Solo Faces: A Novel

Buy It Because: You love Salter. If you don't know Salter, don't worry, I didn't either until last year (shame). Salter writes books that you can finish and immediately want to reread. He's a writer in the same class as Markham and Hemingway. He may be the best American writer in the last 50 years.Back to Solo Faces. This book is nominally about rock climbing but, like everything that Salter writes, it's really about relationships...a little about male-female ones but more deeply about male-male friendships and rivalries. And very deeply about men's internal dialogue. This self-conversation--one filled with loathing, lust, hope, doubt, and notions of courage--is where Salter is the master. His tales leave the reader with the 'sense' of this struggle...a sense that sticks to you like a recurring dream.And when it comes to describing and capturing a city or country's essence, I challenge you to find someone who does it better:"He began to see France, not just a mountain village filled with tourists, but the deep, invincible center which, if entered at all, becomes part of the blood. Of course, he did not know the meaning of the many avenues Carnot or boulevards Jean Jaurès, the streets named Gambetta, Hugo, even Pasteur. The pageant of kings and republics was nothing to him, but the way in which a great civilization preserves itself, this was what he unknowingly saw. For France is conscious of its brilliance. To grasp it means to sit at its table, sleep beneath its roofs, marry its children.""France was like a great, quarreling family, the Algerians, the old women with their dogs, the people in restaurants, the police—a huge, bickering family bound eternally by hatred and blood.""Paris—it was like a great terminal he was already leaving, with a multitude of signs, neon and enamel, repeated again and again as if announcing a performance. The people of Paris with their cigarettes and dogs, the stone roofs and restaurants, green buses, gray walls, he had held their attention for a moment."

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.

I enjoyed this book, but agree with the other reviewers that it is more of character study than a mountain climbing story. Reading the end notes, I saw that the author had written the screenplay for "Downhill Racer", a 1969 film nominally about ski racing, starring a young Robert Redford. When I saw the film at age 17, I enjoyed the skiing, but couldn't understand what the protagonist was all about. Now I understand that the protagonist in the movie is just another version of Rand, the climber protagonist in Solo Faces. The flaw in both works is the opacity of the main character, both to his own inner life, and to the life of those around him. I appreciate the strong, silent type, but would have liked to know a little more about was going on in the mind of both characters. With regard to the book, the author does a good job of describing Chamonix and its surroundings, particularly the face of the "Dru", where much of the climbing action occurs.

I bought this book as I enjoy inspiring adventure books. This novel is more a character study of an isolated climber who becomes somewhat of a legend but continues to struggle with interpersonal relationships.From a climbing perspective, I found the stories mildly unfulfilling but understand now that that is not the central theme of the novel. But more importantly, I particular found the interpersonal relationships unfulfilling. Starting in Los Angeles where this common worker lived with a woman and her son, initially as a renter and eventually as a lover. Cut quickly to Europe to two significant and unfulfilled relationships although one has long-standing consequences. Back to Santa Barbara for a reunion with a fellow hunter and his wife ending in unsatisfied conflict.Ok, I'm sure I'll be hammered as not intelligent enough to "get it". But the book did not satisfy my fascination with thrilling rock climbs and it certainly didn't satisfy my desire to watch characters connect in a fulfilling manner.OK read but not a classic.

Unlike most of the reviewers here I was highly disappointed in this so-called "classic" novel. I have read most of James Salter's novels and honestly found this unusually unsatisfactory. Having spent his early life in the USAF he was brilliant in "The Hunters" not just describing how aerial warfare in Korea actually worked but in analysing the rivalry and squabbles between pilots.This book gave me no sense whatsoever of the character of the main protagonist and most of the other principals. His love scenes were almost embarrassing in their lack of depth.After a strong start it seemed to drift into different sections with no link or developmentand frankly I got so frustrated and bored I gave up before the end.Maybe if I had ever been a mountaineering enthusiast I would have enjoyed it more but risking your life and the lives of possible rescuers for not much reason seemed foolhardy and utterly selfish.Salter's narrative about the English climbers from the lower orders (no code, background, beliefs, etc) replacing the aristocrats who preceded them were actually offensive and totally inaccurate.

This novel gives us moments and episodes in the life of Rand, at which the meaning of his life seems to crystallise. Rand is effortlessly heroic in his climbing and finds beauty in finding routes that harmonise his oneness with ice and granite. He looks after others, from the first chapter on, eventually performing a daring rescue for two Italian climbers, one of whom is injured. Eventually one day he cannot overcome a peak he takes on; and he feels he has climbed so that others will envy him.Meanwhile he has relationships with a series of women, always realising when the opportunity of commitment is there, lamenting sometimes that it is no longer possible for him, but always taking the path of moving on - the mountains are where his being is.Thematically, this has echoes of The Hunters, another excellent novel of Salter's, except that there the quest is to be a top ace fighter pilot in the Korean War. The differences are as clear as the echoes, though - the world of climbers is quite unlike that of fighter pilots - though luck plays a great part in each, and so does envy or potential envy.I look forward to reading Salter's other novels.

The enigmatic lead character is as aloof and unapproachable as the mountains he is urged to climb. I found this a rather cold and uninspiring work by this "rediscovered" novelist.

Describes a life and adventure few know about.,Salter excellent writer. Very original very enjoyable. Character study that goes a long way to understanding unusual individuals.

James Salter is extremely gripping in his observations and story telling. Cleary a man who has livedand this rings so true in his writing.