J.D. Salinger, requiescat in pace ...

[Carvill, John]

An interesting situation to find yourself in - having read everything *but* the most famous book. Maybe by the time you did read it, you were to  old to make that magic connection most people get from it, since they read it when they're not that much older than Holden.

Once again I got mildly annoyed at the Guardian, this weekend, for mentioning Salinger's age then comparing it with that of 'his contemporaries', citing Roth's age and Gore Vidal's, but making no mention of Pynchon.

"The first surprise about his passing must be his great age. Ninety-one! Here's someone, born on New Year's Day, 1919, who takes us back to the year Woodrow Wilson negotiated the postwar treaty that has, arguably, tormented the peace of the world ever since. Salinger's departure means that his nearest surviving contemporaries, the last of the Mohicans, are the youthful figures of Philip Roth (76) and Gore Vidal (84)."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/31/jd-salinger-by-robert-mccrum



-----Original Message-----

I read Catcher for the first time fairly recently and didn't care
much for it having read all the rest of Salinger's stuff multiple
times between 18 and 25.

On Jan 29, 2010, at 12:35 AM, Carvill, John wrote:

Is 'Franny and Zooey' worth a go?
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