All That Is
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
‘Enthralling’ - John Banville, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea
‘Effortlessly beautiful, funny, sexy and wise’ - Julie Myerson, Books of the Year, Observer
All That Is explores a life unfolding in a world on the brink of change.
The life is that of Philip Bowman and we see his formative experiences as a young naval officer in battles off Okinawa, his career as a book editor in New York after the Second World War, his trips to the great European cities – from publishing parties in London, to romantic holidays in Paris.
But despite his success, what eludes him is love. His first marriage sours, another fails to happen. Finally, he meets a woman who enthralls him, before setting him on a course he could never imagine for himself.
James Salter’s dazzling, seductive and haunting novel offers a fiercely intimate account of the great shocks and grand pleasures of being alive.
‘Full of verve and wisdom’ - Julian Barnes, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending
Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 87-year-old PEN/Faulkner Award winner's (Dusk and Other Stories) first full-length novel in more than three decades spans some 40 years and follows the accidental life, career, and loves of book editor Philip Bowman. After serving in the Pacific during WWII, Bowman stumbles into publishing at a time when small houses reigned. During extravagant literary parties and travels through Europe, Bowman shares his thoughts on authors both real and imagined. And yet his career is merely a vehicle for his loves and losses, connections made and missed. The women in his life somehow never suit and his many endings are always inexplicable to him. But Salter renders the first blushes of Bowman's loves exquisitely their giddiness, occasional illicitness, eroticism and his bewilderment after the relationships fail feels achingly real. By way of counterpoint, the author illustrates the happy but tragic marriage of a close friend, which parallels rather than intersects, since Bowman fails to connect with anyone. The number of characters who parade through the book can frustrate, and Salter's choice to render, for a chapter, a well-known character anonymously was unnecessary. But Salter measures his words carefully, occasionally punctuating his elegant prose with sharp, erotic punches.
