Gods of Tin: The Flying Years

by James Salter, Jessica Benton (Editor), William Benton (Editor)

A singular life often circles around a singular moment, an occasion when one's life in the world is defined forever and the emotional vocabulary set. For the extraordinary writer James Salter, this moment was contained in the fighter planes over Korea where, during his young manhood, he flew more than one hundred missions.

James Salter is considered one of America's greatest prose stylists. The Arm of Flesh (later revised and retitled Cassada ) and his first novel, The Hunters, are legendary in military circles for their descriptions of flying and aerial combat. A former Air Force pilot who flew F-86 fighters in Korea, Salter writes with matchless insight about the terror and exhilaration of the pilot's life.

Genres: Aviation, Nonfiction, Literature, Biography, Autobiography

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

James Salter (1925 - 2015) was 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 earned him acclaim from critics, readers, and fellow novelists. His novel A Sport and a Pastime (1967) was hailed by the New York Times as “nearly perfect as any American fiction.”

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had read several books by James Salter but did not know that was a nom de plume. He was born James Arnold Horowitz in NY. Hid dad was USMA Class of 1918, Engineers. James was USMA Class of 1944, Aviation.

This book is a fusion of his wartime diaries from Korea and anecdotes that appeared in other novels. He had a 100 combat missions in Korea during 1952 flying the F-86 Sabre. He had one confirmed kill and a probable. He remained in the USAF until 1957.

Very descriptive writing of place as well as emotion or lack therof. However, you get the feeling he's holding back especially when it comes to fear. Getting lost in the dark and crashing into a house in Great Barrington, MA in 1945 is just another day. But the daily encounter with the fates and losing friends and peers is told in a matter of fact manner. Definitely worth a read.

[Sjors · Rating 2 out of 5]

Memoirs and snippets of stories written by a fighter pilot who served in the Korean War and then nothing, just NATO postings here and there. Some sporadic poetic observation but, apart from some of the diary notes from the war, nothing that exciting or edifying or insightful. The man might as well have ridden a motorbike. Wish someone would buy this book off of me; guess I should have reviewed it nicer.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't really call Gods of Tin a biography but it fits sorta kinda but not really. The book is a compellation of Salter's writings either from a biography he wrote, to a journal he kept and two novels he wrote. The book was easy to read and I read it in one setting. It is the size of an inspirational book from Hallmark and about as deep as one of those self help books. Salter has a way with words but instead of saying anything insightful about his experiences or gaining an insight he had about those around him (his flight in Korea was made up of a who’s who of the early Air Force) instead it was a self absorbed insight to Salter himself. Do we really need to know how much he paid to have sex in Tokyo? How does that help anyone that we now know he had sex with a Japanese prostitute during his leaves that cost him 5,000 Yen in 1952?

The editors/introducers of the book Jessica and William Benton wax on about Salter's prose (this may pass for literary criticism but as a Historian I want a more critical eye and some description of the History behind Salter and his experiences) but ignore the criticism of his character in The Hunters of being an attack on the character of James Low a onetime Salter wingman and a nine kill ace. In the book Low does seem to get a nice treatment but I was left wondering was this the editors attempt to silence the potential controversy by selective publication or was this really Salter's opinion of Low. Whichever it was I found Gods of Tin not demonstrating any insight to Salter's experiences or the editors showing anything but an unembarrassed adoring eye to Salter. I enjoy his novels but found myself after reading Gods of Tin feeling like I just ate at a very expensive popular restaurant. The food was good but not great, the portions were too small, and I left wondering why I even bothered.

[Eric Chandler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great look at what it's like to fly in combat.

[Mark Valentine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Salter's accounts of his missions over Korea have the edge of sharp authenticity and keen perception. Combine this with eloquent writing and this brief memoir delivers.

[Charles H Berlemann Jr · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read "The Hunters" a while ago and thought this would be interesting since both Goodreads and Amazon made recommendations about this to me.

The problem is this doesn't feel coherent and feels like some editors pulled some unpublished materials, journal or diary entries, and even probably some short stories published other places.
Draws from his time during WW2 going through to flying post war and then into flying in Korea and the 3 years post Korean War. There was hints of his ability to write when talking of flying both during training and about being in Korea. There also feels like an attempt to copy Antonie de Saint-Exupéry writing of flying.

But that is also the problem with this book. These are just hints. There isn't really an attempt to be an autobiography. In some of the write ups the characters seem to talk of characters as shown in "The Hunters".
It's interesting, but not worthwhile to purchase unless you have a need to be a complete a collection of Salter's published materials. Also, not really for a casual reader, this was just a boring book that I wanted to power through after a certain point

[Lance · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

It had it's profound moments, especially the parts narrating the author's sublime experience and reality amidst the war, but overall I had a hard time getting into the overall text because of the technical jargon and majority of the selected parts from Salter's other works never really resonated with me when read as a whole. It's like mixing parts of your favorite dessert, lunch, and dinner together in a blender and expecting it to taste good.

[Dano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn’t put it down!! It’s that good

[Courtney Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!

[Bob Peru · Rating 4 out of 5]

like saint-exupery.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like everything Salter does but this is a flimsy compilation made from his books about flying and with exception of a handful of diary entries from 1952 when he was in Korea, it really just a series of passages taken out of context from the novels (The Hunters and Cassada) and his memoir, Burning the Days - an interesting curiosity but if you want to read about Salter and flying - don't waste your time with Gods of Tin - read the books themselves!

[Richard]

Great, spare, masterful writing. As great as this compilation of work from Salter's other books is, the piece that stands out for because it'snot included is a segment from his memoir "Burning The Days" in which he relates his stint living in and flying over the vast desert of North Africa. The language in these passages is sublime, among the best in BTD which as a work is stupendous.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book does great justice to conveying the feeling of being a fighter pilot in Korea; the language and writing almost puts you right in the pilot's seat. Some of the writing was almost two creative for me however and there were a couple times I wasn't sure where I was.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing new in this compilation of flying stories is about thirty pages of journal entries and a few photographs from Korea. But that's enough. Trust me, that's enough.

[Sam]

CoS reading lists. Suprisingly interesting stries. will let you know how it ends...

[Jack Hwang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salter is really good at words. This book, although a collection of his writings from different periods, quietly depicts an uneasy loneliness being a flier.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly recommend for any aviator or aviation enthusiast.