J.D.Salinger 1919-2010

No doubt you may have read the news. Another one of the cultural icons of my youth, J.D Salinger, has died, having passed away this Wednesday at his New Hampshire home. He was 91.

Some of you may have been surprised that he was still alive. He had not published anything in many, many years, was rarely seen in public and had become quite the recluse. And, if any number of the stories about his personal life are true, was a rather strange man. A man that wanted his publisher to remove his photograph from the book jacket of his very famous novel because he was sick of looking at himself. A writer who had not published anything since 1965, having told a reporter once that "There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I love to write for myself and my own pleasure." Still, I think fans can be forgiven for almost being overcome with the thought that the rumor that he has been writing all these years and has stacks of unpublished material that his estate may someday now let see the light of day may, in fact, be true.

Of course, Salinger is most famous for his novel, the coming of age story of Holden Caulfield, 'Catcher in the Rye'. And while I read it and most likely enjoyed it, it will not be for Catcher that I remember Salinger. No, I was all about the Glass family, the major subject of his writing, explored in 'Franny and Zooey' and 'Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters' and in several of the stories in 'Nine Stories'. Which along with his one novel, 'Catcher in the Rye" is pretty much the total sum of everything he published. To quote an article today in the L.A.Times,

"For all that "The Catcher in the Rye" made him famous, "Franny and Zooey" is Salinger's masterpiece, an evocation of loss and longing within the bonds of family. Composed of two novellas, it introduces the youngest members of the Glass family, about whom Salinger would devote more than half of his published work.

The Glasses are a New York creation, theatrical but also intellectual, middle class but bohemian at the same time. They talk and fight like immigrants, but they pursue esoteric pursuits, most notably Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, like members of the leisured elite.

In a sense, this was reflective of Salinger's experience; growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the son of a Scotch-Irish mother and a wealthy Jewish father, he had a foot in several worlds. Yet more to the point, the Glasses offered Salinger a wide lens through which to look at the intersection of mystical and secular culture, at the satisfactions of the spirit and of the flesh."

If you aspire to be a serial killer, of course, you must have your copy of 'Catcher in the Rye' on hand, but I think if you really want to understand Salinger and read his best work, get your hands on a copy of 'Franny and Zooey'. If you have never read it, I think you have a great pleasure ahead of you.

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