I saw that Frank posted a link to The New York Times obituary on James Salter, who passed away on Friday at the age of 90. Here's another piece from The New Yorker.
I've only read one of Salter's novels - A Sport and a Pastime - but what a book it is: sexual, beautiful, sorrowful...the list goes on. Salter was a gifted stylist, and that novel, in particular, manifest his talents. It has always been, for me, a perfect book, one that yearns deeply for France, one that casts the erotic in Salter's own rueful light.
I was pleased to find this morning that Salter - born, interestingly, Horowitz - sat for an interview with The Paris Review in 1992. Here's a link. Combing Salter's approach to life and literature has made me want to read others of his novels, including Light Years, which is next on my list. If it's anything like A Sport and a Pastime - with its crystalline prose and profound sense of place, of space - I'm certain to be impressed once more.
RIP, James Salter. He was, as The Times noted, the true "writer's writer."
No comments:
Post a Comment