James Salter était un romancier, un nouvelliste et un scénariste dont la prose puissante et lyrique lui a valu les éloges de la critique et des lecteurs. Sa carrière antérieure en tant que pilote de l'armée de l'air a marqué son écriture d'une perspective et d'une précision uniques. Salter a exploré les complexités des relations humaines, le désir et la fugacité de la vie avec une intelligence vive et une profonde perspicacité. Sa capacité à capturer des moments de beauté et de douleur avec une telle élégance en fait un conteur captivant.
La quatrième de couverture indique : Viri pose les yeux sur sa femme, Nedra. Une mèche de cheveux lui balaie délicatement la nuque, elle s'affaire en cuisine dans sa jolie robe rouge. Leurs deux adorables petites filles dînent devant le feu de cheminée. Sont-ils réellement heureux ? Ils forment un couple envié de tous, elle si belle, lui si élégant. Leur bonheur semble parfait... Mais la perfection est-elle vraiment de ce monde ?
Onze variations sur le passage. Le passage du jour à la nuit, de l’enfance à l'âge adulte, de la vie à la mort. Un accident de cheval, un oiseau mort, la couleur du Rhin à Bâle, une chambre d'hôtel à Vérone, une fille au pair un peu trop provocante : tels sont les motifs à partir desquels James Salter développe sa mélodie ? ce mélange de mélancolie, d'émotion et de sécheresse, qui n'appartient qu'à lui.
This collection offers two dozen essays and sketches about one of the passions of Salter's life, travel, a subject beloved by writers across the centuries. Over twenty years of skiing, hiking, climbing — from Colorado to Japan to the Tyrol, from Austria and Switzerland to Germany and France, Salter is an engaging companion sharing his great enthusiasm and adventures. James Salter's novels and volumes of memoir have been widely celebrated and he is now recognized as one of America's most important writers. Susan Sontag once remarked, "[Salter] is among the very few North American writers all of whose work I want to read, whose as yet unpublished books I wait for impatiently."
The book showcases the exceptional skill of a masterful writer, delivering a deeply enjoyable reading experience. Each page captivates with its crafted prose, inviting readers to appreciate the artistry and depth of the narrative. The work is celebrated for its ability to evoke profound joy, highlighting the writer's talent in engaging the audience through rich storytelling.
The correspondence between James Salter and Robert Phelps reveals a rich, two-decade friendship marked by admiration and candid exchanges. Through lively, gossipy letters, they explore Salter's literary successes and Phelps's struggles, offering a unique glimpse into their lives and careers. The collection includes an insightful foreword by Michael Dirda, shedding light on Phelps, a nearly forgotten figure, and celebrating the profound connection forged through their letters.
Jim Alter was a sophomore in college when Japan attacked the United States. He enlisted, and after an Army program that condensed years of training into a few frantic months, was flying over Europe, dodging German gunners in a B-24. Alter proudly recounts the achievements of his heroic generation as he details this "impermanent, but defining chapter" of his early life.
Over the last century air travel has evolved from a high-risk experiment involving a few visionary pioneers to an efficient—and often irritating—means for distributing masses of people to the far reaches of the globe. During the hundred-year history of human air travel, it has yielded writing that is, by turns, heroic, dreamy, subversive, and utterly dire. This anthology traces this trajectory from the early letters and memoirs of Wilbur and Orville Wright, and Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, to the diaries of Amelia Earhart. Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s heroism gives way to the darkly magical storytelling of Roald Dahl, and the spare, elegiac prose of master stylist James Salter. More recent stories by Erica Jong, Mary Gaitskill, Thomas Beller, Mike Albo, Maxine Swann, and David Sedaris examine an array of contemporary subjects, from the addictiveness of mile-high sex, to etiquette for cramped seating and accounts of racial profiling post–9/11. Flight Patterns promises an entertaining refuge for frequent fliers, and a gateway to dreams for nighttime readers. These writings exude the primal fear and cool perspective that can only come from seeing the world—and one’s own life—from a great distance. Flight Patterns renders airplane travel a time capsule of modern life.
Captain Cleve Connell arrives in Korea with a single goal: to become an ace, one of that elite fraternity of jet pilots who have downed five MIGs. But as his fellow airmen rack up kill after kill, Cleve's luck runs bad. Other pilots question his guts. And then in one icy instant 40,000 feet above the Yalu River, his luck changes forever.
From the award-winning author James Salter and his wife, Kay - amateur chefs and terrific hosts - here is a lively, beautifully illustrated food lover's companion. With an entry for each day of the year, Life Is Meals takes us from a Twelfth Night cake in January to a champagne dinner on New Year's Eve. This is a book rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own stories of their triumphs - and catastrophes - in the kitchen. Entries include:The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party - and whom not to The greatest dinner ever given at the White House Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m. How to cope with acts of god and man-made disasters in the kitchenSophisticated, practical, opinionated and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others.
James Salter's unforgettable memoir of passion, ambition, and what it means to become a writer