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.

I feel well written short stories are exceptional, and with, "Dusk And Other Stories", Mr. James Salter again demonstrates that his skills are not diminished when the length of his stories are. Short stories are often complete thoughts or fully played out events, however fragmentary they may be. Others tend to stop. They end. You wonder why. Those in the latter group I tend to dislike as a reasonable ending, even if vague, does not seem to be a great deal to ask. Some that I have read simply stop because the idea stopped. Some find this stylish I find it weak.

Mr. Salter offers up the complete and the not so final in this book and they all are enjoyable. Even those that end abruptly like, "Am Strande von Tanger" feels less casually abrupt as the penultimate sentences or perhaps the paragraph brings closure. The remarks that are the final sentence seem less critical. In other stories like, "Dusk", the finality and completeness is almost brutal. The imagery of lost love and a dying bird in a field is poetic as writing and vicious as to the emotion it describes.

If you have read any of this Author's other work you may find bits of characters that you have encountered in the past, or similar locales they have transited. The familiarity real or imagined is welcomed as it brings back other great moments in this man's work. I have read 4 of his novels and this collection of short stories, all are excellent some more so than others. If you were looking for a new Author you would be hard pressed to find higher quality writing than this.

I'm not sure where to begin with Salter. His felicity of style, his simple, yet simply luminous prose, his ability to expose ourselves without ripping away the veil, but rather to slowly and deftly unweave it, in a manner so mesmerising that you are entranced by the process, and only upon completion do you realise that the true rapture is the face, naked to your gaze.

He isn't afraid to say what he wants, and that can be a little shocking sometimes, to our politically-correct selves. Lines like "He was part of that great, unchanging order of those who live by their wages, whose world is unlit and do not realize what is above" may sound pretentious, but it feels like through reading his work, one is gaining access to that state of grace.

I could wax lyrical further -- and compare him to a pair of Rodin hands -- where there is the masterstroke from the distance, and the minutae that complete perfection. TO do so, would waste space. I simply exhort you to read him.

Also try Andre Dubus, if you are a short story person...