by James Salter
First published 2010
Robert Phelps writes a letter praising James Salter's novel A Sport and a Pastime. Salter responds, and their exchange grows into a twenty-year correspondence that reveals two writers navigating vastly different careers. Salter has published The Hunters and The Arm of Flesh, both drawing from his Air Force service in Korea, and created the film Three. Phelps wrote the debut novel Heroes and Orators but struggles to complete new fiction. Over two hundred letters pass between them, documenting Salter's rising success and Phelps's creative struggles. The correspondence exposes the professional trials each man faces and the personal bond that sustains their friendship. Through their own words, readers witness one writer's triumph and another's artistic battles, preserving the voice of a nearly forgotten author alongside his admiration for a celebrated peer.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: epistolary, found-family
Setting: Korea
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
240 pages · Kindle Edition · Counterpoint