This exquisite, resonant novel is a brilliant portrait of marriage by a contemporary American master. Even as he lingers over the lustrous surface ...
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Jun 02, 2011
Eric
rated it: 
A novel to read quickly, in a few long gulps. Reopening it each time, I needed at least 20 pages to recover the book’s subtle groove. Snatching a chapter here or a few pages there didn’t work: the characters sounded trivial, their pillow talk and dinner chatter banal, infuriating. I had to let their days accumulate. And the writing can seem all-too hushed and solemn; but the imagery becomes inevitable, the rhythms right. I admire Salter for having the balls to write a novel requiring such immer
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Dec 17, 2009
Pam
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This book is so beautifully written, so evocative -- not for everyone, I'm sure. The characters are held at a distance, and aren't always likeable. But there are these occasional, intimate glimpses.
I think I loved it for the language and setting. Moments like this: the father tells his little girls that he found their missing pony, Urusla, in the lake. He tells the girls that Urusla was swimming. The pony was looking for onions that grow along the bottom of the lake, she was More...
I think I loved it for the language and setting. Moments like this: the father tells his little girls that he found their missing pony, Urusla, in the lake. He tells the girls that Urusla was swimming. The pony was looking for onions that grow along the bottom of the lake, she was More...
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Jan 03, 2011
William Thomas
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You ever have one of those days where you spend the waning daylight hours staring out of a picture window at nothing in particular, with a far away look on your face, trying to clear your mind with a scotch in one hand and the other hadn stuffed in your pocket, rocking back and forth on your heels every so often, shaking the glass to break up the ice and then sighing so heavily that you physically deflate, your shoulders slumping and posture slouching?
This book is the literary equiv More...
This book is the literary equiv More...
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May 20, 2008
Matt
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Like Virginia Woolf, Salter has managed to totally entrance me with characters and a genre that I would have professed zero interest in. He's just a really freakin' good writer, and a good listener...I get the feeling he pays attention to life as he lives it.
The beautiful heart of this novel--read during a very difficult period in my own life--is its exploration of the role that choice might play in determining the quality of one's existence. Viri's dilemma. Is it, as the party gue More...
The beautiful heart of this novel--read during a very difficult period in my own life--is its exploration of the role that choice might play in determining the quality of one's existence. Viri's dilemma. Is it, as the party gue More...
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Dec 23, 2011
Bradley
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I tried to like it, I really tried. Had to read it for a class, and while there were enjoyable moments, it was for the most part incredibly boring. Someone else reviewing it called it old white guy fiction and that is exactly what it is. And there is entertaining and good old white guy fiction, but Light Years is not even that. I not only didn't like either of the main characters, I actively hated them. They were selfish, self-centered, altogether terrible people who didn't have any real problem
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Sep 14, 2011
Kimberly Faith
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Salter analyzes marriage and the merits of independence vs. dependence. But, the novel is really a study of time. We know these characters through pin-points over twenty years. The writing is often stunning particularly as the characters travel through Europe in search of themselves and their true happiness. Salter is often oblique but because of this spare hand, some choices really mesmerize. He pays great attention to the changing of seasons and these shifts mark big changes for the characters
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Feb 24, 2011
Amanda
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This book felt like a punch to the gut. When I finished it, I felt as though I'd lost people who had very quickly become an important part of my life. I have never read anything that more accurately and intimately described the truth about relationships. I skimmed other reviews by readers, and noticed that a few people pointed out that the characters are somewhat unlikeable. This is a personal quirk of mine, but I have very rarely really liked characters, or even people I meet, that are genuinel
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Jul 19, 2011
Matt
rated it:
It is exceptionally easy, and perhaps even exceptionally banal, to call James Salter's writing “lyrical.” Yet, that is exactly the feeling you get in reading Light Years—that of the lyric, the poem. While “poetic” in its language throughout, the novel feels most acutely “lyrical” for its first half, like a series of poems, somehow and perhaps only slightly related, brief glimpses into and mediations on the lives of an interesting-yet-venal people, concerned with their lovers, with the “fascina
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Dec 26, 2010
Hannah
rated it:
Although I'm drawn to stories of suburban disillusion/tragedy, I read them only occasionally. Dying dreams, the confines of conformity, frustrated idealism...these themes get old quickly; they make me feel old and worn, and leave a proverbial bad taste in my proverbial mouth.
Even so, my interest is always piqued when I find another such novel, so I decided to read Light Years, even though my "depressing, mid-century lit" quota was filled for the year.
It was si More...
Even so, my interest is always piqued when I find another such novel, so I decided to read Light Years, even though my "depressing, mid-century lit" quota was filled for the year.
It was si More...
Oct 28, 2007
Ann M
rated it:
Trying again. Good dialogue, but do I care about these people? This is old white guy lit, big time. I wanted to give it two stars, but I was not motivated to finish it. Boring.
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Jun 15, 2010
Sarah
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This is a beautiful, sad book. Its beauty is that of a winter landscape, something frozen, except, there is no hope of a thaw. What is never mentioned is that these people are completely inured by their wealth and social class. They are "good" people who take pleasure in raising children, loving (in and outside the marriage bond), learning and having friends. But they have no purpose to their lives which are like one long, indolent afternoon and the result is something very, very sad.
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Dec 08, 2009
Travis
rated it:
A couple of authors were gushing about this book at a recent event and it sounded intriguing. From a craft sense I understand the praise. The man is a unique stylist -- precise, lyrical and deft. The convincing way he describes characters by certain habits or flaws is also brilliant. And the way time shapes & binds the characters-- undeniably great writing. How he ends chapters is a poetic wonder.
But I'm not sure how much interest readers unlike the cast (moneyed, fond of long m More...
But I'm not sure how much interest readers unlike the cast (moneyed, fond of long m More...
May 10, 2010
Joan
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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May 13, 2009
evelyn
rated it:
luminous writing.This was a beautifully written book.
Upon finishing it, i was left with the impression of the beauty and sadness of life. Nedra and Viri, the protaganists, appeared to others to have a rich and sparkling life. But the totally self-involved Nedra, acutely felt a need to be free of the constraints and demands of relationships. The book begins when they are young and passes thru the seasons of their lives, through separation and into their old age and it's disappointments. Thi More...
Upon finishing it, i was left with the impression of the beauty and sadness of life. Nedra and Viri, the protaganists, appeared to others to have a rich and sparkling life. But the totally self-involved Nedra, acutely felt a need to be free of the constraints and demands of relationships. The book begins when they are young and passes thru the seasons of their lives, through separation and into their old age and it's disappointments. Thi More...
Apr 23, 2011
Sebastian
rated it:
Utterly shattering. Even better than Salter's A Sport And A Pastime, which I adored. So rich in words, ideas, emotion and images that it almost hurts to read. Poetry as prose that nails with equal precision descriptions of a landscape or a street as it does the complex vagueries of the human heart. An elliptical look at twenty years in the lives of a man, a woman, their two daughters and their circle of friends in New York and abroad in and around the 1960s. The breakup of a marriage; the r
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Feb 19, 2010
sleeps9hours
rated it:
Really rich writing. The friend who recommended it said it was “like chocolate”. Great descriptions of a wonderful home life with children. They are always eating great food, having friends for dinner, reading great books, studying art, putting on plays and making fanciful crafts. However, it is not an overall happy tale, so be prepared. It is similar in some ways to Revolutionary Road. Interesting to compare and contrast Nedra with April Wheeler. Good for a book discussion.
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Nov 01, 2008
Will
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This is a portrait of marriage. I felt very touched by the lives he describes, not so much for their own travails, but in recognition of my own. There is such sadness in expectations unfulfilled. Our lives do not follow the script we write as inexperienced authors of our lives. We drift apart, do not, cannot travel like paired rails to a common destination. I guess that is what this book is about. I found it lyrical as well as sad, beautifully written, not the heroic in the world, the challenged
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Dec 09, 2009
Lee
rated it:
Hmm. I admired this more than I liked it. It's one of the most generic stories ever told, really, about the dissolution of the privileged lives of family and friends. Westchester County. The Hamptons. European travel. Educated, urbane conversation. Too much knowledge of good wine. Hot, intelligent children. "Luminous" prose, yea, but it seemed too often mannered for me. The syntax is consistent, two phrases separated by a comma, the second phrase deepening the resonance, often with an
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Nov 11, 2010
I read this book about 15 years ago -- long before I was married and/or had kids. Salter is just a beautiful writer and I recall loving how he put words together even though the subject was foreign and the characters not all that likeable. I was just thinking about this book recently and then started the book by Julia Glass (which I'm loving) and there was a quote from this book at the front. So I'm putting it back on my to-read list which I don't do very often.
Aug 14, 2009
Bree
rated it:
Like a rich dessert, Salter's style can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. Every sentence deserves thought. At the beginning, I was a little, "Eh" about it - but after talking to my Dad who said, "Stick with it - there are things in there you'll remember the rest of your life," I persevered and am very happy for it.
Salter's my favorite for a reason. His writing is unbelievable. I honestly can't imagine having the skill to come up with one percent of the stuff he doe More...
Salter's my favorite for a reason. His writing is unbelievable. I honestly can't imagine having the skill to come up with one percent of the stuff he doe More...
Feb 25, 2011
Diane
rated it:
Synopsis from book's inside flap: This exquisite, resonant novel is a brilliant portrait of marriage by a contemporary American master. Even as he lingers over the lustrous surface of Viri and Nedra's marriage, James Salter makes us see the cracks that are spreading through it, flaws that will in time mar it beyond repair. "An unexpectedly moving ode to beautiful lives frayed by time."
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Despite the depressing subject matter, this is a beauti More...
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Despite the depressing subject matter, this is a beauti More...
May 06, 2011
g
rated it: 
The Paris Review has been salivating over James Salter, and since I'm a sucker for "lyricism" and "dissolving marriages," I thought I'd give this one a try. There are prettyish passages, but it's mostly airy and pretentious self-indulgence, and Nedra is particularly insipid and loathsome (she's not supposed to be: she's supposed to be one of those free-as-a-butterfly causes-spontaneous-orgasms characters, almost always written by repressed men *yawn*). I'm surprised I got thr
Dec 26, 2011
Adam
rated it:
What can I say? This is easily one of the greatest novels I've ever read. Just read it, and then go read A Sport and a Pastime. And then Dusk and Other Stories and then Last Night. Afterward, you'll understand why Salter's a writer's writer. Because writers know he's one of the greatest writers writing. Period.
Jan 19, 2011
Bernie
rated it:
Beautifully written. But the story, in the end, proved puzzling and irritating. This is John Updike territory without the lightness and humor. Noone seemed to work in the book -- or work very hard. And money was never an issue. I just found it hard to get involved....as I do with Updike, Roth...
Feb 25, 2009
Fiona
rated it:
Probably the best thing I've read recently. Certainly in the top twenty of all time. Subtle rather than slight, deep rather than hollow with characters changing seemlessly in scenes so poignant they will stay with you all year. Beautiful writing without being selfconscious, not a word out of place.
Dec 04, 2011
"I choose text where every decoration has been flayed from the prose. It's more than 'What a relief, there are no adverbs.' It's text that has a courage, a leaping-in quality." - Novelist Jonathan Lethem on why he rereads, printed in "Play it Again, Sam" by David Bowman, The Book Review, 12/4/11
May 17, 2009
Nancy
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I really tried to get into this one, but aftr 60 pages, I just disliked the characters so. Pretentious, shallow - I mean who organizes their lives around dinners? Sorry, Ruth :) And I didn't even get a chance to disapprove of their morals!
Oct 02, 2009
Jen
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I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars. I loved Nedra and Viri. Especially Nedra. They were real people. Oh why can't there ever be great literary sequels? And I've almost read through Salter. What will I read next?
Jan 14, 2009
Nicola
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this is a book my husband's brother, a writer, passed along, and I didn't think I was going to like it at first, but I did! I have to give it five stars--just for the language and the wisdom--
Aug 05, 2009
Victor
rated it:
An important book in American literary and cultural history, and also a fine read. Yet the book is also disheartening when it looks at where our meaningful relationships with others should be found.
