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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Once again, I have Shelf Awareness to thank for the introduction to James Salter. Yes, I sort of knew who he was, and yes, I knew he is critically acclaimed. But I am not sure I would have picked up anything by him, if I hadn't been on such a roll with books recommended by writers in the Book Brahmin column.
Short stories intrigue me. The reader only gets a slice of the character's lives and that is so true with James Salter. In these ten stories, you enter right in the middle. Things have happened before and life will go on after. Right now, in the story something is happening and the reader knows it will be important; Salter is asking us to pay attention. Possibly because we will never know the whole story. There is an epiphany in each of these tales, but that moment can be in the story, before or even after.
I think Salter may become one of those authors I think about more after the fact than during my reading. His sentences are lovely and the characters are fascinating although I doubt I could be friends with them.
I recommend this book to lovers of short stories, for others they may be very disconcerting. Also fiction writers should read Salter as inspiration to their own work.
Short stories intrigue me. The reader only gets a slice of the character's lives and that is so true with James Salter. In these ten stories, you enter right in the middle. Things have happened before and life will go on after. Right now, in the story something is happening and the reader knows it will be important; Salter is asking us to pay attention. Possibly because we will never know the whole story. There is an epiphany in each of these tales, but that moment can be in the story, before or even after.
I think Salter may become one of those authors I think about more after the fact than during my reading. His sentences are lovely and the characters are fascinating although I doubt I could be friends with them.
I recommend this book to lovers of short stories, for others they may be very disconcerting. Also fiction writers should read Salter as inspiration to their own work.
Salter is one of the best prose stylists I've read, but his resolutions sometimes seem incomplete.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
I really enjoy Salter’s writing style. I don’t even mind the detachment that he can be criticized for. However, his treatment of women in this is very disappointing. The women in these stories are solely valued for their youth and beauty. (Literally why is a women’s weight brought up so much?!?!
The best short stories about love and relationships I've read so far.
Synopsis from Publisher's Weekly: Teetering marriages, collapsing relationships and other calamities of the heart drive these 10 compact, unsettling stories by respected writer Salter.
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James Salter is really an under-appreciated writer. While he's considered to be more of a writer's writer, he really has an impressive way with words. This set of short stories explore human relations in a realistic and heartbreaking way. At the beginning of each, you are drawn in and just as soon as you get comfortable, there's a twist that changes the entire meaning of the story.
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James Salter is really an under-appreciated writer. While he's considered to be more of a writer's writer, he really has an impressive way with words. This set of short stories explore human relations in a realistic and heartbreaking way. At the beginning of each, you are drawn in and just as soon as you get comfortable, there's a twist that changes the entire meaning of the story.
Roxane Gay said that James Salter’s work was excellent, so I read Last Night and am left wondering how I could have gone through life not having read James Salter. I will read the rest of his books immediately.
This is a short book of stories and I wished it had been much longer. I read this on the recommendation of Roxane Gay, who mentions the book in her "Bad Feminist." The book is stories of love - of love found and lost. Of love wasted and treasured. The stories are haunting, astounding and the language is beautiful. This was my first foray into Salter's writings and it won't be my last.