Synopsis
With an introduction by John Banville.
From his first published story in the Paris Review in 1968, James Salter's stories have been universally acclaimed. Including his two published collections, Dusk and Other Stories (1988) and Last Night (2005), and the previously uncollected 'Charisma', this volume contains over twenty short stories by one of the finest writers of our time.
Concerning men and women in their most intimate moments, struggling with loss, desire, or the burden of memory, each indelible narrative in the Collected Stories is marked by James Salter's great literary grace, his ability to show the subtleties of a character or situation with precision, and his equally assured ability to command reversals of fortune or shocking revelations.
'It's the short stories which make him one of the greatest writers of the last century and the present one' Financial Times
'Writing that is bowstring-taut and carries considerable punch' Sunday Times
'Salter's stories are masterpieces of poise and clarity, so much so that their dazzling surface stillness often blinds you to the surprisingly bold risks' Metro
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Reviews
“'It's the short stories which make him one of the greatest writers of the last century and the present one, up there with Carver and Cheever, the mind-blowing Lydia Davis - who has just won the Man Booker International Prize - and the Fitzgerald of Babylon Revisited. Republished this month, the strongest of Salter's stories are shadowy and sinister with a whiff of his two favourite perfumes, sex and death, hanging over the scarifying prose . . . What makes the short stories perfect are the fully-mastered qualities . . . 'style, structure and authority.'' Financial Times”
“There is scarcely a writer alive who could not learn from his passion and precision of language”Peter Matthiessen
“Sentence for sentence, Salter is the master”Richard Ford
“Salter is a writer who particularly rewards those for whom reading is an intense pleasure. He is among the very few North American writers all of whose work I want to read, whose as yet unpublished books I wait for impatiently”Susan Sontag
