Nine Stories is fantastic. Really really good. I think that his work other than Catcher is unjustly overshadowed. I think I should re-read Catcher in the Rye for the third time just to see if it’s stuck with me. It’s just that I hated Holden both times I read it, but the Glass family and his short stories are where he shines best as an author, in my opinion.
i thought you were a wes anderson fan? i actually read “catcher in the rye” at the right time in my life so it means a lot more to me than any of salinger’s other books – yup, how cliche, right? but it’s cool to admit you’re cliche sometimes, right? i’ve read & re-read “franny & zooey” & “9 stories” & they just don’t resonate with me like “catcher in the rye”. i have the same problem with those books as i did with “the great gatsby” – no matter how well written they are, i just couldn’t care less about what happened to any of the characters. not that i won’t ever pick up my copies of the salinger books every couple years & re-read them with the hope that i’m in a different place so i can appreciate them more…
Funny how opposite we are on this in some respects. I think of Catcher the same way as Gatsby. Oh, and Anderson…well in recent years his work just seems too hipster at times and I have a rough time stomaching it. I’ll probably get over it though.
Ironically, Holden would have hated the hipsters, I think. I identify strongly with him, and while he is certainly a depressed individual (and moreover, a teenager), he has a lot of insight to the pervading popular psyche. I think people like it because it forces them to try live more genuinely. My take on Holden is that he isn’t angst-y for the sake of drama or to make a statement (emo) and he was actually fairly well liked kid at school (if you read the subtext) but he was depressed and that made him unable to function in a world in which people were expected to keep all their problems hidden and to live perfect happy lives. And he resented that.
I think Catcher was such a nightmare to Salinger because it made him famous.
This has been a great discussion. I’ll have to re-read the book for sure now. Racie, you make a strong argument for Holden. Perhaps I was in the wrong mood when I last read it. But, my first read of the book wasn’t that strong.
I love “Franny and Zooey” and I love “Catcher in the Rye”, too. Now I am feeling the need to dust off my unread copy his Nine Stories.
I hope we will discover that he continued writing during his reclusive years.
Nine Stories is fantastic. Really really good. I think that his work other than Catcher is unjustly overshadowed. I think I should re-read Catcher in the Rye for the third time just to see if it’s stuck with me. It’s just that I hated Holden both times I read it, but the Glass family and his short stories are where he shines best as an author, in my opinion.
if vampire weekend did the music i would never see that hypothetical movie ever!
I know, and agree. I find Catcher in the Rye annoying and perhaps the seed of the prep-hipster of today, i.e. Vampire Weekend.
However, Salinger’s other work is really great and I stand by it. There is perhaps a reason Salinger himself called Catcher in the Rye “a nightmare.”
i thought you were a wes anderson fan? i actually read “catcher in the rye” at the right time in my life so it means a lot more to me than any of salinger’s other books – yup, how cliche, right? but it’s cool to admit you’re cliche sometimes, right? i’ve read & re-read “franny & zooey” & “9 stories” & they just don’t resonate with me like “catcher in the rye”. i have the same problem with those books as i did with “the great gatsby” – no matter how well written they are, i just couldn’t care less about what happened to any of the characters. not that i won’t ever pick up my copies of the salinger books every couple years & re-read them with the hope that i’m in a different place so i can appreciate them more…
Steve,
Funny how opposite we are on this in some respects. I think of Catcher the same way as Gatsby. Oh, and Anderson…well in recent years his work just seems too hipster at times and I have a rough time stomaching it. I’ll probably get over it though.
Ironically, Holden would have hated the hipsters, I think. I identify strongly with him, and while he is certainly a depressed individual (and moreover, a teenager), he has a lot of insight to the pervading popular psyche. I think people like it because it forces them to try live more genuinely. My take on Holden is that he isn’t angst-y for the sake of drama or to make a statement (emo) and he was actually fairly well liked kid at school (if you read the subtext) but he was depressed and that made him unable to function in a world in which people were expected to keep all their problems hidden and to live perfect happy lives. And he resented that.
I think Catcher was such a nightmare to Salinger because it made him famous.
This has been a great discussion. I’ll have to re-read the book for sure now. Racie, you make a strong argument for Holden. Perhaps I was in the wrong mood when I last read it. But, my first read of the book wasn’t that strong.