Nine Stories (J. D. Salinger, 1953)Franny and Zooey (J. D. Salinger, 1961)When it comes to movies, “Fight Club” was the first movie that jolted me and seemed to me that movies could be more than what I was used to. With music, after randomly listening to radio crap and a forced phase listening to 2Pac, it was The Doors that gave me the love for music. Or more specifically The Doors’ “The End”, or even more specifically the part in the song where Morrison starts speaking his line and says, “Father/Yes, Son/I want to kill you”. I was, wow, and all these time, music had been Backstreet Boys to me.
And books? Big fan of Stephen King, but it was “Catcher in the Rye” that moved the fuck out of me. I’d read it numerous times, and it still moves me. But I’ve never read anything else by Salinger. That is because no one ever mentions any other books by him, so I figured, “Catcher in the Rye” was just some sort of fluke by him. Otherwise, why wouldn’t anyone else talk about his other countless novels? Well, apparently, it seems the guy does not have countless other novels. “Catcher in the Rye” was his debut novel…and his final one. What the hell? It seems he is some kind of weird, eccentric, loner guy.
As per wikipedia, he does seem to have written a lot of short stories, although after “Catcher in the Rye”, he only has three other books, which are collection of short stories.
I have read two of the, “Franny and Zooey” and “Nine Stories”. The former is more like a novella, and has two short stories (although connected) and the latter has..um..nine stories.
I adore the stories. Like “Catcher in the Rye”, I would also understand why someone would get annoyed by it. Dialogues are sometimes spoken by characters that act too smart, too self-involved, too much like a prick, but fuck it, I like it anyway. Not everyone should act like a common, guy next door. The good thing is that the characters are not smart and well-adjusted.
Okay, now let’s talk about random dialogues in the two books, so you get to know where I’m coming from,
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Zooey’s mother wants him to get married:
“Well, I do,” she insisted. “Why don’t you?”
Relaxing his stance, Zooey took a folded linen handkerchief from his hip pocket, nipped it open, then used it to blow his nose, twice, three times. Heput away the handkerchief, saying, “I like to ride in trains too much. You never get to sit next the window any more when you’re married.”
“That’s no reason!”
“It’s a perfect reason. Go away, Bessie. Leave me in peace in here. Why don’t you go for a nice elevator ride?
She squinted at the morning sunlight. “Why’s it so sunny?” She only partly took in Zooey’s presence. “Why’s it so sunny?” she repeated.
Zooey observed her rather narrowly. “I bring the sun wherever I go, buddy,” he said.
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Zooey again, asked why he does something even though he was complained about it:
“Why do I go?” Zooey said, without looking around. “I go mostly because I’m tired as hell of getting up furious in the morning and going to bed furious at night.”------------------
One more line of wisdom than we move to other stories:
“Yes, I have an ulcer, for Chrissake. This is Kaliyuga, buddy, the Iron Age. Anybody’s over sixteen without an ulcer’s a goddamn spy.”------------------
A small preteen girl, Sybil, talking to Seymour, a depressed young man:
Sybil was silent.
“I like to chew candles,” she said finally.
“Who doesn’t?” said the young man, getting his feet wet.------------------
Okay, here is now random dialogue and lines without context:
“What I need is a cocker spaniel or something,” she said. “Somebody that looks like me.”--
“If she was half as good-looking as she thinks she is, she’d be goddamn lucky”--
She wrote to him fairly regularly, from a paradise of triple exclamation points and inaccurate observations.--
Okay, I don’t know if all that will interest people in reading the book or bore them. I do not know if they would have interested or bored me if I had not read the stories. If you like “Catcher in the Rye”, you’ll enjoy the stories. If you didn’t, at the very least, try to read the short story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". I'm sure you can find it online, and its very short.
Trivia!!!: Salingar still writes, but doesn't publish his work. After his death, these will be published, so it will be interesting to see literally reaction then.
Extra Trivia!!!: He once sold the rights to his early short story for film adaptation, and it was so bad, that he has refused to sell anymore. Imagine if "Catcher in the Rye" is sold? Studios would love to get their hands on that! One of the most popular youth books ever, and never filmed.
Final Bonus Trivia!!!: Apparently, there is an unauthorized film adaptation of "Franny and Zooey"...in the form of an Iranian film, called "Pari".
4/5
