It seems that Irwin Shaw is mainly remembered for light popular novels such as "Rich Man, Poor Man" and "Beggarman, Thief," and "Nightwork," but he was also a great writer of short stories (a former star for the New Yorker) and in "The Young Lions" he emphatically staked his claim to be numbered among the great American war novelists. In my opinion, Shaw's book belongs in the company of "The Red Badge of Courage," "A Farewell to Arms," "The Naked and the Dead," and "Catch-22." Hopefuly this new edition from Chicago will help to bring a forgotten classic of World War II before a new audience. Many war novels hover uneasily at the brink of sentimentality and melodrama, and many more simply fall in. But in this story about three young soldiers who are "The Young Lions" of the title, with their hopes, fears, loves and hatreds, Shaw's touch is deft and his clear, smooth prose leads the reader through an absorbing and tragic story that remains as fresh and moving today as it was when it first written over half a century ago.

There were dozens of novels based on World War II, but only three that captured American readers by storm. Mailer's THE NAKED AND THE DEAD, Jones's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY and Shaw's THE YOUNG LIONS. Of the three, the most compulsively readable and the least self-conscious is Irwin Shaw's absolutely beautiful novel of love and loss during World War II. If there is a better sculptor of character in 20th century American fiction, I'd like to know who it is. Shaw has a knack for creating palpable characters (including some you'd ordinarily hate -- such as an errant Nazi) who live and breathe. All of his characters -- from Christian and Michael to Hope -- are people we care about, and many of the great historic scenes of the war come alive for even the most casual reader. The subplots (and there are quite a few of them) are integrated seamlessly and the pace is relentless and exciting. One wonders why Shaw never tried to repeat this stunning performance, but perhaps novels as fine as this only occur once in a lifetime. If you want to sink into a richly detailed, compulsively readable saga of World War II, this is the genuine article. A pity there aren't six stars.

The Young Lions is a powerful novel written in the years immediately following World War II. It is a gritty and passionate novel, and in reading it the motivatations of men in times of war to acts of courage, cowardice and base violence come to life in the protagonists. Shaw is a artful in the of crafting his words and sentences in a provoking yet thoughtful manner that is nothing less than masterful. Shaw presents and discusses many complex themes through his characters and vignettes in the story that, having read The Naked and the Dead, it is difficult to tell which one comes first as the truly post-modern American novel.

Although it is a somewhat thick novel, it reads exceptionally fast.

This is a book you can pick up when faced with the problem and make a decision. And it works for children and grown-up problems. A friend called me over to her house to help her decide if she needed to go to the hospital--she is 60--I am 55 ---she had fallen --we used this book to figure out what to do. We went to the hospital because she did have a broken bone. This is an easy to use reference and it is cute too!

I am a bit prejudiced when it comes to this hospital. Our daughter is an RN on 3-W.

I just love this book. It covers a lot of medical issues, both urgent and not-so-urgent. It helps you calm down in a crisis and it is not so overly wordy that you have to keep scanning to find what you're specifically looking for for advice. Not everything can be taken care of at home and they do not hesitate to tell you to seek emergency action. There's humor (ie. Colds, the Flu and the Great American Runny Nose - Your Basic Everyday Head Bonk), a suggested list of items for your medicine cabinet. There is a large range of ages involved, but most advice can be used by adults, too.

This is a GREAT baby shower or newborn gift. I've given several.

P. S. Our RN and her husband is expecting their 1st baby and our 1st grandbaby in June. She already has a copy and has given them as gifts to her side of in-laws and friends.

When a child actually does hurt themselves this book is easy to flip through and find what you need quickly. It gives you helpful suggestions on what to do and what warnings signs to look for that may indicate a trip to the ER or Dr's office.

Autobiographies, and to a lesser extent Biographies, by or about an Author always present hazards. If a reader has enjoyed a body of work the chances they have developed their own vision of what the Author is like is high. And to the extent the vision and the reality diverge, it can be positive or negative, cherished books become tainted, or the books are even of greater interest when the life of the Author who wrote them is known. There is no danger with, "Burning The Days", an autobiography of James Salter. In this particular case I wish I had read this before his novels, as I believe I would have gained much more from his work.

The biography is not exhaustive as it is, "more or less complete", by the Author's definition. He suggests complete life descriptions would be impossibly long, and at other times speaks of a person who is thoroughly written about as destroyed, used up. Another Author in the book observes that if not written about a life is not complete. These types of observations are a constant element of the book as the Author has shared the company with innumerable great Artists, Authors, Actors, etc, over his life and writing career.

For those who enjoyed the flying experiences in, "The Hunters", there is a wealth of new material to enjoy here. Of great interest to me was learning how difficult it was for an Author who is now so highly praised to have had such difficulty having several of his works published. Also learning about the characters in his life and whether they became the basis for characters in his books was a thread throughout the work.

And there are the myriad details that make the ordinary anything but. One of his very popular novels carries the title which is a translation of a phrase from the Koran, not only is it surprising, but perhaps the very last I would have guessed. There is another work that is often praised for it authenticity. In fact the Author knew little at all about the subject, he loved the title, and was encouraged to pursue the story, which he did with great success. And that is part of the great fun in reading these recollections, he shares why his books are of a certain length, the issues this raises, and how the details that are included are all the more critical as they number so few.

I have read books like these that have changed or ended my interest in the work of an Author with finality. In this instance do not tread lightly, barge right in. The tours of Paris, New York, restaurants, theaters, and the homes of the famously reclusive make this work read as more of a novel than simple documentation. This is not a trite piece, it is candid and deeply personal to the point of raising issues that he still cannot more than touch on, as the pain they bring forward is still to much for him.

Wonderful book!

I am not a law student, but I want to feel secure in the legal aspects of my activities as a real estate investor. This book provides exactly that. It is easy to understand and very well organized. It may be missing a few examples for some complex points, but in general is a great book for anybody who want to really know the ins and outs of real estate law.

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.

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.

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 books 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 Korea, but to the test all men face in combat. Truly a "Red Badge of Courage" for Korea.

James Salter's novel tells the story of Rand, a solitary man in his late 20s, with a fatal attraction to mountain climbing. We meet him on a hot, hazy day doing a roofing job on a church in Los Angeles. Quiet, focused, he watches warily the heedless young man working with him and then catches him just in the last moment as he falls from the roof. This same drama plays out again later in the novel, as Rand saves the lives of other mountain climbers, high in the French Alps, in wintry, bone chilling conditions.

One case of heroics makes him a media celebrity, and for a time he is an American in Paris enjoying his 15 minutes of fame. But the time passes, and he returns again to the austere, stoic life of a climber, growing older, with no assets, no home, no one who will love him on his own terms. He has only his desire to continue climbing and the need to take ever greater risks. Emptied of every other need, his lonely heroism is an ironic portrayal of the individual who strives against all odds to achieve impossible goals.

Salter's writing style is crystal clear, always vivid. He tries for no special effects, just a precise choice of words, sentence after sentence, and an unblinking eye for detail. If you have the slightest trepidation about heights, the descriptions of the climbs make your heart race. Master of his matter-of-fact style, Salter moves beyond emotion and the romance of adventure to capture the excitement of being fully in the present moment and intensely alive.

James Salter is one of America's finest writers, and his skills here match his other books.
Climbing and the inmost soul are Salter's subjects here, and he captures both with unerring eye and literary skills. Because he never overwrites, the casual reader may not fully appreciate the challenges that the author meets so elegantly. God and the devil are in the details, and in climbing (as in flying, about which Salter has written so well) lack of attention to detail can kill in instants. Readers who are also writers will slowly become aware of the fact that Salter never puts a word wrong and never uses more words than are necessary to communicate with the soul. Reading such work is reminiscent of looking at a seemingly simple but beautiful piece of sculpture or mechanical object in which every last detail has been honed to perfection and does its job correctly.
Why does this matter? Because if one reads the current wretched messes masquerading as quality fiction, for example in the NEW YORKER, one gets the sense of being asked to become involved in descriptions of navel lint, or more often of being asked to empathize with silly and unsympathetic people devoid of lives that involve risk.
So what has Salter done with SOLO FACES that transcends the current (02) wrtechedness? He puts us deep in the heart and soul, and makes us care about what these people are doing, and why. The climbing descriptions, despite being low key, will induce in the reader a sense of physical involvement that is (probably) measureable physiologically (heart rate, GSR, etc.). Anyone who wants to climb the Eiger is not sane, but deeply to be respected.

This great book by Salter who has authored many great books may just be his best. The book is about rock climbing. That sport is the most extreme of the extreme sports but also the most solitary and therefore most spiritual and lyrical as it is so often done alone and any mistake is almost certainly a fatal one. The book begins on the top of a church in L.A. where our main character Rand is doing yet another impermanent odd job in an equally impermanent location repairing roofs for a summer, a situation that allows him to retain his most cherished possession, his freedom. And the ultimate expression of that freedom is climbing. Nothing holds Rand for long, no place and no woman, and so very soon in the novel he is off to the Swiss and French Alps, locations of some of the most heralded peaks including the sheer faced obelisks, the Eiger and the Dru. The book is full of climbing lore(including one mountain rescue based in fact) and that great theme of man versus nature as well as the writing style recalls Conrad and Hemingway. Salters sense of adventure as well as his aptitude to tell a story perfectly recalls both authors, but he has his own style and what he does with this adventure tale is completely his own. Salter shows the great romantic appeal of his hero Rand and he also shows the singular nature of such a character and how a life dedicated to legendary feats and life-in-peril daring can leave a man at some remove from others. The minor characters include climbing friends and the various women involved in Rand's love affairs. Though each of them a brief episode only the love episodes are poignant as they more than any other part of the book show how unreachably alone romantic Rand really is. Subtle scenes between men and women who say very little to each other but feel very real is something Salter is especially good at. Very very highly recommended to outdoor enthusiasts and lovers of pristine sentences strung gracefully together and which seem to catch the hard glint of the mountain sun itself. Salter is an author who has only written five novels,one story collection, and a memoir, each one is very much worth your while.

Was very suprised how disappointed I was. Figured the book would be work the read but it defintely wasn't worth my- [money]. Very short lived. The book isn't unclear, just seems to be written at a juniors level. Not sure where the other reviewers came up with 5 stars, I was lucky to come up with two.

I love the opening story of this collection "Am Strande von Tanger". From the opening scene setting sentences,"Barcelona at dawn. The hotels are dark. All the great avenues are pointing to the sea." To the last sentences which tie all together perfectly this story shows three lives mostly in the details and matter of fact happenings of a day trip to the sea. Nico is the central figure though and hers is the life we are focused on. We watch her struggle all through the story and realize she lacks what the others have, some connectedness to life or center, and she by stories end realizes it. As in many great short stories there is a key moment or epiphany where all in a moment is revealed to someone and that is the case in several of these stories. In "Twenty Minutes" a fallen rider has that much time to sum up her life. And in the title story "Dusk" a divorced womans loneliness is made all too poignant by Salters writing as the moment has come in her life that she realizes she will probably always be alone. Other memorable stories include a study of a film company which is told by the alternating voices of the players including scriptwriter, actor, actress, director, producer, and assistants. This stories kaliedoscope of voices is very fun to read as each player has a different take on what is going on in the production and each players personal insecurites effect that individual view of the overall picture. A very well crafted story that reminds one of a Fellini movie like La Dolca Vita in miniature where the sacred and profane compete for top billing. The military reunion story as well as the last story are forgettable. But "Foreign Shores" about a divorced woman's suspicions is a very good portrait of paranoia caused by suppressed personal anxieties. And the story "American Express", though about two unlikeable types who make a load of money and take a European tour together, is one of the better examples of gaining the world only to lose ones soul in the process(a film of this story will soon appear on PBS). Also three stories deal with failed artists, though each in a very distinct way. Hard to find a better collection than this.

I feel well written short stories are exceptional, and with, "Dusk And Other Stories", Mr. James Salter again demonstrates that his skills are not diminished when the length of his stories are. Short stories are often complete thoughts or fully played out events, however fragmentary they may be. Others tend to stop. They end. You wonder why. Those in the latter group I tend to dislike as a reasonable ending, even if vague, does not seem to be a great deal to ask. Some that I have read simply stop because the idea stopped. Some find this stylish I find it weak.

Mr. Salter offers up the complete and the not so final in this book and they all are enjoyable. Even those that end abruptly like, "Am Strande von Tanger" feels less casually abrupt as the penultimate sentences or perhaps the paragraph brings closure. The remarks that are the final sentence seem less critical. In other stories like, "Dusk", the finality and completeness is almost brutal. The imagery of lost love and a dying bird in a field is poetic as writing and vicious as to the emotion it describes.

If you have read any of this Author's other work you may find bits of characters that you have encountered in the past, or similar locales they have transited. The familiarity real or imagined is welcomed as it brings back other great moments in this man's work. I have read 4 of his novels and this collection of short stories, all are excellent some more so than others. If you were looking for a new Author you would be hard pressed to find higher quality writing than this.

This was my first James Salter book and it will not be the last. Burning the Days is the beautifully written story of a life, and how that life was shaped by people and places dear to all of us. Each chapter is a vivid chronicle of some phase of time, written in a style that flows like liquid poetry: nostalgic recollections of a friend who was last seen during the war and then never heard from again, or a place in Europe that one has ventured back to one last time, knowing he will never return again. All of these memories come together in this memoir of days recalled and thus burned forever. Only those things truly dear and everlasting to the author have not been written about- the days yet to be burned.

This is the first book that I've read by James Salter and I must say that I will be reading more of this author's work. His writing recalls the best of Hemingway. It is sharp, poetic, impressionistic and stark. He constructs sentences so that the subject comes last, elevating suspense and mystery up to the last punctuation mark.

He was a military pilot and his recollection of flying left me breathless. His discreet and heroic memoir stands in contrast to the present day "tell it all" crap which is polluting the writing world. He keeps many things private, as they should be, and tells the story of his life with a romantic inventiveness and subtlety which should serve as a lesson to the young vulgarians who think that graphic vapidness is a substitute for poetic creativity.

Salter is a above all, a poet.

I first read this book about a year ago and still occasionally pull it off the shelf and re-read a few pages. It feels like going for a ride in a twin-seater plane with an aerobatic pilot who is not showing off - he is enjoying the flight and welcomes you to follow along... one of the greatest autobiographies of this century.

I had a stange but gratifying experience a few months after reading BURNING THE DAYS. A street bookseller in Moscow recommended an autobiography of Yuri Nagibin - a recently deceased important Russian writer. His autobiography was so similar to Salter in style as well as many facts - of course the two never knew each other and wrote in different languages - the war, the women, the films, a happy marriage late in life ... it felt like an unexpected confirmation of Salter's existentialist truth.

BURNING THE DAYS is a great book, I envy those who'll be reading it for the first time.

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?"

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.

The negative reviews of this masterpiece mean nothing. Make up your own mind. It's easy. Just read the testimonials on the back. If they inspire you, then I'm certain you WILL enjoy this book. Salter etches a magnificent dreamscape one word at a time. Doesn't matter if you've visited France or not. You'll want to go after this.

This is the first book I ever read from Salter and, ten years later, I find it as enjoyable to reread as if I had not read it at all. His characters are boldly painted in the story of a perfect marraige that simply falls apart from disuse and the insistant intrusion of life and friends and of the changes that take place in all of us. A beautifully scripted tale of a family that slowly disintegrates as each of its members grows up. It is so real that it's freightening. Vivid, unforgettable prose that simmers in the mind for weeks from a master storyteller

"...photographs, noons. I adore you." Viri makes up these lines to his lover, Kaya. How do I express this-- what I hold in me of this book? I've read it twice, the first time, I was fifteen and sitting in the back of my parents' car and read it whole in four hours in the heat and dry luster of Northern California summertime. I memorized that line, the above one, and when I fell slowly and inexorably into passionate crazy love with *this other author* I spent long days at the beach, scrawling Salter's lines in the sand with a thin piece of driftwood. Salter captures the dense erotic luster of relationships like no one else. I fell in love with this book. It taught me so many things. Ah, I've forgotten about the second time I read it. Yes, that was something. I read it because I knew I had missed the message the first time around. Thoroughly passion-crazed in my own life, I needed to feel the supple prose slip me into dream-world again. What a lovely book. Ai, and read Salter's *Dusk*, as well.

James Salter takes you so deeply inside the marriage of Nedra and Viri that you know these people as well as your own family before the book is done. It is a heartbreaking portrayl of love that turns to mere companionship. The beautiful wife, Nedra, seeks soemthing she cannot attain from her husband, nor from her affairs, nor from fleeing to Europe. She stands as one of the most completely-drawn women in American ficiton, a modern Madame Bovary. As the husband and wife grow apart, their children become aloof, the house they create falls into disrepair. It is the most accurate portrayl of the joys and sadness of modern marriage that I have read