IN PHYSICS, VIRTUAL CONNOTES a short lifetime. In the tech business, disruption of existing systems and accelerating cycles of obsolesence drive success. But literature aspires to permanence. Whereas tech and market forces develop toward inhuman autonomy (mechanical progression), art exists by embodying human truths. Art inverts scalability. A work of art achieves universality by virtue of its singularity.
“Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings. Most experiences happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsayable than all other things are works of art.”
—Ranier Maria Rilke
Ward Just’s latest novel is one the best fictions published in recent years. Seasoned work from a master storyteller, whose command of history is equalled by his love.
James Salter’s final novel is a testament to his devotion and achievements as a writer. He died in June 2015. With his passing the world is poorer but forever rich in his work.
Susan Minot’s bestselling novel Evening is a worthy descendent of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and a masterpiece of its own—following the heart’s journey through life.