Pafko at the Wall: A Novella

by Don DeLillo

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743230000
• ISBN13: 9780743230001
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 90 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

This is how to write a book

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.

"THOMSON AT THE BAT"

I haven't read Underworld, so when I bought this book, all I knew was that it was about "the shot heard round the world" and that was good enough for me. Having grown up in Brooklyn and having lived in a house with three brothers and a father who were all avid Giant fans, this is something I've heard about my whole life. I wasn't even walking in 1951 so I certainly don't remember that day but what I do remember is it's being discussed in my home, ad nauseam, for as long as I can remember. In honor of my now deceased father and my very alive three brothers, (who followed the Giants and remained Giant fans as they went on to San Francisco), I have taken it upon myself to learn more about that fateful day in Dodger history when Giant fans all over New York roared in unity as Bobby Thomson's strike of the bat ended the Dodger season in 1951.DeLillo's attention to detail is so vivid that I actually felt as if I was hearing Russ Hodges announce the game. The book is full of nostalgic remembrances especially when he talks about one of the Giant sponsors - Chesterfield cigarettes. Between innings, Hodges actually instructs the audience to stay right where they are and "light up a Chesterfield." Can you imagine saying that today? And I found that the trivia about the large CHESTERFIELD sign in centerfield lighting up the "E" when an error was made is stuff my brothers don't even know about. I can't wait to hit them with all this info when we get together this holiday season. As a matter of fact, I've already asked one of my brothers if he knew who was playing left field when Thomson hit the ball and he didn't know. So much for the baseball trivia experts in my family.I also enjoyed DeLillo's portrayal of the young Cotter Martin as he struggled to grab Thomson's ball from under the seats and his race out of the Polo Grounds as he clutched the much sought after ball. While I thought I would enjoy the Frank Sinatra/Jackie Gleason references, I found them to be the least desirable part of the book.The bottom line is that I enjoyed the book and now feel quite comfortable discussing this episode in baseball history with the best of them. I did have one question though -- If Bobby Thomson was "hot" that day and already had two hits (one of which had driven in a run), why did Branca take the chance of pitching to him? With men on second and third, I would think he would have walked him and taken his chances with the then rookie "Say Hey" Willie Mays. After finishing this book, I did some further research on this game and found that others have asked this same question. I guess I did learn something growing up as the only girl in that family of all boys. By the way, they're all getting a copy of this book for Christmas this year. It's a definite MUST for the "true" New York Giant fan.

Longing on a large scale.

Yes, if you've read Underworld then there's no need to buy this book, and yes, it's a cynical ploy to release this already published and republished story as a new hardcover. I'd be irritated with Delillo if this weren't one of the most magnificent things I've ever read. I also enjoy the cover. I'd never seen that photograph before and hence never understood the story's odd original title. Why Pafko, mentioned in the text only once or twice? But there he is, forever, watching the ball sail over his head and into Cotter Martin's hand. Like Nick Shay said, the ball is about losing, not winning. Buy this book and give it to someone who'd never pick up an 800 page book. Give it to a baseball fan.

contractual sniping aside...

...the fact that this great work has been published previously (first in Harper's back in 1992, then in altered form as the Prologue to Underworld in 1997) does not alter the fact that it is great. Pristine. Phrase-perfect. Sustained in tone. It speaks in your voice, American. Buy it for your old man who loves baseball but has no patience for this contemporary-lit mishegoss. Buy it for that girl you're trying to impress who loved White Noise but can't stand baseball. Buy it for the 12-year-old nephew you're trying to turn on to the glories of great fiction. Buy it. Oh yeah, and if you haven't actually read it yourself, do that too. It's the 50th anniversary of Bobby Thompson's homer, for chrissake.

Pennant Fever!

Pafko at the Wall, a story that would evolve into Delillo's Underworld, is a must for any baseball fan. It describes in Delillo's beautiful writing the "shot heard round the world", Thompson's famous home run. This novella easily holds up apart from Underworld and is a wonderful one sitting read.