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dustysummers's review against another edition
4.0
What he had done, what he would do, he did not want explained. Something was lost that way. The things that were of greatest value, that he had paid so much for were his alone.
ocurtsinger's review against another edition
2.0
Salter is a talented enough writer but it's hard to like a book that follows such a misogynist and selfish wreck of a human. I couldn't stand the main character but finished the book, for what it's worth.
smithjasont01's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
"They bared their lives to the mountain. They laid them at its feet."
Rand is a mountain climber, that is what he does, it is what he lives for, everything else is just there. So where does he go? Why to the French Alps. Here he climbs with friends but when they leave for the season Rand keeps going alone. Living off practically nothing or the lady he has impressed he continues to climb by himself. He gets annoyed with people who just want to say they have climbed mountains rather than just climbing them for the love of climbing. Soon though 2 people are trapped on the Dru, a mountain he climbed alone. While the guides and others are failing, he grabs a crew and goes up the most straightforward, but most dangerous route. They soon reach the trapped people and complete the rescue to the hate of the guides. This makes him a mini celebrity. So he goes to live in Paris where he slowly gets annoyed by not being out climbing. Only after getting a girl pregnant does he run back to the mountains. Only now he can accomplish what he once did. After failing to climb The Walker he decides to head back to the states. Here we seem him slip into the mundane life while still yearning for the mountains.
This book really showed how mountain climbing drives people to do crazy things. Pushing themselves to limits for glory or just to feel alive. You also see the other side that drives people to their deaths or crippling injuries. You also see Rand with that lone wolf mentality that hurts both him and those around him, but he can't stop as that is what is driving him on.
A good read exploring why people risk everything to do something that no one may ever know or do, all for the accolades of those other crazies that are doing the same thing.
Rand is a mountain climber, that is what he does, it is what he lives for, everything else is just there. So where does he go? Why to the French Alps. Here he climbs with friends but when they leave for the season Rand keeps going alone. Living off practically nothing or the lady he has impressed he continues to climb by himself. He gets annoyed with people who just want to say they have climbed mountains rather than just climbing them for the love of climbing. Soon though 2 people are trapped on the Dru, a mountain he climbed alone. While the guides and others are failing, he grabs a crew and goes up the most straightforward, but most dangerous route. They soon reach the trapped people and complete the rescue to the hate of the guides. This makes him a mini celebrity. So he goes to live in Paris where he slowly gets annoyed by not being out climbing. Only after getting a girl pregnant does he run back to the mountains. Only now he can accomplish what he once did. After failing to climb The Walker he decides to head back to the states. Here we seem him slip into the mundane life while still yearning for the mountains.
This book really showed how mountain climbing drives people to do crazy things. Pushing themselves to limits for glory or just to feel alive. You also see the other side that drives people to their deaths or crippling injuries. You also see Rand with that lone wolf mentality that hurts both him and those around him, but he can't stop as that is what is driving him on.
A good read exploring why people risk everything to do something that no one may ever know or do, all for the accolades of those other crazies that are doing the same thing.
tstuppy's review against another edition
5.0
It reminded me of The Hunters. It reads like later Salter, which I tend to find a bit heavy-handed, but here it works. Simple and yet complex. Strong novel.
2/20 - more of a 4 vibe this time but still such a terrific portrait of obsession and masculinity. Love Salter.
2/20 - more of a 4 vibe this time but still such a terrific portrait of obsession and masculinity. Love Salter.
a_kira's review against another edition
DNF - had a little trouble following due to writing style. Wasn't interested enough to put in the effort.
ryki08's review against another edition
5.0
a great book that was tough to put down at times. amazing right up until the end.
longl's review against another edition
4.0
I started James Salter’s Solo Faces on a late Saturday afternoon and after sleeping for a few hours, finished it the following morning. After I put it down, I felt quiet. In a short while, a life had lived and been exhausted.
V called. She asked me what was wrong, so I told her that I was just feeling "kind of transitory" from finishing a book and needed some time to "reset" myself. While jogging, I imagined that the sidewalk blocks were mountain faces, and pushed myself a little harder than I normally would. That's what Cabot and Rand would do. It was the exaltation of self-destruction, pounding my feet against the pavement. Pounding one's life against the wind, rock, and solitude.
On the surface, Solo Faces is about mountain climbing. Internally (and in all stories about solitude, nature, "man"), it's about the purity of ambition, the pretensed corruption of natural life, and the existential dread of living a full and meaningful life on one’s own terms, whatever that means. There's a lot to unpack here depending on your approach.
Solo Faces made me think of my history and relationship with Hong Kong. As Chamonix was to Rand, Hong Kong was to me.
On the eve of returning to California, Salter writes, "It seemed as if all that had gone before was a journey, that the road had brought him here and ended. He did not know what to do. He stood there. Above him, the leaves were sighing faintly, the weight of languorous hours upon them, of endless summer days," (p. 187).
On the back of the same page, a new chapter, Salter opens a with, "A pale afternoon hung over the sea. It seemed that California was even more crowded, there were more people, more cars. The string of houses stretched father up the coast. New businesses, signs. At the same time, he recognized it all. It was unchanged," (p. 188).
The sudden shift is jarring, you get the feeling as if you’ve been jutted out of the timeline, existing in-between places, in-between lives, and what could have beens.
Spaces of frozen liminality are everywhere in the Solo Faces, bivouacs with no end. It’s paralyzing and it's no surprise that the final scene in Solo Faces is that of a wrecking yard before a rain.
I expect to be thinking of Solo Faces for a while and will put it on the shelf alongside other existential dread stories like The Catcher in The Rye, Percy Walker's The Moviegoer, and even Han Kang's The Vegetarian.
V called. She asked me what was wrong, so I told her that I was just feeling "kind of transitory" from finishing a book and needed some time to "reset" myself. While jogging, I imagined that the sidewalk blocks were mountain faces, and pushed myself a little harder than I normally would. That's what Cabot and Rand would do. It was the exaltation of self-destruction, pounding my feet against the pavement. Pounding one's life against the wind, rock, and solitude.
On the surface, Solo Faces is about mountain climbing. Internally (and in all stories about solitude, nature, "man"), it's about the purity of ambition, the pretensed corruption of natural life, and the existential dread of living a full and meaningful life on one’s own terms, whatever that means. There's a lot to unpack here depending on your approach.
Solo Faces made me think of my history and relationship with Hong Kong. As Chamonix was to Rand, Hong Kong was to me.
On the eve of returning to California, Salter writes, "It seemed as if all that had gone before was a journey, that the road had brought him here and ended. He did not know what to do. He stood there. Above him, the leaves were sighing faintly, the weight of languorous hours upon them, of endless summer days," (p. 187).
On the back of the same page, a new chapter, Salter opens a with, "A pale afternoon hung over the sea. It seemed that California was even more crowded, there were more people, more cars. The string of houses stretched father up the coast. New businesses, signs. At the same time, he recognized it all. It was unchanged," (p. 188).
The sudden shift is jarring, you get the feeling as if you’ve been jutted out of the timeline, existing in-between places, in-between lives, and what could have beens.
Spaces of frozen liminality are everywhere in the Solo Faces, bivouacs with no end. It’s paralyzing and it's no surprise that the final scene in Solo Faces is that of a wrecking yard before a rain.
I expect to be thinking of Solo Faces for a while and will put it on the shelf alongside other existential dread stories like The Catcher in The Rye, Percy Walker's The Moviegoer, and even Han Kang's The Vegetarian.
nathansnook's review against another edition
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.0
In some ways it's Salter leaving the tenderness of the body to see that the world is more expansive beyond the trivialities of romantic desire. Here, there is a desire to be on edge. To taste the cut of the air. To lick the salt of the earth and feel the weight of it all.
Because when you realize you are deep into something you don’t care about that churns into a kind of caring, you realize you’re much like everyone else, with everything else. You are a triviality in a game of many, churning and churning into an unimportance that keeps the churning going.
We must obsess. We must escape. We must reach for the impossible. Because that’s what keeps the world spinning on its brittle axis.
In one of his lesser known works, he manages to combine all that we know him for in an uncommon passion that breathes new light and concept in a thing like climbing.
Because when you realize you are deep into something you don’t care about that churns into a kind of caring, you realize you’re much like everyone else, with everything else. You are a triviality in a game of many, churning and churning into an unimportance that keeps the churning going.
We must obsess. We must escape. We must reach for the impossible. Because that’s what keeps the world spinning on its brittle axis.
In one of his lesser known works, he manages to combine all that we know him for in an uncommon passion that breathes new light and concept in a thing like climbing.
danuunad's review against another edition
5.0
I think I might've gotten something completely different out of this book than intended by the author. To me, more than just being about men achieving greatness, this book is about the price they have to pay for it.
What stood out most to me was not Salter's admittedly gripping description of how the protagonists literally climb the highest heights and achieve the seemingly impossible. Rather, I most vividly remember the final scenes, after the men have retired and have to face the gaping emptiness of the rest of their lives that stretch out empty and meaningless in front of them.
I believe another variation on this theme can be found in Salter's first novel, The Hunters, where a fighter pilot in Korea pays the ultimate price in order to fulfill his destiny.
The only thing I recall disliking about this book is the way Salter writes about women and the relationships of the (male) protagonists with women. Fortunately, such passages are not central to this book and therefore this doesn't lead to much frustration (unlike in some of Salter's other works).
What stood out most to me was not Salter's admittedly gripping description of how the protagonists literally climb the highest heights and achieve the seemingly impossible. Rather, I most vividly remember the final scenes, after the men have retired and have to face the gaping emptiness of the rest of their lives that stretch out empty and meaningless in front of them.
I believe another variation on this theme can be found in Salter's first novel, The Hunters, where a fighter pilot in Korea pays the ultimate price in order to fulfill his destiny.
The only thing I recall disliking about this book is the way Salter writes about women and the relationships of the (male) protagonists with women. Fortunately, such passages are not central to this book and therefore this doesn't lead to much frustration (unlike in some of Salter's other works).
slferg's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
too much angst. Rand takes to mountain climbing. He pretty much prefers to climb solo and tackle the toughest climbs. He becomes a shadowy legend, a loner. He takes up with women who admire him - then gets tired and moves on. His sole concern seems to be that he have the courage to face any mountain in any kind of weather and succeed. When his nerve fails him, he returns to the United States and rumors report him here and there at one mountain or another - and then they stop. But he continues.