Ben Marcus's books The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women were considered "experimental" fiction because of his unconventional use of...
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Recently I read Sarah Waters "Night Watch," on the strength of many laudatory reviews and was soundly disappointed. In fact, not only am I quite astonished that this book has garnered much glowing praise, but frankly, surprised that it has received any praise at all. Perhaps I've devolved into a hopeless literary philistine. However, for my money and time, I found this novel seriously lacking in many respects. The lack of a coherent narrative theme as well as the presence of characters who never quite develop the dimensionality or depth needed for the reader to care whether their hopes and fears are realized, or their loves or lusts are actually requited.. all severely detract from a rewarding reading experience. Not having read her other books, I cannot comment on its relative merits. In brief, I would not recommend this book to any but the most ardent fans of the author.
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James Salter's "Burning The Days" is both an exemplary autobiography of a truly great twentieth century writer as well as an astonishing artists memoir by a virtuoso among authors. One of his particular claims to fame is an ability to see people and complex events with unvarnished clarity and then capture these with poignant, supremely well-wrought sentences that will leave a receptive reader breathless. Salter relates his youth growing up in New York City and education at established preperatory schools and, finally, West Point. He describes both the camaraderie exhilaration and the emptiness and desolation of life as an Army and Air Force Pilot during the Korean War and his transformation into a writer in Paris, France in the late Fifties and Sixties as well as work writing for cinema in Holllywood. An unusually honest, piercingly sober and often moving recollection of a worldy and cosmopolitan life lived in the myriad, intersecting worlds of the Twentieth Century.
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(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
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vahldieck has commented on (2) products.
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
vahldieck, April 15, 2007
Recently I read Sarah Waters "Night Watch," on the strength of many laudatory reviews and was soundly disappointed. In fact, not only am I quite astonished that this book has garnered much glowing praise, but frankly, surprised that it has received any praise at all. Perhaps I've devolved into a hopeless literary philistine. However, for my money and time, I found this novel seriously lacking in many respects. The lack of a coherent narrative theme as well as the presence of characters who never quite develop the dimensionality or depth needed for the reader to care whether their hopes and fears are realized, or their loves or lusts are actually requited.. all severely detract from a rewarding reading experience. Not having read her other books, I cannot comment on its relative merits. In brief, I would not recommend this book to any but the most ardent fans of the author.(19 of 27 readers found this comment helpful)
Burning the Days: Recollection by James Salter
vahldieck, June 23, 2006
James Salter's "Burning The Days" is both an exemplary autobiography of a truly great twentieth century writer as well as an astonishing artists memoir by a virtuoso among authors. One of his particular claims to fame is an ability to see people and complex events with unvarnished clarity and then capture these with poignant, supremely well-wrought sentences that will leave a receptive reader breathless. Salter relates his youth growing up in New York City and education at established preperatory schools and, finally, West Point. He describes both the camaraderie exhilaration and the emptiness and desolation of life as an Army and Air Force Pilot during the Korean War and his transformation into a writer in Paris, France in the late Fifties and Sixties as well as work writing for cinema in Holllywood. An unusually honest, piercingly sober and often moving recollection of a worldy and cosmopolitan life lived in the myriad, intersecting worlds of the Twentieth Century.(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)