A review by doriastories
Burning the Days: Recollection by James Salter

5.0

Once more, I am reading a book that I picked up initially on the recommendation of my late grandparents' journal entries. And once more, I have found a winner. This is a tremendously well-written book, and I say that not merely because Salter describes my grandfather (Robert Phelps) with such tender affection towards the end of the book that it brought me to tears. Salter's writing is intimate, prescient and reverent; he holds me in thrall with his words, so that the twin chasms of time and physical distance that lie between us vanish. It is as though he wrote this book - his autobiography - just for me. Under his pen, the lives of ordinary people become exalted and beautiful, however he writes honestly and unflinchingly, so that we come to see that his unerring eye is that of truth: the lives of ordinary (even tawdry) people really ARE exalted and beautiful. Puccini had it right, and so does Salter. I can't wait to read the rest of this book, and I recommend it highly.