4thace reviewed Solo faces by James Salter
Review of 'Solo faces' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I had this 1979 novel on my to-read shelf even before hearing about the very recent death of James Salter.
The main character is someone lost, who believes he's found himself in climbing, in California and the Alps, but begins to find that the empty spaces he holds inside himself are bigger challenges for a man like him. When the world takes notice of him he know that they understand almost nothing about what he's like, and when they stop thinking of him it's as if he made no difference at all. He cuts a destructive swath through a number of women who are attracted to him for his aura of strength but only learn what he's about just after it's too late.
The book is written in a laconic style, with an omniscient third-person point of view that is often jarring when it veers off into the interior life …
I had this 1979 novel on my to-read shelf even before hearing about the very recent death of James Salter.
The main character is someone lost, who believes he's found himself in climbing, in California and the Alps, but begins to find that the empty spaces he holds inside himself are bigger challenges for a man like him. When the world takes notice of him he know that they understand almost nothing about what he's like, and when they stop thinking of him it's as if he made no difference at all. He cuts a destructive swath through a number of women who are attracted to him for his aura of strength but only learn what he's about just after it's too late.
The book is written in a laconic style, with an omniscient third-person point of view that is often jarring when it veers off into the interior life of some incidental side-character without warning. It has a thoroughly literary ending without the big action scenes that come earlier in the book, one which leaves you wondering just what will happen about the character of Rand.