Dusk and Other Stones is James Salter's only short-story collection. Virtuosic and exquisitely compressed, these stories snow Salter at his best. T...
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Oct 30, 2011
Elf
rated it: 
I've been reading James Salter's Dusk and Other Stories, a collection of short stories from Salter's long career as a contributor to high contemporary fiction. This is literature of the "literature genre," the genre which insists its not a genre at all, but the sine qua non of writing, as if they were artist of the human condition and genre writers merely illustrators.
The New York times positively gushed about the stories in this book, but I went back to the well of the writ More...
The New York times positively gushed about the stories in this book, but I went back to the well of the writ More...
May 21, 2011
Bennet
rated it: 
Maybe it's because I think in novel terms, but I never cease to be amazed by a short story that makes a character, a place, a whatever viable and memorable despite the limitations of the form. And I'm in awe of how many different but comparably compelling ways there are to do that; all have in common a knack for instantly insinuating and evoking. It's an art and craft of language that seems more difficult to me than novel writing.
Reading this (my first Salter) prompted me to start a More...
Reading this (my first Salter) prompted me to start a More...
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Dec 16, 2009
Richie
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The story American Express affected me like no other--two middle-aged businessmen with nothing left of their souls driving around Europe with a teenage schoolgirl. I was in ruins after reading it. The rest of the stories were sadly forgettable.
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Mar 01, 2011
Paul
rated it:
Very, very good. As opposed to Last Night, which is incredible. I enjoyed this collection more this second time around, though it still doesn't quite hold up to Salter's later collection. Still, this one is a bit more expansive, there's more going on, where Last Night is a completely condensed singular statement, aesthetically speaking. There's less of a prevailing voice here, and some readers might appreciate that. I think these stories might be more rewarding the more you read them, though I'm
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Nov 10, 2011
Patrick
rated it:
I'd recommend certain stories from this collection. I wouldn't recommend the entire collection, which reads like erudite Carver. Salter tries and often succeeds in compressing character's lives into carefully crafted sentences, and the effect when he's on is one in which the past arrives simultaneously with present narrative action. It's a wierd effect that Salter achieves by writing sentences within paragraphs that seem unrelated when read in isolation. As Rick Moody said of Amy Hempel's writin
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Sep 21, 2011
Eric
rated it:
Ah, Salterland! Where it’s always 196—. Where Town is a gleaming oak bar, Country a superb yet forsaken woman who drinks a little too much (and has a good chance of dying in a riding accident), and Europa a precocious gamine who is really down for anything, you just have to ask. I wouldn’t want a woman who hadn’t already lived a few lives, and so the title story “Dusk,” and “Foreign Shores,” stories of durable divorcees, autumn roses, seemed to me the most effective (affective is what I mean). “
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Feb 27, 2010
Minodora
rated it:
yes, salter can write beautiful sentences--clear, resounding trills, like small musical scales sounding in the dark. but, and this is a big BUT, where's the music? these stories were too perfect, almost too orderly, tidy and neatly packaged. the tone was distant and cold, and together, they didn't form a melody, but one insistent flat note. i really can't put my finger on it-- but i'm not feeling the pulse, this book is not breathing, in fact, it may have flat-lined right there in my hands. it's
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Nov 10, 2009
Ken
rated it:
It is a sad commentary on the state of the short story when a collection such as this is allowed to go out of print. After all, Dusk and Other Stories did win the PEN/Faulkner award when it was first released in 1989. And this collection did become a textbook for dedicated short story writers -- maybe not as popular with the general reading public as Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, but more of an insider's pick, like the films of Sam Fuller. The sad fact is that I had to rea
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Jan 12, 2011
Brenda
rated it: 
Somehow Salter manages to convey so much interior life with hardly a reflective moment from most of his characters. Depth, mystery, human complexity all conveyed through language and image and what isn't said--one of the best uses of understatement that I've ever seen. Amazing endings that don't leave you hanging so much as slice your heart in two quickly and then seal the wound with fire. No easy answers, just honest, honest, honest. Favorites in the collection: "Dusk," "Dirt,"
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Jul 08, 2011
Cyril
rated it:
I bought this book on a whim thinking it was a novel, but it is actually a collection of short stories. Short stories are really not my thing, but the ones here are quite good. Mr. Salter is an excellent writer. One common theme in the collection is failure and inability to achieve success. Some of the stories are, however, boring. I think this is a very good book.
Sep 20, 2010
Colin
rated it:
James Salter’s first collection of short stories displays the range in which he is capable of observing domestic life. From an American couple living without children in Barcelona to a family in a small coastal town in New England who finds their foundation crumbling, Salter reveals with elegant prose the shattered dreams of ordinary people and the hopes they still hold on to.
Mar 07, 2011
Shawn
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Pithy short stories. Salter not only has terse text but terse thoughts, leaving the reader to fill in crucial details of the story's fabric.
Oct 20, 2007
Craig
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I think Salter is a better short story writer than novelist. This is his first short story collection and it is probably marginal better than his second, "Last Night." Both are fantastic. This one won the Pen/Faulkner.
May 23, 2010
DoctorM
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James Salter is one of the finest writers in American letters, and these stories--- luminous, elliptical, often unexpectedly disturbing --are brilliant.
Jul 26, 2010
Laura Jean
rated it:
A well-written collection, though the intensity lagged at times. I found his memoir Burning the Days to be much more engaging.
Nov 25, 2007
Swati
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like poetry --- short stark sentences, lots of metaphor, lots of them brilliant and alarming. still, i couldn't love these stories.
Apr 19, 2008
Sarah
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I found the writing oblique and often non-descriptive. None of these stories really engaged my interest.
Jul 11, 2008
Stefanie
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of course the book is well-written. while an award winner, i was just not engaged by these stories.
Feb 05, 2012
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