“All That Is” by James Salter

Sam suggested All That Is for me, so I was a bit disappointed that this book and I were not friends through the first chapter. Lucky for me the rest of it wasn't about war, so I ended up liking it a lot more.

Would it be insulting to Salter to say that his writing is Hemingway-esque? Not that there's anything wrong with Hemingway's writing by any means, but that I imagine Salter would want his writing to be its own thing rather than derivative. Anyway, it's been far too long since I read A Farewell to Arms, but this book reminded me of that book--in tone and style if not in plot.

All That Is had more tentacles, though. Not in the sense of hooks by which it grabbed me (although it did that too), but in the sense of the way it spread out into side stories. Reading this book was like meandering through a big house, going from room to room and learning about the people who lived in each one. I'm trying to run them back through my memory and figure out--were they all linked to the main character, Bowman, in some way? I'm inclined to say yes, although with my memory you never know. But all of these people who were technically minor characters were fully fleshed. 

If I had to sum this book up in one phrase, I would say it's about all the sexual escapades in one man's life, but there's so much more to it than that.