Salinger, J.D. Books

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2789 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

Franny and Zooey

J.D. Salinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 222 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fun Fanaticism 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It was always a little embarrassing to admit that I hadn't read Franny and Zooey. In the literary world, I guess it's kind of the equivalent of a beauty queen admitting she wears dentures. Somewhere in between that admission and the other one (that I found `Catcher in the Rye' tolerably okay but not a masterpiece) those who saw me in equal standing begin to hee and haw and slap their knees from mirth over my taste--as if I drink sherry to get drunk (I do).

Well, now this lack is no longer a flaw to lug with me to the next book club meeting. I am properly initiated into the J.D. Salinger fan club. I loved Franny and Zooey. I loved Franny's entrance, her run-on letters to her lover, her ever so innocent religious fanaticism. I loved Zooey's interaction with Mrs. Glass, loved Zooey taking a bath, Franny's fragile breakdown, and Zooey's marvelous intentions and ultimate belief that no matter how tiny or clownish we are, we are all the "children of man."

The way it was put together, however sliced in interims, was hemmed with incredible talent. It was put together so elegantly, so mired in everyday dialogue, that I'll have to read it again to really get all the twists and turns and subtle metaphors that Salinger laid out like kitchen towels on the blank countertops of the un-inked page.

Editorial Review:

The author writes: Franny came out in The New Yorker

Nine Stories

J.D. Salinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 158 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the J.D. Salinger benchmark "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," Seymour Glass floats his beach mate Sybil on a raft and tells her about these creatures' tragic flaw. Though they seem normal, if one swims into a hole filled with bananas, it will overeat until it's too fat to escape. Meanwhile, Seymour's wife, Muriel, is back at their Florida hotel, assuring her mother not to worry--Seymour hasn't lost control. Mention of a book he sent her from Germany and several references to his psychiatrist lead the reader to believe that World War II has undone him.

The war hangs over these wry stories of loss and occasionally unsuppressed rage. Salinger's children are fragile, odd, hypersmart, whereas his grownups (even the materially content) seem beaten down by circumstances--some neurasthenic, others (often female) deeply unsympathetic. The greatest piece in this disturbing book may be "The Laughing Man," which starts out as a man's recollection of the pleasures of storytelling and ends with the intersection between adult need and childish innocence. The narrator remembers how, at nine, he and his fellow Comanches would be picked up each afternoon by the Chief--a Staten Island law student paid to keep them busy. At the end of each day, the Chief winds them down with the saga of a hideously deformed, gentle, world-class criminal. With his stalwart companions, which include "a glib timber wolf" and "a lovable dwarf," the Laughing Man regularly crosses the Paris-China border in order to avoid capture by "the internationally famous detective" Marcel Dufarge and his daughter, "an exquisite girl, though something of a transvestite." The masked hero's luck comes to an end on the same day that things go awry between the Chief and his girlfriend, hardly a coincidence. "A few minutes later, when I stepped out of the Chief's bus, the first thing I chanced to see was a piece of red tissue paper flapping in the wind against the base of a lamppost. It looked like someone's poppy-petal mask. I arrived home with my teeth chattering uncontrollably and was told to go straight to bed."

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

J.D. Salinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Roof Beams A Little Gem: Seymour 'the End of Salinger' 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Raise High the Roof Beams is the last great work of fiction from the hand of Salinger. Pungent, alive, full of closely observed detail and a touch of believable mysticism. Seymour: An Introduction is the first undeniable symptom of whatever incurable author's disease destroyed Salinger. Though it is shot through with flashes of wit, wisdom and intelligence the overall effect is cringe-worthy.

Salinger comes up against a fundamental and insurmountable problem portraying Seymour. He tells us he is this great true poet but of course not being a great poet himself, Salinger can't produce the poems for which inability he gives various coy reasons. Salinger can't really SHOW us Seymour because not being 'a ring-ding holy man' himself he can't know WHAT to show us. He creates Seymour indirectly going on about his nose or a haircut and all the while we are aware of what is being withheld.

Salinger's obsession is suicide and it is constantly an undercurrent in Catcher in the Rye and of course throughout the Glass family saga. The other subject is the innocence and the natural 'Zen' of children vs. the ugly hypocrisies of the 'adult' world. I personally believe Seymour kills himself because of HIS great secret which is his sexual attraction to little girls. This is 'there' in Bananafish and please don't tell me its not. Also, in Raise High the Roofbeams... Seymour's bride Muriel has an uncanny resemblance to a beautiful child Seymour loved when they were young. Buddy himself says 'he can't begin to handle the implications of that..." Holden's sister Phoebe is another Salinger pre-adolescent shown to us with the eyes of a lover.

Salinger's last published piece Hapworth, is THE literary disaster of all time. Not only does Salinger make the terrible mistake of BEING Seymour but a seven year old precocious Seymour who is the most insufferable and far-fetched character in all modern fiction. A real horror. A little savant preacher that reminds me of Edward Gorey's The Pious Child. He even uses the opportunity to load us down with spiritual enlightening 'reading lists' that go on to unintentionally humorous lengths.

Seymour's flaws are what should interest us. We should have had one little novella from Salinger or at the very least a short story fromthe mind and perspective of Seymour - full of unspeakable pain, of course, after all the man killed himself. Something doesn't add up and Salinger refused to do the addition starting with Seymour: An Introduction.

Hapworth shows that Seymour: An Introduction is the end of the line. It is inconceivable that the writer of Hapworth has been piling up unpublished masterpieces in the woods of New Hampshire.

Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

just one flaw 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 6 people found this review helpful.

The narrator of this story is presented as an avid reader, yet he speaks with a weak vocabulary and weak sentence structure.
By my count, he uses the catch-all phrase "and all" 174 times.
He accuses most adults of putting on a false front, so, by my count, he uses the word "phony" 47 times. A student with above average literacy skills would likely look the word up in a thesaurus.

His little sister Phoebe, who is presented as an honor student, is likewise verbally deficient. During the conversation in the bedroom, she uses the phrase "and everything" 5 times.

This is especially unrealistic considering that Holden and Phoebe's parents are viligant about their children's verbal expression. During the bedroom conversation, we see that the word "lousy" is verboten in the Caulfield household.

Salinger probably held a stereotype that all adolescents and children speak with a weak vocabulary and weak sentence structure.

Who's phony now? 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A new generation of angry young men were inspired by J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," a dark-edged little novel about teen disaffection. Wry, cynical and strangely touching at times, this book is a look into the confusion and turmoil of a young mind -- those who want their teens clean-cut and meek need not apply.

Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from a prep school for failing almost every subject he was studying. And he couldn't care less -- after all, it's full of phonies. Over the weekend, Holden wanders the streets of New York, thinking about the school, the teachers, the phonies, and his nebulous family -- especially his brother Allie, who committed suicide.

Fearing the repercussions of going home and telling his parents what has happened, Holden just keeps touring New York in his peculiar cap. He meets a girl he once liked, a teacher who is sympathetic to his plight, but Holden always ends up pushing others away. And when he does go home, his temptation to run away is changed irrevocably.

Remember the disaffected anti-hero of "Igby Goes Down," who flunks school over and over, and runs away to hang out in New York? Cynical oddball Igby has Holden to thank for his existance. "Catcher in the Rye" catches teen dissatisfaction and dreams of freedom, making it seem almost painfully realistic.

Most classics don't include the anti-hero sputtering four-letter words on the first page. But Salinger's style for "Catcher" is an unusual one. Through Holden's eyes, it's a bitter and very straightforward style, peppered with wry observations. The biggest flaw would be the handling of Holden's own "phoniness," since it's obvious he can be as phony as the people around him. It's subtle, but too subtle -- to less discerning readers, it seems like Holden is just a bitter hypocrite.

Holden Caulfield is a surprisingly nuanced character -- at first glance he just seems like an unusually obnoxious young boy who hates everything. But as the book unfolds, we see that he cares for genuine things, especially the innocence he no longer has. And he lacks the ability to connect with other people. None of the other characters really come to life... but they don't really need to. This is Holden's story.

Salinger's cynical tour de force "Catcher in the Rye" is a bitter pill to swallow, but it's definitely worth it. Disaffected, yearning and wry, this is a modern classic. And deserves to be, as well.

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

I really, really tried.... 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I just don't get the hype... Yes, I've read the whole thing (in h/s and in my adult life) but, for something that has been touted as one of the greatest novels ever written it sure is a tough read! And it's not that it was above my head, it was just plain old poorly written in my humble opinion. The grammar was beyond horrible. I think my 10 year old son could've done a better job.

I wanted to like this, even love it because we've always been told about what a "classic" and "must read" it was... but, in the end, I was just miserable.

Sorry, but, I know I can't be the only one to feel this way, right?

LATE DELIVERLY 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I didnt get this book untill christmas eve hours before I had to give it as a gift, defantly in used condition

A timeless classic worth reading 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I write this review having to look back almost 20 years when I read this book as a child. At an age when I found it difficult to engross myself in fiction (I simply did not read a lot as a child), I traversed through this book with interest.

Unless you have issues with the course language, you should anticipate an amusing account of events as Holden is thrown out of prep school. The tale is told as Holden recites the two day episode after having been kicked out. The events are conveyed as though Holden is speaking candidly to the reader; which is a style I found enjoyable.

The Catcher in the Rye flows nicely and presents an effortless journey into the mind of Holden Caulfield. As one of the more popular fictional works of the 20th century, this impression alone should be sufficient to entice any reader. While I personally would not bestow the book with quite that level of praise, I do feel it offers a worthwhile undertaking.

Editorial Review:

J. D. Salinger's famous classic about a boy coming of age. At the time of publication it caused quite an uproar because of it's language and was banned from many libraries, although it is fairly mild by modern stndards.

The Catcher in the Rye [Audiobook] [Cd]

J. D. Salinger

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Review 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

In the catcher in the rye, Holden Caulifield is the main character. It starts out with Holden in his school in which he is about to get kicked out because of poor academic grades. Being annoyed everyone in his school he decides to leave a few days before the end of the term and go to New York to where his family lives. As he gets to NY, he gets a hotel and goes through a adventure. Then, decides to go see his sister Phoebe and decides to spent some time with her. At the end of this book Holden says he is going to go back to school and apply himself.

Editorial Review:

Unabridged on six compact disks. Holden Caulfield, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He spends three days in New York City and tells the story of what he did and suffered there.

The Catcher in the Rye (Modern Classics)

J.D. Salinger

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Spark Notes The Catcher in the Rye

Brian Phillips, SparkNotes Editors

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Editorial Review:

Get your "A" in gear!

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· They feature the most current ideas and themes, written by experts.
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And with everything covered--context; plot overview; character lists; themes, motifs, and symbols; summary and analysis, key facts; study questions and essay topics; and reviews and resources--you don't have to go anywhere else!

For Esme - With Love and Squalor

J. D. Salinger

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

'For Esme with Love and Squalor' 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 16 people found this review helpful.

For 'Esme with Love and Squalor' is one of Salinger's best stories. It also appears in his first collection of stories called 'Nine Stories.'
It tells the story of an American G.I. who for one part of the story is in Devon England where he is in training. On one lonely day off he goes into a tea-room and meets an English child and her small brother. Her name is 'Esme' and she is a precocious beautiful and sensitive child with whom the G.I. has a friendly, and somewhat from his point- of- view ironic conversation. The language is pure Salingerese. The little brother acts up and is chided by his sister. He recites a riddle , : What did one wall say to another" and hilariously gives the answer "Meet you at the corner" When the soldier returns the answer at his asking another time he gets upset. But at parting the soldier asks him the question and the little boy gets his spirit back by again giving the answer. More important the soldier and the little girl in some way assauge each other's loneliness. She is lonely for her father who has been lost in the war. He is lonely, lonely.
The scene then changes to an Army headquarters in the heart of the European theatre. The same soldier is on the verge of breakdown when he receives a letter from Esme , which somehow brings him back to a sense that there is something beautiful, whole , humane in the world, something worth living for.
The story of course must be read to be felt truly. My summary is poor. It is such a beautiful story.
I truly suggest you read it. "It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And you will never forget it."

Editorial Review:

This is a collection of nine exceptional short stories from the author of "The Catcher in the Rye", J D Salinger. The book includes two of Salinger's most famous and critically acclaimed pieces, which helped to establish him among contemporary literary greats. The title story - a soldier's recollection of his meeting with a young girl, Esme, before being sent into combat - prompted a flood of readers' letters when it was first published in "The New Yorker in 1950". The haunting, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is the first of the author's many stories to feature the Glass family and follows eldest sibling, Seymour Glass, and his wife, Muriel, as they honeymoon in Florida.