J.D. Salinger
- Thread starter Miriam
- Start date
Just got home and seen the news myself. I suppose we all expected it at some point, he was 91 after all. I've only read The Catcher In The Rye (and only in the last couple of years, at that) but I really liked it
It will be interesting to see what manuscripts come to us in the coming years. I believe, from some report I read somewhere a while back, that he had boxes of those that may be published and those that may not. Although given the nonsense with Dimitri Nabokov last year over to burn or not to burn The Original Of Laura, I wouldn't be surprised if Salinger had acted at some point.
It will be interesting to see what manuscripts come to us in the coming years. I believe, from some report I read somewhere a while back, that he had boxes of those that may be published and those that may not. Although given the nonsense with Dimitri Nabokov last year over to burn or not to burn The Original Of Laura, I wouldn't be surprised if Salinger had acted at some point.
Here's his character Franny Glass outlining the dilemma of someone like Salinger who wants to abandon the ego, the will to "succeed." "Just because I'm so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else's values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn't make it right. I'm ashamed of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash."
Read more: J.D. Salinger, 'Catcher in the Rye' Author, Dies at 91 - TIME
Yes, Salinger no longer needs a wall around him to keep the world out.
The above quote, which I read when I was teenager (several millennia ago), but had forgotten until now, defines Salinger for me. Maybe he is dangerous for young, impressionable people to read, but so are a lot of other writers. I think he spoke more directly to adolescents than some because he, himself, never grew out of his own teen angst.
It's probably a good thing that The Catcher in the Rye is taught in schools, since many young readers really need to see it in the light of others' opinions and a wider view of the world; I think, however, that a few will always feel that it was written just for them and continue to feel misunderstood.
Read more: J.D. Salinger, 'Catcher in the Rye' Author, Dies at 91 - TIME
Yes, Salinger no longer needs a wall around him to keep the world out.
The above quote, which I read when I was teenager (several millennia ago), but had forgotten until now, defines Salinger for me. Maybe he is dangerous for young, impressionable people to read, but so are a lot of other writers. I think he spoke more directly to adolescents than some because he, himself, never grew out of his own teen angst.
It's probably a good thing that The Catcher in the Rye is taught in schools, since many young readers really need to see it in the light of others' opinions and a wider view of the world; I think, however, that a few will always feel that it was written just for them and continue to feel misunderstood.
Certainly, if those boxes of manuscripts are available to be published, we can expect a Salinger boom for book sellers, journals and blogs.
This BBC article has the following to say:
Although many years have passed since the publication of any work by Salinger, friends and visitors to his home have revealed that he has a large safe containing at least 15 completed manuscripts.
Goody, Goody. <Rub of hands>
Need to get Nine Stories and Franny and Zooey, that means.
EDIT: That was about getting the books. It's sad but not particularly so that he died, as he lived to a ripe old age.
Also, I don't know about that teen angst thing. It seemed to me at the end The Catcher in the Rye that the narrator too grew out of it (I detail my reasons in the book's thread), and that is probably the biggest stimulus for people saying that Salinger (how is the 'g' pronounced, by the way?) didn't grow out of his teen angst.
Need to get Nine Stories and Franny and Zooey, that means.
EDIT: That was about getting the books. It's sad but not particularly so that he died, as he lived to a ripe old age.
Also, I don't know about that teen angst thing. It seemed to me at the end The Catcher in the Rye that the narrator too grew out of it (I detail my reasons in the book's thread), and that is probably the biggest stimulus for people saying that Salinger (how is the 'g' pronounced, by the way?) didn't grow out of his teen angst.
Of all Salinger's books, Nine Stories (published in the UK and Ireland as For Esme - with Love and Squalor, I think) is by far my favourite. He was a fine short story writer, and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a new collection or two in that box of manuscripts.
Ninety-one is a decent age and I suppose, in a way, he's been gone for decades but even so, it's hard not to be touched by the news. After all, most of us probably grew up reading him and that must count for something.
Ninety-one is a decent age and I suppose, in a way, he's been gone for decades but even so, it's hard not to be touched by the news. After all, most of us probably grew up reading him and that must count for something.
I am growing up reading him.
Daniel del Real
Moderator
It's always sad to lose a brilliant mind, but as you folks said, at 91 he had a chance to do many great things, some of them that are still to be discovered by his readers.
Personally I haven't read any of Salinger, I've been wanting to put my hands on the Catcher in the Rye since long ago, but missed it. Definitely will get it this year as a sort of tribute to this man.
Personally I haven't read any of Salinger, I've been wanting to put my hands on the Catcher in the Rye since long ago, but missed it. Definitely will get it this year as a sort of tribute to this man.
Raphael Lambach
Reader
Now he's dead, his masterpiece is selling as well again.
the nice marmot
Reader
I read the short story "For Esm? - with Love and Squalor" after a night out with some good friends the other day, and it was brilliant.
Ben Jackson
Well-known member
Read Catcher in the Rye when I was 16. I just felt the book isn't that great, compared to other American classics of 20th Century: Beloved, Great Gatsby, Old Man and the Sea or the major novels of Faulkner. It has beautiful descriptions of New York, but overall, I don't think it's great. Plan to read his other books: Nine Stories, Franny and Zoeey.
Dying at age 91, and looking at the few books he wrote, he ought to have written more books.
redhead
Blahblahblah
Curious what you didn't like about it. I remember expecting a stuffy old classic when I had to read Catcher in the Rye for high school and instead I was hooked on the first page. I used to be obsessed with Salinger back before college, and though I think I outgrew him to an extent, I do have a soft spot in my heart for Cather in the Rye. It's no longer relatable in that teenager way, but it is a sad and powerful portrait of a very traumatized teen failed by those around him.
MichaelHW
Active member
Salinger wrote a fantastic first person narrative, I remember comparing it to The Stranger by camus, another great first person text. But the US really has some great short story writers at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century that really used it brilliantly, Bierce, London (hugely underrated in my view, not just "a dog story writer") and also Lovecraft.
Like Harper Lee he shunned the media, but he did actually have reason for that. The Cauldon character had attracted a lot of conspiracy drivel, and it is not unlikely that he might have been bothered, if he had stayed a more public figuere. Then of course there is his dubious personal life, and very young women. When Lee saw the end approaching she did say goodbye in public, but he did not. There are several other famous recluses in American literary history.
Like Harper Lee he shunned the media, but he did actually have reason for that. The Cauldon character had attracted a lot of conspiracy drivel, and it is not unlikely that he might have been bothered, if he had stayed a more public figuere. Then of course there is his dubious personal life, and very young women. When Lee saw the end approaching she did say goodbye in public, but he did not. There are several other famous recluses in American literary history.
Verkhovensky
Well-known member
It seems that he did, he just refused to publish after the early 1960s. People who knew him claim that he was writing full-time during all those years, but just "for himself".
About his books, Franny and Zooey, especially Franny, I adore. Nine Stories also, especially A Perfect Day for Bananafish and Uncle Wiggily in Conneticut.
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, especially the letter one, are a little bit too self-indulgent for my taste.
My recommendation would be to read the Glass family circle: Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily and Down at the Dinghy from Nine Stories (well, since this means you have a book on you, you can also read the rest of the stories), Franny and Zooey and then Raise High...
I think Franny and Zooey is a superior novel to Catcher in the Rye.
Although technically it is not considered a novel, I'm sure that if published today it would be marketed as one. A short story and a novella with the same character(s), and the plot of the novella deals with the aftermath of the short story. Would simply be called a novel with two parts/chapters.