The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

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The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)

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Joseph Bloch, a construction worker and former soccer goalie. Bloch is a young man when viewed from all perspectives except the game of soccer, which he used to play quite well. Unfortunately, his soccer days are behind him; this is unfortunate because he cannot accommodate himself to the far more complex and unpredictable world of an everyday reality that does not abide by the clear-cut rules of sport. Bloch’s paranoia is signaled in the novel’s opening paragraph, when he assumes that he has been fired because only the foreman looks at him when he...

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