I am going to describe her life from the inside outward, from its core, the house as well, rooms in which life was gathered, rooms in the morning sunlight, the floor spread with Oriental rugs that had been her mother-in-law’s, apricot, rouge and tan, rugs which though worn seemed to drink the sun, to collect its warmth; books, pot-pourris, cushions in colors of Matisse, objects glistening like evidence, many of which might, had they been possessed by ancient peoples, have been placed in tombs for another life; clear crystal dice, pieces of stag horn, amber beads, boxes, sculptures, wooden balls, magazines in which were photographs of women to whom she compared herself.
–James Salter, from Light Years

About

Poets think in lines, prose writers in sentences; the best of both work from sound to sense, with an ear for the music in their compositions. S for Sentence celebrates lyricism in prose, the play and craft at work in the artful sentence. We post a sentence a month along with comments by a guest writer on the craft that shapes it, on what makes it great. In one or two sentences.
—Pearl Abraham, Editor
James Salter doesn’t judge, doesn’t explain, doesn’t analyze, doesn’t moralize: he watches. He fashions his sentences word by word, brush stroke by brush stroke, capturing the shadow behind what he sees. The accumulation of exquisitely chosen words builds up to a hypnotic cadence, suddenly pierced by a heartbreaking noun or adjective. Here the objects he describes so vividly reveal Nedra’s warm soul, love of life, sensuality and patrician background. But the end of the sentence suggests that these beautiful objects hold her hostage, as though she were already entombed in her marriage.
—Catherine Texier, author of Victorine and Break Up