A Sport and a Pastime

Rating:
Summary: Pure and simple joy!
Review: A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter. North Point Press San Fransisco 1985

On the surface this is a love story. Phillip Dean, an American dropout from Yale, and Anne-Mari Costallat, a French shop girl, live and love, love, love... for several months in France. As the observer/narrator tells the story, one is never quite certain whether the narrative is an objective account of the life of Phillip and Anne-Mari or a fabricated wish fulfillment of a frustrated stymied paramour of the beautiful Claude Picquet. In the end it doesn't matter as the story ebbs and flows inexorably and smoothly through the shimmering French countryside to its tragic conclusion.

The writing is astounding. I stopped time and again to read and reread passages as the combinations of words and phrases evoked emotions and feelings that I thought not possible given the simplicity and directness of the words. There is a conciseness to both the story and the language. So much is said with so few words that one sometimes regrets that this parsimony of words brings the end too soon. I wanted the novel to continue so I might continue to savor this beautiful writing.

A wonderful novel that I will continue to read for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Pure and simple joy!
Review: A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter. North Point Press San Fransisco 1985

On the surface this is a love story. Phillip Dean, an American dropout from Yale, and Anne-Mari Costallat, a French shop girl, live and love, love, love... for several months in France. As the observer/narrator tells the story, one is never quite certain whether the narrative is an objective account of the life of Phillip and Anne-Mari or a fabricated wish fulfillment of a frustrated stymied paramour of the beautiful Claude Picquet. In the end it doesn't matter as the story ebbs and flows inexorably and smoothly through the shimmering French countryside to its tragic conclusion.

The writing is astounding. I stopped time and again to read and reread passages as the combinations of words and phrases evoked emotions and feelings that I thought not possible given the simplicity and directness of the words. There is a conciseness to both the story and the language. So much is said with so few words that one sometimes regrets that this parsimony of words brings the end too soon. I wanted the novel to continue so I might continue to savor this beautiful writing.

A wonderful novel that I will continue to read for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Evocative, provocative genius
Review: I discovered this book purely as a consequence of reading John Irving's 'A Son of the Circus', in which he references this novel with a degree of deference. So I bought it, and was astonished. Salter appears to scale the dizzy heights of his writing with ease, but but the sinews of his efforts are clear. As if each word is wrung to the point of dryness before it can find its place. The starkness of the erotic and sexual encounters counterpoints the otherwise majestic display of how wonderful the English language can become. He rides in the same carriage as Brautigan. A man obsessively seeking a perfection and balance in prose that leaves the reader with a sense of respectful and deserved awe.
A work of inspiration and genius, that serves well when read aloud, in bed, as a literary seduction scene. (A Son of the Circus, Chapter 10, J. Irving)

Rating:
Summary: love from afar
Review: I was introduced to James Salter by a man with whom I was completely smitten. He turned out to be interested in a close friend (7 years married, two kids) but I'm so grateful for meeting him because of this book. The evocation of erotic love is masterful, spare and unique. The richness of the images and the emotional journey that the reader takes as witness to the affair is breathtaking. The lovers' fate is heartbreaking and yet perfectly in keeping with the toning of longing for the inchoate. I loved this book and used it as a measure of men until I met my husband.

Rating:
Summary: a diamond in the rough
Review: In the introduction to the Modern Library edition, Salter stated he was trying to write a book of imperishable images and obsessions-- which contrasted the ordinary from the divine. Existential, surreal, expressionist, emotionally abstract, all these terms can be applied inadequately to the result. Set around France, it follows a footloose Yale dropout's relationship with a young shopgirl. It is a passionate shambles of impressions and reflections. The book's sparsity fills volumes. The third person, subjective narrative merges with the thoughts of the protagonist, always focused on sensuality and fragility. Like a dissonance of the will and conscience, it all seems imagined. Braced by precise language, compressed to a critical mass, Salter's withering insights release sudden visual eruptions. This tale is an intensely philosophical look at life, outlined by a passing love affair. Writing that has achieved this level of density and inner light is rare. A Sport and a Pastime sparkles and dazzles!

Rating:
Summary: A Year of Living Sensually
Review: In the opening pages an unnamed narrator describes the French countryside and small towns he is traveling through by train. The writing is flawless, sharply observant and evocative of a locale and country that is traditionally linked with romance. As the narrator settles into a rented villa and begins to explore the night life of the small village he has decided to spend some time in we become aware of a peculiar habit of mind he has. The narrator likes to imagine the inner and private lives of strangers he meets. This is woven into the narrative in a way that makes it exciting to read as you don't always know just how much of what he relates is observation and how much created out of an imagination fueled by some personal need to embellish. The narrator is dedicated to a life of inaction so much so that he is relieved to find the woman he admires from a distance is no longer available. The books title is taken from the Koran and as Salter says in his autobiography is meant to be ironic as in its context it is meant to refer to the insignificance of this life in comparison to the life to come. But the narrator is no follower of traditional thought or beliefs and his only pastime is that habit of mind. Entering into his world is his exact opposite Dean. Outwardly handsome, exuding a sense of adventure, recently arrived from Spain, and immediately gaining the attention of women he also gainds the attention of our narrator. The two become friends....apparently. For here the clues as to what is observed and what is imagined becomes grey. Nevertheless this is not a distraction, rather it makes for an intriguing complexity to the narrative. Dean is soon involved in an affair which is highly charged, almost purely physical in its nature. Dean and Anne-Marie frolic in every way imaginable, including the favorite way of that most depraved of Frenchman, Sade. All could well be an invented affair but maybe not. The writing is so succinct and yet so rich in detail that as a reader you really don't care. It is a good sexy story. Eventually Dean who has been living out of his rich American fathers pockets must return to America but what a ride it has been. Dean leaves his rare sportscar in the care of our narrator but as soon as Dean is gone the car shows signs of decay. Every detail of this story from the descriptions of the French towns to the weather, which is often foul, to the sex scenes and trips to Paris is exceptionally told. This book has enough interesting aspects to be much longer but unfortunately it does end.

Rating:
Summary: Accurate Title
Review: In, "Light Years", Mr. Salter explored a variety of relationships amongst men and women. In, "A Sport And A Pastime", the topic is revisited with a narrower focus. However when the couple that is the focus of this tale makes their way through France, they explore a variety of activities while never taking on responsibility.

Dean is a young bored man who finds that the traditional steps of growth and maturity are not for him. Easily bored rarely satisfied, France becomes a place he escapes to, a locale to meet a partner, a place to once again become restless. He is a cliché, however the woman that becomes his playmate is not the traditional beauty a cliché would search out, in this case type does not seek itself. Little about him is as it seems, not necessarily false, rather shallow, a light dew versus a downpour perhaps. These facets of his become even more interesting when the narrator enters the triangle of two lovers and a voyeur.

Anne-Marie is his companion at best and better described as an object, and not an unwilling one. The story is a trip, an exploration that is as intense physically as it is emotionally bereft. Anne-Marie seems to know and accept what she has and what he is not, and willingly explores the pristine frontiers of her physicality. One of the more interesting aspects of the writing this time is the intensity of their physical relationship that the Author can share in a few generalities with the details following along.

What makes the book unique is either the voyeur who narrates, or the manner the narrator is used. Is this third party truly an intimate of this couple, are their activities his imagination, his fantasies, where does the Author blur and draw the line? The book is interesting but is not one of the best of Mr. Salter's novels. It may be the perspective of the time in which it is written as opposed to when it is read, or it may just be the reader's personal limits that are pushed. Ultimately it matters very little, as even when you may not feel you are reading the best of his work, it is still superior to most other writers.

Rating:
Summary: Salter will change the way you see the world.
Review: It truly boggles my mind that this man is not popularly ranked with the likes of the best American writers of all time. He may not have been as innovative as Hemingway or Faulkner, but his style is just as powerful. His prose is spectacular; it can compete with the other deep pleasures of life.

Rating:
Summary: Confessions of a Snoop
Review: Read this. What distinguishes this book is the narrator, a male Nellie Dean. He is a "writer" who knows he's very, very good; who self-consciously describes the French landscape and people in literary terms - recasting events at will to demonstrate his authority and virtuosity; who pretends he's Stendhal when describing social situations; and who is ultimately confronted by something he is incapable of -- erotic love, not his own, but someone else's. The novel is about what he thinks is important, and how he is in a way undone by the affair of a young American drifter and a French shopgirl.

What are we to make of the narrator's descriptions of their love, their sex? Are they accurate or imagined? If they depict "real" events, how did he learn of them? Are we to believe what he tells us about how he came upon the information? Why can't we dismiss, why are we so drawn in by his exquisite, terse narrative when we also get the sense that he could well be a sicko voyeur? The fact of his sensitivity toward the lovers (perhaps he writes compassionately about the lovers to win his readers over) really shouldn't excuse his crimes, right?

All writers and readers of fiction, of course, are snoops. How delicious it is to spy on others, even if they are not real, and even when the act of spying (or reading) makes us aware of our own shortcomings. I was completely overwhelmed by this one.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant imagery with a uniquely mesmerizing effect.
Review: This was the first Salter novel that I had read, so I did not know quite what to expect. For the first few pages, the short, terse sentences tended to get on my nerves a little as I was thinking, "Okay, here we go -- another Hemingway wanna-be." But it did not take long to recognize a style that was unique to the author. The beauty of the prose and imagery that Salter offers is nothing less than remarkable. Few authors have the ability to completely draw the reader into their world with the masterful skill that I so enjoyed in reading this book. No words are wasted, and each sentence makes the relationship between the characters and the reader a bit more intimate. "A Sport and a Pastime" is, quite simply, the best novel I've read in a very long time. The only question I had when I had finished was: "Why has it taken me so long to discover James Salter?"