James Salter - All That Is (Picador, 2013) *

Described as "Amazingly Good" by the Guardian, "Masterful" by the Observer and "No question, the best novel I read this year", by the Financial Times, and presented by the publishing company as a "dazzling, seductive and haunting novel (which) offers a fiercely intimate account of the great shocks and the great pleasures of being alive".

In my opinion, it is nothing of all that. The main character is totally uninteresting, and so is his love life, which makes up the topic of this novel. It is so old-fashioned and conservative in nature, that it almost becomes interesting. The style and the content are closer to the 19th century than the 20th. It is as if Salter has missed anything that has happened in literature and narrative power in the past century.

I'm even surprised that I finished it (but I did!).