Dusk and Other Stones is James Salter's only short-story collection. Virtuosic and exquisitely compressed, these stories snow Salter at his best. The collection received the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award.
Dusk and Other Stories (Modern Library)
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
This short-story collection won the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award for James Salter, author of Solo Faces and A Sport and A Pastime. Here, Salter's themes are memory and loss, the demands of honor and the inherent betrayals of sexual relations. Salter works like a miniaturist, evoking vast landscapes in a few lines: "Nothing is safe except for an hour," he writes in one beautiful story, opening up a whole world-view. Often, at the end of a story that runs only a few pages, the perspective suddenly broadens, the prose elevates to an abstract lyricism, and the reader is transported.
From Publishers Weekly
Salter's elegant prose is ideally suited to the short story form. The author of five novels (A Sport and a Pastime, Light Years) here reaches a new height of grace and breathtaking virtuosity. His settings are evoked in perfectly chosen detail and his characters, almost all denizens of the most privileged class, are defined with the same unerring precision. In these 11 short narratives, Salter intentionally paints brilliantly sunny scenes of romance and luxurious comfort, only to reveal through his characters a darkening dusk brought on by doubt, emotional disarray and the vagaries of human imperfection. In "Foreign Shores" a pleasant Dutch au pair is slowly discovered to have "the morals of a housefly" by her embittered employer, who sees her little boy embrace the departing disgraced girl and comments, "They always love sluts." In "American Express" two young hotshot lawyers travel through Europe seeking something that becomes impossible to define, much less find. In "Fields at Dusk" an attractive woman in her 40s confronts loneliness and loss: "She was a woman who lived a certain life. She knew how to give dinner parties, take care of dogs, enter restaurants . . . . She was a woman who had read books, played golf, gone to weddings, whose legs were good, who had weathered storms, a fine woman whom no one now wanted." Salter is a fine writer working at the top of his form.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Glowing, beautiful, thoughtful prose that moves the reader.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dusk and Other Stories: And Other Stories (Paperback)
Ahhh. The wonders of James Salter. Elegant prose. An economical use of language. Powerful verbless sentences. Why is this writer not more acclaimed? If you have a passion for great literature, pick up a copy of "Dusk." It is a collection of short stories that leaves the reader with a feeling of melancholy, happiness, wonder, and, on some occasions, even tears. Salters paints a world where we, the privileged reader, can glimpse the inner lives of characters who are so fully realized, we seem to know them in a personal, almost private way. He paints landscapes of America, Europe, and in particular, France, with a vivid palette of emotions. Whether it's a man who hears a mysterious word in the middle of the night, and, in his search for a full understanding, appears to go mad. Or a look into an older woman's life as she comes to terms with age, love lost, and possibly, love found. Or, my favorite in this collection: "Foreign Shores." It recalls the experiences of a housekeeper, her young charge and a mysterious lover she meets at the beach. Salters is a genius of the English language. If you want to discover the true power that fine fiction can have on the soul, read James Salters' "Dusk."
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interiors of stranded souls,
By
This review is from: Dusk and Other Stories: And Other Stories (Paperback)
I love the opening story of this collection "Am Strande von Tanger". From the opening scene setting sentences,"Barcelona at dawn. The hotels are dark. All the great avenues are pointing to the sea." To the last sentences which tie all together perfectly this story shows three lives mostly in the details and matter of fact happenings of a day trip to the sea. Nico is the central figure though and hers is the life we are focused on. We watch her struggle all through the story and realize she lacks what the others have, some connectedness to life or center, and she by stories end realizes it. As in many great short stories there is a key moment or epiphany where all in a moment is revealed to someone and that is the case in several of these stories. In "Twenty Minutes" a fallen rider has that much time to sum up her life. And in the title story "Dusk" a divorced womans loneliness is made all too poignant by Salters writing as the moment has come in her life that she realizes she will probably always be alone. Other memorable stories include a study of a film company which is told by the alternating voices of the players including scriptwriter, actor, actress, director, producer, and assistants. This stories kaliedoscope of voices is very fun to read as each player has a different take on what is going on in the production and each players personal insecurites effect that individual view of the overall picture. A very well crafted story that reminds one of a Fellini movie like La Dolca Vita in miniature where the sacred and profane compete for top billing. The military reunion story as well as the last story are forgettable. But "Foreign Shores" about a divorced woman's suspicions is a very good portrait of paranoia caused by suppressed personal anxieties. And the story "American Express", though about two unlikeable types who make a load of money and take a European tour together, is one of the better examples of gaining the world only to lose ones soul in the process(a film of this story will soon appear on PBS). Also three stories deal with failed artists, though each in a very distinct way. Hard to find a better collection than this.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sad, meditative characters flashing back,
By
This review is from: Dusk and Other Stories: And Other Stories (Paperback)
Reading James Salter makes one appreciate the power of brevity, for his style is indeed terse and moving. Every word counts and every story abounds with a subtle grace. I quickly realized, after the first couple of stories, that Salter needs to be read in the morning when the brain is alert. Try reading him at night and you will quickly become lost in his quick changing of scenes, his sharp thrusts of dialogue, and his dexterous symbolism. I often had to re-read previous paragraphs for clarification. And when I thought Salter had erred in his writing, I realized instead that it was I who had erred in my reading. Dusk won the prestigious Pen-Faulkner award in 1989. It is composed of eleven stories whose scenes take place in both national and foreign settings. If you love hard-boiled action scenes, don't read James Salter, for his stories are the opposite: subtle and meditative. The characters, well, they do a lot of thinking. They ponder during their times of loneliness and defeat. Displacement and malcontent consume their thoughts and for them the better days lie in the past, days when they weren't old or divorced or estranged. I felt like whispering in their ears, saying "Hey, it can't be all that bad. Take a Zoloft and you'll be fine." Highly recommended book.
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