ALL THAT IS by James Salter (fic)

When I pick up a book written by James Salter, I lose myself in the impeccably written story with its concise sentences that tell you all you need to know about each character you meet. Salter has the gift of being able to write a perfect sentence with such poetic cadence, that each sentence leads to the next until it become impossible to put the book down. 

It has been 35 years since Salter's last novel, and at age 87 he has written a brilliant story.  It is an elegant and easy read, like a slow waltz that you want to go on forever.  Set in the years after World War II, the reader can feel the pace slow down as he/she enters a time devoid of our frantic electronic gadgets, a time when we can mull over the characters motives, even as we know the world they are leaving as they move through the decade of the 50s and enter the 1960s. This is a quiet book of gentle rhythm.  It is about a veteran named Philip Bowman who joins a New York Publishing House as an editor.  Post-war was an interesting and exciting time to be in publishing.  We are reminded that it was still possible to enter this field without the type of competition that we face in today's world. 

The characters Bowman meets as we move through the novel with him are each presented as only Salter can, fully characterized in such a way, that you know these people.  You like them or dislike them.  Salter doesn't make the decision for you.  You wonder about them; you meander with them; you find yourself thinking of them hours later, the same way you think about people you really know.

The book is romantic and certainly in one instance, disturbing.  You think you know Bowman, but do we really know people, or are they what we want them to be?

Anyone who has lived through these decades will certainly feel the familiar tug of the past.  Those who haven't but think they know the years of Mad Men, may want to broaden their knowledge with this piece of the past. You can't find a better guide than James Salter.   I give this novel my highest recommendation.  It is the best novel I have read this year.