J.D. Salinger is dead at age 91.
I read The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager and thought only he knew teenaged angst as well as I.
His books also taught me to love New York City, especially NYC Jews.
I had a good friend/co-worker in my early 20s who was a classic fuck-up. Marie, as it turned out, could hardly read. So I bought her a copy of that book and she loved it so much she enrolled in a community college remedial reading class.
She ended up with a master's degree and a great career.
I read that Salinger, a devoted hermit, had a lousy personality and some pretty creepy habits.
No matter, that cat could write.
6 comments:
I think of his words sometimes when I hate my job and start daydreaming about finding a better place"
"You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "F*** you" right under your nose."
Oh I love what big sis said... Anyway, RIP, JD. You were a strange dude, but you had talent.
i remember reading franny and zooey in junior high, but i honestly don't remember any of it. maybe we should have read catcher instead.
I read Catcher in the Rye in 1966. It was nothing I had to do, I think some girl told me to read a goddamn book once in awhile if I didn't want to grow up to be a goddamn bore and all. So I read it. It was the first thing I had ever read that made me want to write; write any goddamn thing I wanted. And now this Salinger guy up and dies. It sounds terrible when you think about it.
But what really knocked me out about reading his book, when you're all done reading it, you wished the author— that Salinger guy— you wished that he was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. But now you can't.
It's all very ironical when you think about it. That poor bastard.
Well! Pretty derivative, eh?
Salinger lived near here, and I think he's gotten a bad rap for not wanting to have his literary ass kissed on a regular basis.
See my blog if you're curious.
Nice piece, lulu.
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