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Last Night: Stories
by
James Salter
Last Night is a spellbinding collection of stories about passion–by turns fiery and subdued, destructive and redemptive, alluring and devastating. These ten powerful stories portray men and women in their most intimate moments. A lover of poetry is asked by his wife to give up what may be his most treasured relationship. A book dealer is forced to face the truth about his...more
Paperback, 132 pages
Published
March 14th 2006
by Vintage
(first published 2005)
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Though the stories in this 2005 collection all make use of contemporary gadgetry—scénariste of lust and betrayal, Salter can hardly forgo the incriminating email, the voicemails of avoidance—they are really set in Midcentury Manhattan Storyland. People mostly drink dry martinis and scotch on the rocks. Whenever “the war” is mentioned you know it’s the Big One. The characters of “My Lord You” are straight from the 1950s: the Auchinclossian estate lawyer, his balletic gamine of a wife (she has an...more
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Salter is incredible. I found him through Ondaatje and admire them equally; both can throw in a simple phrase that will turn your heart over in the middle of a paragraph. The stories in this collection are about love and loss and the beauty that comes from life because – only because – of its imperfections. The message becomes despondent towards the end of the book– and I began to feel that all is hopeless in the world, that we are unable to actualize what we want. But the trick with Salter is h...more
Critics call novelist and short-story writer Salter a writer's writer. These stories (some previously published in Esquire and The New Yorker) also confirm that he's "a reader's writer" in his exploration of universal themes (Rocky Mountain News). Reviewers unanimously applaud Salter's gleaming, precise prose and haunting retrospection, which reinforce complex and sophisticated characters and themes. "You can practically smell the cigarette smoke and hear the booze-scratched timbre of Salter's c
...more
Once again, I have Shelf Awareness to thank for the introduction to James Salter. Yes, I sort of knew who he was, and yes, I knew he is critically acclaimed. But I am not sure I would have picked up anything by him, if I hadn't been on such a roll with books recommended by writers in the Book Brahmin column.
Short stories intrigue me. The reader only gets a slice of the character's lives and that is so true with James Salter. In these ten stories, you enter right in the middle. Things have happen...more
Short stories intrigue me. The reader only gets a slice of the character's lives and that is so true with James Salter. In these ten stories, you enter right in the middle. Things have happen...more
Comet: An uncomfortable cocktail conversation at the Morrisseys (but not the Morrisseys) lifts the lid momentarily on the the seething cauldron of bitterness that is Adele and Philip's marriage. Luckily, Ol' Phil can excuse himself and go look at a celestial event, the titular comet. Ol' Adele comes stomping across the Morrisseys' lawn. She's locked into confrontation mode. "Come back inside." "No, this is rare." "So am I. So were we." "Don't trip up the steps and, God forbid, embarrass yourself...more
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Although Salter has control of the language throughout, I found 3/4 of this collection to be predictable fare from the academic-literary-MFA-nobody-reads-this-only-because-it's-art camp. I liked Platinum the best, in which Salter simply nails the subject of infatuation, how a man will willingly continue to damage himself and his family for a younger woman, despite being fully aware that it isn't love and he's wrecking his life. This story alone was worth the time it took to get through the other...more
The effect was cumulative. From start to finish I followed a series of unrelated but analogous and increasingly involving incidents, each featuring lovers in a varying states of desire, devotion or disrepair. The book, a short story collection, opens with a simple wedding and ends with a couple’s botched go at euthanasia, which wound up seeming the beginning and ending of one loosely woven account, a continuum of relationships. To start I was yawning; by the end I was too verklempt to breathe.
I...more
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Some of these stories really blew me away: "Comet", "Eyes of the Stars", "My Lord You", "Such Fun", "Last Night". These best of the collection really sparkle and say more than they say, if you know what I mean. He leaves a lot of empty space and doesn't pin down everything with specifics but has dialogue and description that's evocative. Maybe the reason I like those 5 stories in particular is they happen to leave empty spaces in areas that my own experience fills in so potently. Like a horror m...more
Salter is meticulous. He hones each sentence and places it perfectly. He can give a clear impression of an entire life with a few short sentences.
There are lots of critical raves for Salter but I'm not buying it. The theme running through these stories is melancholy nostalgia for past love and/or lust and the question of what the main character had then was better than he has now. He writes about it in a believable and haunting way, which I enjoyed. But he doesn't know how to end these stories. They just fritter away with a couple of throwaway sentences. It left me a little annoyed: that's all there is? Maybe that's the point he was tryin...more
Incredible. Very brief, I read this in a day. I've read it several times before, and it doesn't lose its punch. Salter creates little perfect worlds with little perfect sentences. He's very precise, yet the stories aren't stilted. A few toward the end sag a bit, but the final story is an absolute stunner. Most of the women in the collection are young and beautiful, with gorgeous bodies which are often in swimsuits. Salter sometimes shocks with somewhat twisty moves, but not quite to a fault. Thi...more
Pithy stories centered (in most cases) on somewhat soulless, clinging characters seemingly unaware of their own superficiality. I'd at first anticipated the revealing of something universal--ruminations on life squandered and fictitious "experience" perhaps leading to an epiphany or two--but soon resigned myself to the vaguely predictable revelations in each snapshot-like tale. Also, I was turned off by the needless reduction of most female characters to an assemblage of body parts subjected to...more
Synopsis from Publisher's Weekly: Teetering marriages, collapsing relationships and other calamities of the heart drive these 10 compact, unsettling stories by respected writer Salter.
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James Salter is really an under-appreciated writer. While he's considered to be more of a writer's writer, he really has an impressive way with words. This set of short stories explore human relations in a realistic and heartbreaking way. At the beginning of each, you are drawn in an...more
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James Salter is really an under-appreciated writer. While he's considered to be more of a writer's writer, he really has an impressive way with words. This set of short stories explore human relations in a realistic and heartbreaking way. At the beginning of each, you are drawn in an...more
Salter is one of my literary idols. His writing is both traditional and strange, and he chisels his sentences things of wonder and beauty. He takes familiar American short-story scenarios—marriage on the rocks, a couple's erotic life breaking down, men unsure what to do with their maleness—and through unexpected shifts in point-of-view and plot twists (the kind you don't see coming, but turn out to have been buried from the start), he wakes you up as you read. You feel that zing that only a shar...more
Last Night was a little creepy. I didn’t understand everything that happened in the story as I was reading it, but as the last few lines came up, it all made sense. Salter didn’t necessarily employ the “trick the reader” technique, but it sure felt that way at the end. In this case, it worked in a way that didn’t make me feel frustrated or cheated. I really enjoyed the sparseness and the eerie tone the sparseness provided. This is one of those stories that have to be read twice: once for the sto...more
Salter is one of the greatest writers that almost no one reads, which is unfortunate since he is a master of the written word. Last Night is a fine example of his ability to tell sharp, precise stories with not one word wasted. These are stories about men and women, desire and loss, about who we are when all the extraneous stuff is peeled away. These are stories so perfect, they're nearly impossible to describe.
Recommended by Shawn, Powells.com
Recommended by Shawn, Powells.com
Now I know why I want to read more by Salter. Eventually I want to read A Sport and a Pastime, which was highly recommended to me, but I started with Last Night when I saw it at the Strand last week.
Ten short stories are included in this collection. Some have characters or situation that overlap and give the book a way to link the stories together. Just because characters aren't likable doesn't mean that the stories aren't well written; some of the situations captured are appalling but, really,...more
Ten short stories are included in this collection. Some have characters or situation that overlap and give the book a way to link the stories together. Just because characters aren't likable doesn't mean that the stories aren't well written; some of the situations captured are appalling but, really,...more
Delicious, like dark chocolate flecked with sea salt. Slightly bitter, nuanced, sophisticated. I started reading it last night and was so engrossed I picked it up again first thing this morning before starting my day. A series of short stories dealing with the complications, machinations, and illuminations of mature relationships. Salter is an astute technician - skilled with words (often you have to read between the lines to know exactly what is going on between characters, as if you are a fly...more
Sep 27, 2012
Carolyn
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
short-story
Even though some of these (e.g. Such Fun) end up feeling like the usual twist-at-the-end stories, they are overall precise and emotionally riveting. And then there are some (Last Night of course) which are extraordinary in every way - constructed so cleanly, the emotional atmosphere exact, the dialog just so, nothing extraneous, and surprising at the end.
I am a great fan of Salter's...I love his writing and these stories are understated and rich at the same time. Salter is especially good with relationships, what gets said and not said. A passage I like: 'There was a moth on the windshield as they headed back. They were going forty miles an hour: its wings were quivering in what must have been a titanic wind as it resisted being borne into the night. Still, stubbornly, it clung, like gray ash but thick and trembling.--What are you doing? she sai...more
A solid collection though probably no particular story will stick with me. I have almost no idea when these stories are supposed to take place, which is either a credit to Salter as a writer (making them "timeless") or a fault.
Notable stories: Platinum, Give, Last Night.
Notable stories: Platinum, Give, Last Night.
I always imagine Salter characters to be eating tomatoes. In salads with cheese and balsamic dressing. Roasted and mushy with rosemary. I imagine the tartness of the tomates filling up their middle aged mouths as they realize what they are.
These stories by one America's greatest living writers are both exquisite and chilling. Chilling as in ice cold in their dissection of the human heart. You get the sense that, brilliant as he is, Salter is not exactly a happy camper.
Small stories that go deeply into the heart and mind. The best, "Last Night", was about a terminally ill woman and her planned last night with her husband and family friend was powerful and stark and bittersweet.
Another incredible set of stories from the master writer's writer. Salter returns to his usual themes - desire, betrayal, lust - but each story provides a unique twist on the themes that never lost my interest. The title story is excellent, and the twist at the end was incredible!
Stunning. Beautiful, spare prose. It's difficult to describe Salter's writing without acute awareness of one's own dramatic short-comings in sentence structure and word choice. I'm awestruck by how great these stories are. Timeless.
One of the most depressing books I've ever read. It's short stories, and every single one is horrifically depressing. I don't understand why the critics praise his writing so much; I was totally disappointed.
Hard to find fault with the prose in Salter's stories, but the subject matter (an unsatisfying marriage, temptation from a younger woman or old flame) grows predictable when stretched over an entire collection. The title story is beautiful, and not because of its twist ending.
Jan 26, 2011
Mely
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
contemporary-fiction,
short-stories
Short stories about love, lust, and loss. Gorgeous prose. Complex characterization of the women almost makes up for them all being seen externally when it comes to sex.
I read this book in a day and a third. Although the subject matter is somewhat stale (marriages dissolving, bored women, drunk men thinking of past lovers),
the stories are absorbing, and the prose is lovely: clean, concise, and structurally pleasing and surprising--
"They had twin beds in the apartment off Venice Boulevard and also that summer in Malibu in a house rented from an actor who had gone on location for six weeks. There was a leafy passageway that led to the beach. She didn't wear a bik...more
the stories are absorbing, and the prose is lovely: clean, concise, and structurally pleasing and surprising--
"They had twin beds in the apartment off Venice Boulevard and also that summer in Malibu in a house rented from an actor who had gone on location for six weeks. There was a leafy passageway that led to the beach. She didn't wear a bik...more
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James Salter (b. 1925) is a novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Salter grew up in New York City and was a career officer and Air Force pilot until his mid-thirties, when the success of his first novel (The Hunters, 1957) led to a fulltime writing career. Salter’s potent, lyrical prose has earned him acclaim from critics, readers, and fellow novelists. His novel A Sport and a Pastime (1...more
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