A Sport and a Pastime A Novel [Paperback]

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, James Salter'sA Sport and a Pastimeis the intensely carnal storypart 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 unseenand pages that burn with a rare intensity.

Questions for Discussion

1. The book opens with a train trip across France. What images are used to describe the landscape? What underlying emotion is communicated? How does the trip help to set up the story that follows? The narrator states, I've said Autun, but it could easily have been Auxerre. I'm sure you'll come to realize that (p.17). What does he mean by this? What role does France play in the narrative? Why does the narrator address the reader directly?

2. In the first chapter there many vivid, alluring portraits of women the narrator does not know. Why did Salter include these descriptions? What effect is achieved?

3. What does the narrator feel about being a foreigner in France? What is Dean's response? Do Dean's amorous adventures make him more at home in this foreign land?

4. The narrator says, I am only the servant of life. He [Dean] is an inhabitant (p.58), and I breathe to the rhythm of his [life] which is stronger than mine (p. 65). What does the narrator mean by these statements? What do they tell us about the narrator's relationship with and attitude toward Dean?

5. The narrator often quotes other writers to help illustrate the points he wants to make. He paraphrases Rainer Maria Rilke: There are no classes for beginners in life, the most difficult thing is always asked of one right away (p. 49). Later he states, Great lovers lie in hell, the poet says (p.100). What do we learn about the storyl4