Light Years

I didn’t realize how much of an impact this book would have on me when I first decided to read it. Reading through each page was like drinking an ice cold glass of water on the hottest day of year. The detailed descriptions of each character, dinner parties, setting, etc. was intoxicating to me, I couldn't get enough. I love how sophisticated and steady Nedra was. How perfect she was at hosting, how she smoked cigars and held a steady, quiet confidence about her, how she found herself in her laters years and didn’t judge herself and gave herself grace for taking so long to make real changes in her life; and how as she grew into the later years of her womanhood, younger women admired and wanted to be around her, spend time with her. I am inspired by her just like those younger women in the book. I am also inspired by James Salter's straightforward style of writing. Simple, dialogue short but profound and the romantic world but devastatingly realistic world that he created in Light Years. I am hungry for more of his work. No wonder why he has been called a "writer's writer". I feel strongly about him the way I feel about Lucia Berlin. Their words bring out a feeling in me that I don't quite know how to describe yet. When I figure it out, I'll circle back.