"[James Salter] can suggest in a single sentence, an individual's entire history, the complex interplay of longing and fear, hope and need, that has brought about the present. In doing so, these stories glimmer with the magic of fiction; they pull us, hungrily, into the mundane drama of their characters' lives."–
New York Times "Salter's prose is rare and stunning."–John Irving
"Salter inhabits the same rarified heights as Flannery O'Connor, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, and John Cheever."–
Washington Post Book World
"There is scarcely a writer alive who could not learn from his passion and precision of language."–Peter Mathiessen
"Admirers of James Salter's fiction speak of it reverently, with delicacy, almost in awe, expressions of enthusiasm befitting the work."–Elizabeth Benedict