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Let's talk about J.D. Salinger, now that we know there's some new stuff coming out in the next year or two. The Four Book Canon: The Catcher in the Rye The one you had to read in high school and either loved or hated. It's the book I'm always hesitant to mention when discussing JDS simply because it tends to inspire such patience-testing zeal/vitriol in people. Nine Stories The short fiction he apparently saw fit to keep in print. Three of the nine stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," "Down at the Dinghy," and "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut," introduce members of the Glass family, who would become the focus of everything he published after a certain point. Franny and Zooey A short story and a novella, focusing on the two titular Glass children. "Zooey" introduces Buddy Glass, narrator for all future Glass family stories and general stand-in for ol' Jerry. He takes credit for Catcher, as well as "Bananafish", and "Teddy" from Nine Stories. Side note: Zooey Deschanel is named for Zooey (Zachary) Glass, and the whole world's been pronouncing it wrong ever since. There are two Os, dangit. It's "Zoo-ey." Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction Two lengthy stories focused on Seymour Glass, of "Bananafish." "Seymour" marked what many saw as a decline in his work, a kind of doting on his own characters with a lack of narrative focus. I like it quite a bit, though, even if it kinda reads like the unedited diary of a neurotic most of the time. His earlier stuff: There are 21 published-but-uncollected stories that Salinger didn't see fit to keep in print, but there are bootlegs out there, as well as good old library microfiche copies. I have personally been that creep at my college's library once upon a time, eagerly scanning one of his stories out of an old New Yorker, page by page. The story? "Hapworth 16, 1924" His 22nd uncollected story. Easily the most reviled piece of the Salinger oeuvre, this novella-length work consists of a letter written home from summer camp by a seven-year-old Seymour Glass. Its impenetrability and sheer "not fun"-ness has led some to suggest that Salinger intended it as a form of career suicide, as he never published a single thing after that. There was an attempt to release "Hapworth" as a book of its own in the late 90s, but it never came to fruition. Other Stuff His daughter Margaret released a memoir (Dream Catcher) that's mostly famous for talking about how Salinger once drank his own urine. His former lover Joyce Maynard also released what many have called a "revenge memoir" (At Home in the World), the majority of which is a tell-all about their affair and how he ultimately spurned her in a less-than-tactful fashion.
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Aug 27, 2013 15:53
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Haha let's actually not talk about JD Salinger at all, fucker 
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Oct 15, 2013 01:17
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Oh nooooo.
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Oct 15, 2013 09:43
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