The Hunters : A Novel (Vintage International (Paperback))

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Summary: Fantastic Flying with real characters
Review: This is my favorite book, as an aerobatic flight instructor I enjoy all aviation related works, but this is one of the few in the genre where the characters drive the story instead of the explosions and machines. Everybody should read this, even if you have no interest in flying or the Korean War, it is a wonderful novel that happens to take place in Korea and Japan.

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Summary: Korea's "Red Badge of Courage"
Review: This is one of the finest books about men at war that you'll ever likely come across. Salter, a Korean war fighter pilot, spins the tale of Cleve Connell, a highly praised pilot off to his first war. The book starts slowly, but gathers momentum, almost a mirror for Connell's struggles with himself, and with a cocky ace named Pell. Salter's precisely chiseled and finely crafted prose provides a rare intellectual and emotional momentum. While few books have been written about America's forgotten war, "The Hunters" is not only a moving monument to the men who went to Korea, but also to the tests all men face in combat. Truly a "Red Badge of Courage" for Korea.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Novel
Review: This was the first of several excellent novels (Solo Faces, Light Years, A Sport and A Pastime) by this author. Based on his own experience as a fighter pilot in Korea, The Hunters is the story of an American pilot who wishes to become an ace. Written in direct, deceptively simple, and precise language, The Hunters is an examination of the demands of wartime viewed through the prism of this relatively solitary pursuit. Salter conveys the experience of the Korean war and dog-fighting beautifully. Unlike most war novels, this book is a psychological novel preoccupied primarily with moral issues. The key questions are what is the appropriate way to live, and its obverse question, what is the appropriate way to die? This is the type of novel that Hemingway tried to write in For Whom The Bell Tolls. Where Hemingway failed, Salter succeeds. This deceptively modest book is much better than most of the serious American literature published over the last 50 years.