Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

Subject: J.D. Salinger Obit.
From: GUEST,David E.
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 03:08 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/books/29salinger.html

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 04:21 PM

May he finally find peace, or not.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: bobad
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 04:55 PM

I wonder if we will ever get to see whatever he might have been writing for the last fifty years.

A LINK to his uncollected writings.

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 06:52 PM

A strange man, he, apparently.

Having graduated from high school in the mid-50s, and taking college freshman English still in the 50s, I missed Salinger. As I was graduating from college, The Catcher in the Rye was beginning to be part of the English Dept. canon. I remember kids carrying the book around. I read about ten or so pages (I thought for pleasure) and gave it up. I guess that makes my education somewhat incomplete, although I prefer to think that I never much suffered the alienation felt by Salinger and his creations, and so didn't identify with it (them).

RIP JDS - will you find seclusion wherever it is you've gone?

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: mousethief
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 07:44 PM

It's a horrid book. I hope he wrote something better.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: bobad
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 07:47 PM

A horrid book that has sold 65 million copies.

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: mousethief
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 07:51 PM

Because it has queerly gotten into the inner ear of high school freshman English teachers. And once lodged there has stayed put. I have yet, however, to read one of its victims to say, years later, "By gum it really was a good book" or "I think I'll go read it again and see what I might have missed." By universal acclaim of the intended audience it is a stinker. It's just that they're an involuntary audience and their teachers have reasons of their own. No one except HS freshman English teachers give it the time of day.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 09:05 PM

Whatever its literary merits, "Catcher in the Rye" rocked my little adolescent world. I read it because I was a voracious reader at the time. Looking at the obit I realize I must've read it not too long after it was published. I had never read anything like it before and it shocked me and annoyed me and fascinated me and struck a nerve I didn't know was there to be struck. To understand its cult status you maybe need to have been there.

I went on to read the rest of Salinger's works as they became available. The Glass family stories struck a nerver as well, but a different nerve. By the time I was reading them, the term was "blew my mind." I introduced my mother to them, and she loved them.

After a lifetime of moves, I still have those books.

Russ (permanent GUEST and Salinger Fan)

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 10:41 PM

I think I read everything Salinger wrote....or at least all his published works. I appreciated Catcher in the Rye, but I really enjoyed the Glass Family stories.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: EBarnacle
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 11:21 PM

Now we can't even hope for an interview.

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 11:38 PM

LOL.......Russ, JoeBro, and myself. Salinger made strange bedfellows. Russ hit upon the perfect line---a nerve I didn't know was there to be touched.

Karen and I were talking about him today and I couldn't come up with an apt description of what made his writing so powerful. On that issue I'm still not sure but it had an washed over me in the way Russ described so well.

Why can these weird little mothers write so damn well?

See, I am equally enamored of Truman Capote. I was re-reading one of Capote's short stories last week and when I finished all I could do was marvel at his craft. Salinger also has that effect. Maybe it was something about the times........I dunno'.............Wish I had a tenth of that ability.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 11:38 PM

What a fascinating article on him--and what a complex guy he was.   Retired from society in large part in 1953?   A recluse since then--albeit with at least one affair.

Quickly soured on fame.

Sued people who wanted to write about him--and won.

And landed at Utah Beach on D-Day? ( Never would have suspected that.)

Now maybe there can be more books written on his life.   Definitely sounds like it would hold the reader's interest.

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: quokka
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 11:57 PM

I tried to get my kids to read it and they were bored to tears. It took me a few tries to get through it, and I think it captures a certain time and tone very well. I think the most interesting thing about 'Catcher' is the reaction to it, and the stories about what the book has meant to people (both good and bad). It seems to have a certain power that is not readily observable from the content alone. It seems to be a case of the book's notoreity far outweighing the experience of reading it. I would guess not many people today would have read it, but most have heard of it and have an opinion based on what they've heard.

I like Salinger's short fiction. And I once read a book about J.D that I think was written by his daughter, which WAS very interesting.

Cheers,

Quokka

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: GUEST,David E.
Date: 28 Jan 10 - 11:58 PM

The best book I read last year was titled "60 Years Later-Coming Through the Rye" by J.D. California. From the back cover:

Mr. C wakes up in a nursing home with an unnerving compulsion to flee his present situation. He boards a bus and embarks on a curious journey through the streets of New York. Sixty years after his debut as the great American antihero, Mr.C is yanked back onto the page without a goddamn clue why.


Every Salinger fan needs to track a copy down, it's an essential read and I still wonder about who really wrote it.

David E.

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: Joe_F
Date: 29 Jan 10 - 05:21 PM

I was in high school (a coed boarding school in Vermont) when _Catcher_ came out. It took Putney by storm. A copy was passed around from locker to locker. "It really does" became a common sarcasm.

Of course, it had the charm of being about People Like Us.

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 11:40 AM

Love and squalor to you too,

-Esme

Subject: RE: Obit: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Jan 10 - 05:29 PM

And what of the 54 years of JD's writing that went unseen, unread and unpublished. Its in the Chifferobe.

Soon there will be letters and emails claiming to be JD artifacts.

If JD did blog on the web I think he did so under the name John Titor.