Staff Blog
JD Salinger Turns 90 (and his away message turns 44)
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Xan Brooks of The Guardian examines the strange case of the disappearing author.
It’s JD Salinger’s
90th birthday, the party starts at three and the world and his wife are
invited. Actually they’re not. Instead, Salinger will be spending this
anniversary as he is reputed to have spent the last 40 or 50: holed up
in Cornish, New Hampshire surrounded by a stack of unpublished manuscripts.All
of which poses a dilemma for those who hold him dear. How does one go
about celebrating the life of a writer who — so far as we’re concerned — hasn’t written since the Civil Rights era? Is it an intrusion to even
wish him happy birthday to begin with? Why draw attention to a man who
wants for nothing but to be left alone?Reeling from the success
of The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger withdrew from public view in the
mid-1950s. He published Franny and Zooey in 1961, a collection of
novellas (Raise High the Room Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An
Introduction) in 1963 and then bowed out with a New Yorker short story
in 1965. Since then he has spoken only fitfully via his lawyers or been snapped in furious, cowering poses
on the roads around his home. And woe betide any of those misguided
fans who track him down to explain that they, like, totally love him
and can so relate to his retreat from a world of phony bastards. “No
you don’t,” he reportedly told one such visitor. “Or you wouldn’t be
here.
It’s an excellent piece. Read the whole thing here.
The guy has an amazing batting average. Four works, all esteemed:
- A Catcher in the Rye
- Nine Stories
- Franny and Zooey
- Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
My favorite remains Franny and Zooey. As ever it strikes me as a weird novel. The dialogue is sublime. The structure — only two chapters, basically all dialogue — makes me wanna ask why, but there’s no one to ask. What’s your Salinger work of choice?
Franny & Zooey is definitely where it’s at.
I really loved and enjoyed his book of short stories. JD SALINGER and the 9 Stories.