Last Night by James Salter

James Salter might be the best, under-appreciated writer working today.  His stories are deft, clever exposes of the inner lives of men and women.  His second novel, Cassada, recounts his experiences in World War II.  He left the military in 1957, after the publication of his first novel, The Hunters.  Last Night is his latest collection, and they exemplify the “slice of life” stories so common these days.  These brief peeks at turmoil and joy, success and disappointment, all leave the reader space to imagine the ending or the consequences.

Salter has written five novels and two works of non-fiction.  His first collection of stories, Dust and Other Stories, won the Pen/Faulkner Award in 1989.  Last Night is his second collection.  These ten stories all delve into relationships – strong and weak, new and old, broken and fixed.  The most intriguing story is the first, “Comet.”  Philip and Adele are about to exchange wedding vows.  Salter writes, “[Philip] didn’t make much money, as it turned out.  He wrote for a business weekly.  [Adele] earned nearly that much selling houses.  She had begun to put on a little weight.  This was a few years after they were married.  She was still beautiful – her face was – but she had adopted a more comfortable outline.  She would get into a drink, the way she had done when she was twenty-five.  Phil, a sport jacket over his pajamas, sat reading.  Sometimes he walked that way on their lawn in the morning.  She sipped her drink and watched him” (6).  The story ends with Walter searching the sky for a comet.  Adele can make it out in the haze of her alcohol consumption.  Now I have to imagine what the comet represents.  That’s the fun of these stories.

Another interesting story is “My Lord You.”  This story describes the interaction among six friends.  Ardis is new to the group, and when Warren arrives intoxicated, he frightens her.  The poet makes a pass at Ardis, and the other shrug it off as a result of his drinking.  Like all of the stories in this collection, an unexpected ending awaits the reader.  “Such Fun” opens a window into the lives of three women – Leslie, Kathrin, and Jane -- who dissect their relationships, past, present, and potential.  This story has the most humor and the least subtlety than the others.

I had a tough time deciding which story I would feature as my favorite.  Because it is last, and because most writers end a collection with their best story of poem, I chose the title story for this honor.

As a touching story, “Last Night,” details the final days of Walter Such’s wife, Marit, who is seriously ill.  With the aid of a physician, the plan is to assist her suicide.  Salter writes, “It was the night they had decided would be the one.  On a saucer in the refrigerator, the syringe lay.  Her doctor had supplied the contents.  But a farewell dinner first, if she were able. It should not be just the two of them, Marit had said.  Her instinct.  They had asked Susanna rather than someone closer and grief-filled, Marit’s sister for example, with whom she was not on good terms anyway, or older friends.  Susanna was younger.  She had a wide face and high, pure forehead.  She looked like the daughter of a professor or banker, slightly errant.  Dirty girl, one of their friends had commented about her, with a degree of admiration” (121).

As a great introduction to this interesting writer, Last Night fits the bill perfectly.  5 stars 

--Chiron, 12/20/14

All That Is by James Salter

I first encountered James Salter in an October 28, 1990 profile in The New York Times Magazine.  The article quoted Salter, “Somewhere the ancient clerks, amid stacks of faint interest to them, are sorting literary reputations.  The work goes on endlessly and without haste.  There are names passed over and names revered, names of heroes and of those long thought to be, names of every sort and level of importance.”  The Times then asked, “Where will the tireless clerks file the name James Salter?”

With such an intriguing introduction, how could I not investigate farther?  I started with Salter’s 1988 PEN/Faulkner Award-winning collection, Dusk: And Other Stories.  I was immediately captivated and added several more of his books to my shelves.  The PEN/Faulkner Award is America’s most prestigious literary prize.  As numerous critics have said, Salter is a “writer’s writer.”  Noted critic, James Walcott dubbed him our “most underrated writer.  I could not agree more.

The Times reported Salter was born in New York City and attended the Horace Mann School in Riverdale.  His father had graduated first in his class at West Point in 1918, and Salter became a cadet.  Upon graduation, he joined the Army Air Corps.  He served in Korea, where he shot down one MIG and damaged another.  His experiences as a fighter pilot became the inspiration for one of his early stories, “A Single Daring Act.”  After achieving the rank of major, he abruptly resigned to devote his full efforts to writing.  In 1956, he had his first novel published, The Hunter.  He also spent some time as a screenwriter.  His writing credits include the cult film “Downhill Racer.”

His latest work, All That Is, carries this reputation forward.  This is his first novel since 1979.  Poetic and literary, Salter chronicles the life of Philip Bowman.  The novel opens with Midshipman Bowman on a carrier under attack by the Japanese in the days before the invasion of Okinawa.  After the war, he returns to America and becomes a book editor.

 

The novel has an intricate web of characters who come in and out of Bowman’s life.  Despite his frightening experiences in the Pacific, Bowman seems obsessed with water and conquering lingering fears.  Swimming figures in a number of his relationships.  He attracts, beautiful, wealthy women, but he seems unable to hold onto them – they slip through his fingers line a handful of water. 

In an epigram in All That Is, James Salter writes, “There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real.”  A writer’s writer indeed!  No more quotes, I want you to experience this outstanding writer entirely on your own.  I believe his reputation will endure.

--Chiron, 5/14/13

Cassada by James Salter

This novel represents a perfect example of why the “rule of 50” works. I read two novels and a volume of his short stories years ago and then collected a couple of his other works. The next I read was Cassada. I decided to go back to Salter this week and found a bookmark on page twenty. As I began to read, the unusual names rang a bell, and then I remembered. I began it, but did not like the first chapter. This time I decided to push on, because Salter’s prose is tight and brief without being stingy.

What I did not like about the first chapter was all the military acronyms and lingo, but this time I fought through them, and they became another part of the story even without the meanings. Salter has packed an emotional and thrilling story in just over 200 pages.

About two-thirds of the way through, he begins weaving the ending into the narrative. Then he grips the ending and follows through for the last 40 pages, which I saved it for my morning tea. Wow! What a wallop! Wonderful story, wonderful characters.

If you do not know Salter, try him out. Light Years, Solo Faces, and Dusk and Other Stories would be the best places to start. Save Cassada for the day you are hooked and admire his prose as much as I do.

The New York Times featured him on February 11, 2001 when it reviewed this novel. The link is: http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/11/specials/salter.html. Five stars.

--Chiron, 5/28/09