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    Cover of Light years

    Light years

    James Salter · 1975

    This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach. But even as he lingers over the surface of their marriage, Salter lets us see the fine cracks that are spreading through it, flaws that will eventually mar the lovely picture beyond repair. Seductive, witty, and elegantly nuanced, Light Yearsis a classic novel of an entire generation that discovered the limits of its own happiness--and then felt compelled to destroy it.

    Fiction & Literature
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    1recommend
    2mentions
    2people
    2015–2019years
    50% recommend50% neutral

    Mentions per year

    20152016201720182019

    What Hacker News says

    1. leohDec 2019
      "Invention of Nature"; nonfiction; about the life of Alexander von Humboldt; Darwin said of him "if it hadn't been for AVH, I would have never stepped foot on the HMS Beagle"; profoundly important to modern science, an adventurer, yet little known in modern times

      "Stoner" by John Williams; fiction; this book knocked me on my butt and I read it all in almost one sitting; about an English professor who refuses to relinquish his integrity in the face of great adversity

      "Light Years" by James Salter; fiction; inexpressibly beautiful novel that takes place largely on the Hudson River above New York

      "Narcissus and Goldmund" by Hesse; fiction; a fun yet literary adventure novel about the importance and fun of living life with integrity

      "When Things Fall Apart" by Chödron; non-fiction; Chödron proposes that leaning into suffering, experiencing it as directly and fully as possibly and without resistance paradoxically leads to profound relief from suffering

      "Enlightenment Now" by Pinker; non-fiction; proposes, convincingly, that life nhas drastically improved for nearly everyone on earth due to a shifting philosophical orientation towards enlightenment values; proposes that although much is problematic, there is reason for great hope, too

      thread
    2. SixSigmaJan 2015
      Famous Authors’ Handwritten Outlines for Great Works of Literature

      * James Salter’s outline for Light Years

      * J.K. Rowling’s spreadsheet plan for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

      * Joseph Heller’s chart outline for Catch-22

      * Henry Miller’s manuscript plan for Tropic of Capricorn

      * William Faulkner’s outline for A Fable — written on his office walls.

      * Sylvia Plath’s outline for The Bell Jar

      * Norman Mailer’s character timeline for Harlot’s Ghost.

      * Part of Jennifer Egan’s plan for her short story “Black Box.”

      * Gay Talese’s outline for his classic profile “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold”

      http://flavorwire.com/391173/famous-authors-handwritten-outl...

      Personally, I use Scrivener - http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

      thread

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