でもやってましたが、スポーツと冷戦が暗喩的に重なっていくってのをデリーロはココでもやってます。そしてユーラシアのどこかで核爆弾が爆発しても、プロ野球観戦者たちは何も知らず、ペナントレースの空気を無邪気に満喫してるだけ。しかし幾重もの物思いはあると。特にフーバーが後半に見るビジョンは暗黒の地獄だったりして。以上、当時を知らずアメリカを知らずMLBも知らんアテクシなんで面白いとか懐かしいとかは言いません。しかしスポーツ物のノベラの頂上みたいな一冊やなぁ、とは思いましたわ。100ページにして何やら壮大で重厚で深淵、アメリカのある時点での歴史と時代、その空気、独特の楽観主義、勝利主義、社会層を鮮明に切り取って見せています。

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2015

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Very pleased with purchase. As described. Many thanks

cartoisb

Pafko at the Wall

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2016

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I am a big baseball fan and have really enjoyed most of the baseball-themed books I have read. For some reason Pafko at the Wall didn't quite do it for me. The high level of detail in describing the scene makes the story rich and vivid, and the symbolism is interesting. At the same time I found the writing style pretentious and feel that the author failed to capture the suspense, build-up and excitement in the story as well as it could have been done. Note that this book is just the first chapter in Underworld but it has been released as a separate volume.

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