I read "Hunters" a year ago and am currently reading "Cassada", Salter's other flying novel. As good as his writing is, and as gripping the situations he describes, what earns this book 5 stars is the way Salter's images persist in the mind. They are so crisp and seem so right that you can't shake them. I'll never fly an F-86, but I think I've got a good idea what the view from up there would have been like. Highly recommended...
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Much has already been said here about the precision of Salter's crisp, clean style. It's Hemingway over ice with a splash of bitters. If you love language, you will read every word. Much also has been said about this book as an accurate portrayal of flying and a great novel of warfare. What I would add to all that is how "The Hunters" is a fascinating account of the dynamics within a group of highly trained men who engage...
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James Salter quit fighting MIGS and left the Air Force to write `The Hunters', a novel set during the Korean War. The writer's authority breaths life into every sentence and the authenticity of his story is irrefutable. That's not the reason for recommending it however. This book should be read because it is that rare gem, an ambitious war novel that is literary without being pretentious. Originally written in 1956 and out...
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I am re-reading The Hunters by James Salter for about the fourth or fifth time, and continue to be amazed at its density and subtlety, and the truth of its story. Almost nothing in the history of air warfare has been written that compares with it for quality or maturity. It is the best psychological profile on the character of the fighter pilot and especially the mammoth ego of the fighter ace, ie, one who can claim 5...
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"The Hunters:" What is your ambition?I read "The Hunters" reluctantly after one of my best friends urged me to for several months. Having been a pilot in the military for much of my life, and also being the son of a Korean war aviator, I simply wasn't ready to waste time on another mediocre war novel about a subject and an experience that that could never really escape my psyche. How could I have been so wrong......Salter's...
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