Editing End Zone (section)

==Reception==
A reviewer for ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' argued that DeLillo "seems to have at his natural command a kind of articulate mobility one cannot help but admire. [...] It's hard to take a body count of all those ideas which freefall off every page but then 'the thing to do is to walk in circles.' And occasionally pause. . . ."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/don-delillo/end-zone/|title=END ZONE by Don DeLillo {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en}}</ref> In ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'', Thomas R. Edwards deemed ''End Zone'' an improvement over ''Americana'' and said that the writing "is continuously energetic, shifty, fun to watch for its own sake.” Edwards also argued that "[Gary's] fever, casually introduced in the final paragraph, hints at the uncertain but possible value of vulnerability, persisting without certitude in a world where others accept defensive systems —technologies, religion, games, the large or small cultisms that flourish where fear is.”<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/09/archives/end-zone-by-don-delillo-242-pp-boston-houghton-mifflin-co-595-end.html|title=A beautifully made football novel about thermonuclear war|last=Edwards|first=Thomas R.|date=1972-04-09|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-12-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Anya Taylor at [[City University of New York|The City University of New York]] argued the book would endure, especially praising Gary's desert meditation on the end zone. Taylor discussed how the novel dramatizes certain limitations of language and negative social phenomena involving language (such as the covering of unpleasant truths through [[euphemism]]s, or the prevention of meaningful interaction through over-reliance on simplistic [[maxim (philosophy)|maxims]]), and interpreted the novel as "a book about the decline of language under the bombardment of terms from thermonuclear warfare, and an attempt to revive language through an [[Asceticism|ascetic]] disciplined ritual of silence and self-loss".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Anya|date=1977|title=Words, War, and Meditation in Don DeLillo's End Zone|url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/IFR/article/download/13222/14305|journal=International Fiction Review|pages=68–70}}</ref> Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of ''[[The New York Times]]'' stated that ''End Zone'' confirmed DeLillo as one of the best young writers of his time, writing that the author was skilled at building scenes for comedic effect and praising the football game that is considered the novel's centerpiece as well as the pick-up game in the snow.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/97/03/16/lifetimes/del-r-endzone.html|title=A Touchdown for Don DeLillo|last=Lehmann-Haupt|first=Christopher|date=1972-03-22|website=movies2.nytimes.com|access-date=2019-12-24}}</ref>

Bill Beckett of ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'' was less positive. While writing that ''End Zone'' has perhaps the best extended account of a football game ever written, and that the novel shows the author's "golden ear for the tin and tinsel of Americanese", Beckett also argued that "even isolated good satire can't hold together a disappointingly anticlimactic novel. DeLillo's buildup of suspense finally dissipates totally; many ominous hints are lost or forgotten by the end. [...] A season in the chaotic life of Gary Harkness, interesting as he is, does not suffice to make a satisfying whole."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1972/6/14/its-only-a-game-but-its/|title="It's Only A Game, But It's the Only Game" {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson|last=Beckett|first=Bill|date=1972-06-14|website=www.thecrimson.com|language=en|access-date=2019-12-24}}</ref>

[[Chad Harbach]] lauded ''End Zone'' in 2004 as "a wonderful and underrated novel".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_ji1gYwTrkC&pg=PA171|title=N+1, Number One: Negation|last1=Greif|first1=Mark|last2=Gessen|first2=Keith|last3=Kunkel|first3=Benjamin|last4=Roth|first4=Marco|date=2004|publisher=n+1 Foundation, Inc.|isbn=978-0-9760503-0-8|language=en}}</ref> Daniel Roberts highly praised the novel in a 2018 retrospective for ''[[The Paris Review]]'', where he wrote, "No novel nails the omnipresent violence of football better than ''End Zone''".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/02/02/don-delillos-nuclear-football/|title=Don DeLillo's Nuclear Football|last=Roberts|first=Daniel|date=2018-02-02|website=The Paris Review|language=en|access-date=2019-12-24}}</ref> In 2007, however, the novel was listed by [[New York (magazine)|''New York'']] as one of the DeLillo's works that is "for fans only": "There’s little plot to speak of in this second novel, just a series of hilarious riffs on the parallels between football and nuclear war. That’s not the most original comparison to draw, and the ending—or rather, the lack of one—makes it an ultimately unsatisfying read."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/31522/|title=Our Guide to the Don DeLillo Oeuvre -- New York Magazine - Nymag|website=New York Magazine|date=4 May 2007 |language=en-us|access-date=2019-12-24}}</ref>  In 2011, [[Martin Amis]] listed ''End Zone'' among his favorite novels in DeLillo’s output.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/21/laureate-of-terror|title=Laureate of Terror|last=Amis|first=Martin|date=2011-11-14|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=2019-12-25|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}</ref> Jeff Somers conversely ranked it 10th out of 17 of the author’s books, arguing that it was extremely funny but also that "there’s not much of a story here, and after meandering about for a while, it sort of just stops dead in its tracks."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/don-delillos-novels-ranked/|title=Don DeLillo's Novels, Ranked|last=Somers|first=Jeff|date=2018-08-02|website=Barnes & Noble Reads|access-date=2019-12-24}}</ref>