Cassada

by James Salter

James Salter returned to his second novel, The Arm of Flesh --not to revise it but to entirely rewrite it. The result is this great new work, Cassada . The lives of officers in an Air Force squadron in occupied Europe encompass the contradictions of military experience and the men's response to a young newcomer, bright and ambitious, whose fate is to be an emblem of their own. In Cassada , Salter captures the strange comradeship of loneliness, trust, and alienation among military men ready to sacrifice all in the name of duty and pride. After futile attempts at ordinary revision, Salter elected to begin with a blank page, to compose an entirely new novel based upon the characters and events of his second long unavailable novel, The Arm of Flesh . The result, Cassada , is a masterpiece, and the occasion of our hardcover edition was celebrated from coast to coast. "That opening image of the two lost planes lingers throughout, evoking the dark, perilous stuff that aviators and pilot-scribes, from Saint-Exupéry and Richard Hillary to Hanna Reitsch, work in." --Paul West, The Washington Post Book World "The air is thin in the heights through which Salter steers his characters, the prose moves at breakneck speed, and the book's emotional impact is devastating.... Cassada is a masterpiece, a book in which men wage an elemental battle for survival against invisible forces." --Mark Levine, Men's Journal

Genres: Fiction, Literature, Literary Fiction, Novels, Historical Fiction, Aviation

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

James Salter (1925 - 2015) was a novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Salter grew up in New York City and was a career officer and Air Force pilot until his mid-thirties, when the success of his first novel (The Hunters, 1957) led to a fulltime writing career. Salter’s potent, lyrical prose earned him acclaim from critics, readers, and fellow novelists. His novel A Sport and a Pastime (1967) was hailed by the New York Times as “nearly perfect as any American fiction.”

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 2 out of 5]

When James Salter’s second book The Arm of Flesh (published 1961) went out of print, he decided to completely rewrite it. Cassada, republished in 2000, is the result. The Hunters, his first novel was also revised, published first in 1957 and then in 1997. Both are about Air Force pilots.

The Hunters is by far the best. The writing is better, the story is more fully developed, and the two are so similar that it is a waste of time to read both! Both capture the excitement intrinsic to flying, both capture the macho environment and chauvinism of the pilots, both deal with the heckling of squadron newcomers, both deal with the men’s competitiveness, the hazards of weather and the dangers of running out of gas. In both we see that it is always the best who die. Each of these topic are more fully developed and more engagingly depicted in The Hunters!

The Hunters takes place in Korea. Cassada takes place in 1955. It focuses on the 44th Air Force Squadron stationed in Germany. The war is over. The men are bored. During the week they fly practice missions. On the weekends they drink at the Officers’ Bar or go to nightclubs in Munich to flirt, that is putting it politely, with the girls. The story takes forever to get going. The writing is ordinary. Only at the conclusion does it get exciting. At the end of the story the hypocrisy of the men is blatantly displayed. It is this that is the message of the book.

The audiobook is narrated by Marc Vietor. Although not exceptional, it’s fine.

Books I have read by the author:
The Hunters 4 stars
A Sport and a Pastime 4 stars
Light Years 4 stars
Solo Faces 4 stars
All That Is 3 stars
Burning the Days: Recollection 3 stars
Cassada 2 stars

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give my left nut (if I had such) to be able to write like this. By far my favorite Salter book. Minimalist, in a way. Not overly long, not "padded" for page count like so many contemporary novels. The descriptions of flying in difficult weather set my heart racing. My father was a fighter pilot (both a WWII and Korean War vet) and during the 1950s was a squadron commander at various postings (stateside and other). As a kid I remember a plane going down near the base and my mama freaking out, until my father called to reassure her -- but that meant some other daddy was not going home to his waiting family that day, or ever.

The lyrical descriptions of flying, of the landscape and the sky and the feeling of floating between them gave me a taste of what was to my father a joy compared to none other. Salter also excels at the complicated relationships between the squadron members, and between pilots and their wives. This was a reread for me, an exhilarating experience I plan to repeat in a few years.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, Jimmy Salter, what a writer you were. Here's Cassada, a rewrite of The Arm of Flesh, his self-described failed second novel. Arm of Flesh was published in 1961 and revised by Salter as Cassada in 2000. Cassada is a slim novel of life at a USAF air base in Germany in the mid-1950s and at first reads as a series of vignettes, almost a book of connected short stories but still unified enough to generate a rising tension throughout. I haven't read the original and wonder if what Salter did was excise the connective prose.

What's amazing about Salter's writing is how much the realism of the novel is affected by this tension. For example, one chapter starts with good natured bantering among the pilots that then veers into an implacable tension. Another chapter ends with a missing pilot trying the land in a snowstorm but his fate is not mentioned in the subsequent chapter. The novel presents events that the reader can easily think 'this isn't going to end well' and yet still be immersed in a world of routine, of jobs and of play. Indeed Cassada is exemplary as the juxtaposition between tension and routine is so great at a fighter base. Salter flew combat missions in jet fighters during the Korean War, an experience mined in his excellent first novel The Hunters. So here we have Cassada, the military in peace and the Hunters, the military at war. Both highly recommended as is, of course, pretty much all of Salter's work.

The novel is composed of five parts bracketed by the longer sections at 12 and 11 chapters. Three sections of lesser length occupy the middle. The first chapters of parts 1-3 introduce the crisis that forms the final two sections but subsequent chapters in parts one through three then provide through flashbacks various insights and comments on the various characters and their environment. Discussions of what makes a good pilot, the impact of weather on flying, leave in various German cities, a gunnery competition in North Africa. Salter's flight experience feeds beautifully into his writing. The Hunters is apparently revered among pilots for the excellence of its flying descriptions. A virtue also present in Cassada but without the combat scenes.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5 stars.

Salter was there long before me, two wars--Korea and Vietnam--earlier, but judging by my experiences at USAF fighter squadrons in Germany and the Netherlands in the late 1970s and early 1980s, things in my day were no different than in his, and he has captured it exactly.

I know Salter's pilots. I know their wives. I know the solitariness of flying single seat jets, one of the most individualistic of military occupations. I know the weather in Europe, and how it can suddenly go below minimums everywhere at once. I know what it is to be the new guy, minutely observed in everything you do as you strive to become accepted as a fighter pilot among fighter pilots. I also know what it is to be a seasoned squadron member, closely observing and making judgments on green lieutenants. I know what it is to see a new guy realize he's not cutting it and will never fit in, and the haunted look in his eyes. I know what it is to lose a fellow pilot--weak or strong--and the profound effect it has on squadron mates, supervisors, and commanders.

Salter was there, and by our great good fortune has the gift of being able to write about it in a direct, spare, yet very personal way. The central drama of the book centers around a new guy, Cassada, in an F-86 squadron in Germany. The climactic event of the story seems on the surface mundane: Cassada, still an inexperienced wingman, is forced to take the lead when lead's radio fails above terrible weather which has suddenly shut down almost every airfield in Germany, Spain, and France, and with fuel running low must take the flight down to absolute minimums to find the only runway they can land on. Having been in similar situations, I unconsciously tensed up as I read, and was emotionally exhausted when I finished the book--which I devoured in one intense sitting. Damn.

Salter not only makes me want to fly again, he makes me want to write. I mean that as high praise. Just as I admired the fighter pilots who had mastered their craft, looking up to them and striving to be like them when I was wet behind the ears, so I admire and strive to write half as well as James Salter.

[Eric Byrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like The Hunters, his other novel about competitive pilots, this made me glad to have had a ghostly father and no brothers.

[Zardoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sparsely written novel that deals with the male egos of fighter pilots in Cold War Europe. Cassada is a newcomer trying to prove that he belongs, yet wondering if he really does.
Not the best Salter novel I’ve read, but still worth the effort.

[Tyler Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top gun before top gun

[Chris Gager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will start tonight if I don't go to "The Lego Movie".

Started last night and I am enjoying this book. The dominant feeling is tension as Salter weaves in the back story with an ongoing crisis. Cassada is the new pilot and the book must be named after him for a reason. The style here is much the same as in "All That Is". Very sketchy and quick. Salter conveys plenty in his few, well-chosen words. The flying scenes are outstanding: gripping and exciting. I've had the outcome spoiled for me by a clueless G'reads reviewer but I'd already suspected what was coming. As I said, the title is what it is for a reason...

Finished last night and indeed the title and cover photo pretty much give the gave away. This book is extremely well written in Salter's consistent style. Hard to decide between 4* and 5*. To me the ending was very moving though also matter of fact. I again refer to the ending of "Bring up the Bodies". Great writers can bring this off. I guess I give it a 5 for style and 4 for content. That makes it 4.5*, which rounds down to 4*.

- Something about this story.... despite the conflicts and dysfunction of individual personalities it all fits neatly together and time moves along. Just like Fitzgerald says. We keep wanting to hold on.

- I can't decide if the cover photo is of an old propeller or a radiator fan???

[Scribd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell madly in love with James Salter’s prose about a year ago, first with A Sport and a Pastime and then with Light Years. While each of those were appealing to me in plot—the first about new love, the beginning of an affair; the second about the end of love, the dissolution of a marriage—what really hooked me was the writing. Salter’s words are like a tide: spare, then lyrical, but constantly flowing, with unbelievable grace, down a page. So I picked up Cassada, his novel about fighter pilots between wars, knowing what I was looking for: those moments when he captures a human experience—whether it’s between lovers or comrades—with such a precision and beauty that I find myself rereading the section again and again and again (and then forcing others to read it, too). And, happily, I found it in Cassada as surely as in the others:

“There was suddenly a great deal Isbell wanted to say. They could have talked. They could have pushed the plates aside and leaned forward on their elbows, talking while the dust floated sideways through bolts of sunshine and the eggs turned cold, but it didn’t quite happen. The moments don’t fulfill themselves always. Somehow they started eating in silence and it was impossible to begin.”

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Salter can do little wrong in my book and I give everything I read of his 5 stars based on the fact that if I'm prepared to read a book again then it will get 5 stars.

This is not his best but that sounds like a put down. It's still brilliant, beautifully written and compelling. Heroism and sense of doom and a celebration of life is what this book is about. Gorgeous passages describing flight and also the competitive interplay of the different personalities.

Salter rewrote and must have rearranged the structure. I haven't read the original but I love the light touch he gives here to the structure with the high-drama sequence of scenes that deal with the two planes that cannot land due to poor weather. The tension is fantastically taut and he manages to convey the weaknesses and strengths in each of his characters in just a few lines. He is the quiet master.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salter writes beautifully - I can't believe I have never heard of him before. Some of the descriptions were lovely and it is good to read a book that leaves lots of questions unanswered...things to ponder upon.
"No sound except for the clock. Beyond the windows the night is fading, smooth from the passage of hours. Exhausted from the same dream over and over, Isbell wakes. His eyes see nothing. It's silent and cold. He lies in bed aching, too ancient to move. Out there, somewhere, more silent still, in the matted grass the wreckages lie, blown apart in the darkness, wet as the ground."

[Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read all but one of Salter's novels. This is no doubt the weakest. I think Salter knew that. He spoke rarely of it, and mostly in passing, across various interviews (see Conversations with James Salter, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2015).

Cassada is the 2000 re-write of a book originally published, in 1961, as The Arm of Flesh. Like The Hunters, this is a novel about men and flying. In other words, a novel of last names, beige shirts, promptings in the beer hall, women who succumb to the blandest of blandishments ("You're the one I'm looking for"). The book has the odd striking moment, especially in the poetic sketches of leave-trips to the city, and again at the close, where one hears hints of the lyrical, steely voice of Light Years.

But unlike Salter's first novel, this flying novel lacks thrust. Its characters are too many and are hazily, hastily realized. The post-war boredom is felt, but sometimes, for the reader, too acutely. The pivotal moment of plot is less earned in its attempted drama than are the similar events of The Hunters. All of Salter's novels have something of the catalectic and the episodic, but the episodes here feel diffuse in sum and, against the crispness of its spare 200 pages, rushed in their execution. Salter's penchant for the defamiliarizing comparison is on display least in this book.

Except the end, where the prose blooms. Does this save the book? For me it was enough to see the shimmer of Salter in an otherwise flat grey landscape (hence the three stars).

"This time of year in Munich the Isar was racing under the bridges, rushing pale green, bringing the city to life. What did they feel flying down, seeing the last snow of winter in seams along the ground? Then coming in high over the blued city, the countless streets, the anticipation, the joy. They were dancing at the Palast, faces damp and youthful, streets at midnight, Sunday afternoons, the way those times the breath began to pour from her, the first ja. The Express was gliding faster. She was going away ...

"It was all passing, for the first time as well as the last. His eyes devoured everything yet hardly made things out. He did not know what he was thinking. It all seemed a long struggle which he could not decide if he'd won or lost. Parts of it he could hardly remember. The rest was still clear. But it was all back, falling behind. There was no use trying to save anything. After a while you began to understand that. In the end you got on a train and went along the river."

[Mr David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a former fighter pilot and was in fact stationed at Spangdahlem AB in Germany in the 80s. I am not sure if Cassada takes place at Spangdahlem, the base name appears in the beginning of the book. I got the book to get a look at the life of the early USAF in Germany and at Spangdahlem. There was some of that, most of it was a personnel struggle concerning a young pilot Cassada. While I certainly witnessed some of the antics that the book describes, I never really ever saw the level of the animosity that was expressed in the book. We had rivalries, but for the most part everyone was pretty much in with the lifestyle and challenges. I guess my biggest gripe is that given some of the situations that are described and details such as divert bases, they did not seem to be very accurate. For example, you would not divert to Marseille, France from Spangdahlem, maybe Eindhoven, and we certainly would and I have diverted due to bad weather conditions to England. But a divert field 500 miles away is not real by any stretch. Most readers will not recognize that. I did and other things distracted from the story. The crash at the end could be real, I witnessed poor flying due to complacency, and on one occasion experienced high anxiety myself while trying to get into Ramstein on a winter night, raining and sleeting, under the weather with a broken airplane.

[Dermot O'Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This feels like a novel where the writer has cut and cut the text, paring word by word to the bare minimum. All the exposition, background and technical explanations are gone, so the reader has to infer everything from what remains, from elliptical scenes and oblique dialogue. The novel is well enough put together that this is just about possible (a second reading help a lot), with the exception of the technical detail, both the general military context (the US Air Force in West Germany in about 1960) and the specifics of flying a fighter jet. You'll have to inform yourself separately about these.
Salter gets praise for his ability to construct a sentence, for the precsion of his language. This does not mean that you read his prose for pleasure: he's not an Evelyn Waugh or Patrick Hamilton, where you can dip into random paragraphs purely for crisp rhythms and exuberant style. Salter's prose is Spartan by comparison: Cassada is an entire book without a single adverb, in a league I think with John Williams "Stoner."

[Pierre Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I am a retired AF Pilot having flown fighters in Europe from 1990 - 2004. This book was written about a squadron flying in German in the early 60s. I enjoyed the similarities regarding all-things Air Force flying single-seat fighters in Germany. However, it doesn't touch the extreme egoic complexity and squadron dynamics making this book BORING. Sure, it represented the smallest of personal challenges of a young fighter pilot, ego, and risk; but was shallow in regard to the true interpersonal relationships and flying done in a fighter squadron during the Cold War.

Frankly, I wasn't overly impressed with the writing, research, accuracy or scope of flying operations of a true Fighter Squadron. I wish someone would write that book!

[Frozefinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Difficult Intro developes to an outstanding end.
At the beginning it‘s hard to Unterstand the Mass of names and hierarchy, also the relations between the pilots, but salter gives More and More small pieces of Information fixed in wonderful dialogues so a tragical Story is going to Start and end.

[Elisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow to going

Slow to get into but a bit redeeming at the end. Not really a fan of war stories. I didn't nothing real character development. I was glad it wasn't any longer than it was, as I likely would have put it down.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facing Mortality with a 500 ft Ceiling and 400 lb Fuel Remaining

Achievement, acceptance, respect and love intersect in the story of Cassada, an F-86 pilot based in Germany. At his moment of transcendence, equipment, bad weather, but most of all hubris lead to his reckoning.

[Cartoisb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cassada is Salter’s second novel, and it is not up to the same standard as his later books. Despite being short, this was a fairly laborious read, although it came together somewhat with a good ending.

[Matt Vigneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Salter loves to write about Air Force days; he is certainly an expert, but his best novels - other subjects. Cassada is tedious though the final scene is vivid and well-written.

[John Magee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very literary impressive and provocative depiction of life among USAF pilots.

[Jackson Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably not Salter’s best work but very well written. The non-linear plot confused me at times but overall I enjoyed it

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished the Salters with perhaps my least favorite, still better than most.

[carl theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Cassada' is a compelling read of US Air Force fighter pilots stationed
in Germany during the Cold War, 1955. Various reviews and the jacket
blurb use terms such as 'spare', 'sparse', 'terse' to describe Slater's
style. Indeed it appears he set some standards for himself and stuck to
them with the book measuring only about 200 pages.

As this is during the Cold War, combat is not an issue, but how pilots
battle the European weather, interact with each other, how the rookies are
accepted, or not, how the competition keeps them at it even without a war.

There's plenty of flying and Slater manages to do a great though curious
job of describing it without ever mentioning the type of aircraft they are
using. It's not till halfway through the book it's confirmed they
are flying jets and that is only mentioned once. I think that not detailing
the model or type of plane was one goals Slater set for himself, a kindof
"let's see if this can be written this way". It also adds a timeless
effect to the tale, along with making it more appealing to the less military
minded.

An extra interest for me was that when on the ground the pilots spend
time in the German cities of Trier and Munich. I've also visited
some of the spots the pilots hangout at, gives one a little added
thrill feeling like you're sharing something with the characters.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lean, spare, blah blah. Really enjoyed this. There's a crazy suppression of emotion here, and yet still I care about the characters. Salter just lets it out really efficiently; it's never sentimental. Like: "Isbell, subdued though not by anything he is hearing, is thinking of what he would give to have it not have happened. He is almost sickened by it, the guilt." That's powerful, and it's again, efficient and unsentimental. You also pretty much know what's going to happen throughout, which keeps Salter's switching back-and-forth in time from the climactic lead-up to flashback from being coy.

The main character, Cassada, is interesting, because he's not a good pilot, and I'm not even sure we root for him. Yet, we don't hate him, and he's interesting.

Salter switches between past and present tense almost arbitrarily, but you almost don't notice it. I don't know a thing about flying, and there's a ton in here about flying, which kept me at a bit of a distance -- there's also not a lot of visuals at all, so it felt like a bit of an aesthetic experience reading it, though it was a lovely one. I like Salter's prose, so.

[John Sperling · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Spoiler alert*

"He looked at Cassada, the blue of his eyes, a pure undaunted blue."

The cover of the book I read has two F-86s taking off in formation, not a half-buried cross, and it wasn't until nearly halfway through the book that I realized Cassada was going to die. The second half of the book then became slightly tedious as the chronologically non-linear chapters weave the narrative of the final flight. What sticks out is Cassada's heroism.

'"That he failed to save himself", says the chaplain, "seems to me a measure of the man. That he sought to save another, there is the answer and the mark of his worthiness. He rose to the challenge. Is there greater praise? It may not be given to many of us to be tested as Lieutenant Cassada was...but it is given to us to strive, as he did, through the darkness and to seek salvation."'

"It was too soon for him to reappear, that would come years after when all of it was sacred and he had slipped in with the other romantic figures, the failed brother, the brilliant alcoholic friend, the rejected lover, the solitary boy who scorned the dance. It is only in their lives they die. In yours they live to the end."

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Salter has long been known as a writer's writer, so I've been meaning to read one of his books, and the fact that he died earlier this year inspired me to pick up Cassada (2000). Interestingly, it was an early novel, called The Arm of Flesh (1961), that Salter re-wrote when it was slated to be reprinted. It was based on Slater's experiences as a fighter pilot at Bitburg Airbase in 1954 to 1957. It felt a little too technical at times, perhaps had I known more about flying and the Air Force maybe I would have appreciated the novel more. However, the testosterone fueled men that inhabited the novel were more familiar to me. I still might read some of his more celebrated and later work (like A Sport and Pastime for example, but I wasn't overly impressed with this early novel rewritten.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Salter knows his flying, and that shows throughout this slender volume about the interactions among Air Force pilots stationed in occupied France and Germany. Cassada, the main subject of the novel, is a flawed character, talented, though insecure and always seeking to advance within his company. Salter has widely been lionized for his writing style and his influence on other prominent authors. But I found his narrative flat and uninspired. I also didn't like its "protagonists" very much. Maybe it's generational, or maybe I need to read other works of his to gain perspective. Regardless, I got through this one, which was an accomplishment in itself.

[Matthew Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

More beautifully written stories of the lives of fighter pilots after WW2 from James Salter, very much in the style of the better-known The Hunters. The narrative centres around a new pilot, anxious to prove himself but feeling the odds are stacked against him, while we also follow his squadron mates, commanding officer and some of the pilots' wives as the narrative unfolds. Salter employs a split narrative, building a sense of the ominous, toward the inevitable climax. No-one writes about men testing themselves against the universe with the spare honesty that Salter does, and in this respect Cassada is a partner piece to Solo Faces as much as The Hunters.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Salter's style is so minimalist that it can be hard for me to tell whether something is going unsaid, or being implied, or if I'm being a less than astute reader. I really enjoyed Solo Faces, but I wasn't wild about this one. I was impressed with the way Salter managed to put me so thoroughly at an American air base during the Cold War in Germany, but the characters were so hard to like that my enjoyment didn't last. I don't think I'll give up on his writing, but it may be a while before I return to James Salter.